[Closed] Why do we have to put up with Boardman?

Well that last bit was daft, derbyshire grit doesn't get slippy in the wet, its gritstone, not granite... #grumble grumble grumble#

It just keeps getting better, so you recon that wet rock gives you more traction do you!

🙄 I mean FFS!

Well I wasn't having a go at the course if any of the above comments are aimed at me, simply pointing out why World Class riders are not riding the whole course, like tv and pictures you cannot get a true idea off how technical some sections are. Was hoping for some nice comments about the course instead of big headed know it alls having a go.

bloke in 3rd bust seatpin ?

yep - Boardman is blind!!! you could see the moment it broke at the bottom of the rock garden.....

yup it fell out about half a lap ago!

I think board does a fine job vs Ed Leigh who really doesn't know anything.

As for Boardman not knowing anything - really? I'd not fancy anyone on here's chances in a mtb trivia quiz.

good race, good course, and great to see thousands of fans on the course cheering them round.

Gutted for killeen - I hope his injury isn't too bad.

As some have said, I thought the commentary is fine, after all, it's aimed at the non stw experts. As has been said, Chris B does know just a bit about bikes.

I thought gritstone was almost as grippy wet as dry?

Oh dear the BBC not pandering to the STW premier division snobs exclusively.

do your TV's not have a mute button.

Fantastic race with amazing coverage and perfectly adequate commentary.

Not once did anyone say "he's got the race face on".

Paleozoic gritstone or Carboniferous?

He's not done a bad job, tbh. As previously suggested, the BBC has a duty to get a pretty diverse range of sports across to a population that doesn't, as a rule, have the encyclopaedic knowledge that is ever present on here (which you'd kind of expect).

When I've watched diving, handball, horsey stuff or whatever, I've not known the first thing about them, so commentary that your average amateur divist, handballist or horsist finds a pain, has been a certain amount of use to the layperson.

Compared to some of the behaviour (Bond, Douglas et al) of the Beeb's team, Boardman's been a paragon of virtue in my humble opinion...

erm, again if that was aimed at me, i genuinly thought that some of the comments the commentators were saying were pretty ignorant, like 'i dont well see Liam Killeen at Rio', and everyone will be running their forks hard in a race like this. I am just being picky to be honest, the commentary was pretty engaging and on topic.

Again, being fair to CB and EL. They're ins commentary box, probably shared with 40 other media types from all over the world all gabbling away. They've got 4 monitors showing TV and also timing info, radio earpieces, a producer talking in one ear while they're trying to give out accurate info. It wasn't easy, from the TV angles to see that Fontana was missing his seatpost and their attention would have been mostly on the lead pair. So maybe just give them a tiny bit of slack?

Or offer your expert services to the BBC next time there's a big race on, I'd love to hear the pearls of wisdom from the STW armchair elite riders...

Edit: +1 to what gonetothehills said above.

I watch the tour... hmmm... it was great TV this year!
maybe I'm a bit long in the tooth... been doing this mtb game for to many years!!... (blatant bluster)... but I have no ego left to start playing who's the "most techy" top trumps ?? ... I know what I know... and I say what I see? I'm just passionate about mountain biking and how it's presented!! ... that's a good thing 😀

🙂

He needs to make his mind up on pressure, yesterday he said 5.0 bar today he said they run their tyres at 28psi 😐

I thought gritstone was almost as grippy wet as dry?

Not the stuff I've been associated with. Once it's proper wet is becomes a slick as limestone but not quite as greasy to the touch.

I thought that the courses looked challenging on carbon hard tails, at race speed and saddles up. As in any video looks easier than it probably is. It's not a DH race or trail riding so idea is to be fast and relatively technical to test riders but make it spectator friendly. Overall good job, commentary acceptable but I can't believe that fontana's broken seat post wasnt spotted :-&

Well I enjoyed it, and don't know why people are moaning so much!
Ok somepeople might think the "course" wasn't hard/hilly etc and the "commentary" was poor.

WHY????
You Should be over the moon that MTB has been soon on main TV channel showing it to the masses, the course did what it was desgined to do, give good coverage of the race and to make it close racing!
That was close racing and was good to watch.

I would love it in 4 or so years time when GB has a new(ish) top XC rider in top 5 in the world in MTB XC and was asked how did you get into MTB and the reply is "I watched London 2012 MTB race on TV, so I sold the road bike and got a MTB and started racing"

Full respect to Fontana. I spotted the seat post was missing before the final pit - when did it actually go??

Speedy recovery to Kileen!

I would love it in 4 or so years time when GB has a new(ish) top XC rider in top 5 in the world in MTB XC and was asked how did you get into MTB and the reply is "I watched London 2012 MTB race on TV, so I sold the road bike and got a MTB and started racing"

Well then you'll pleased to know it's captured the attention of my road club. Currently I'm the only one that races XC.

Excellent coverage from the camera crews, and some fine comentry from my not to far away neighbour Chris Boardman.

Now how many bikes has he sold, how many gold medals has he got, how many races has he won, how many young kids has he inspired,along with starting a bike company from scratch and a bike team.

Well done that man.

It just keeps getting better, so you recon that wet rock gives you more traction do you!

Well all the stuff round me, and the stuff I've ridden in Derbyshire is pretty much as grippy regardless unless covered in moss (or someone's polished it cos the beeb are coming round). I will happily concede that on that course mud would quickly covered the rock and that could have certainly increased slippiness.

But all sports get nonsense from the commentators because they are not allowed to just not say anything because there is nothing to be said, hence the constant fallback to wheel size. But all in, great race, good exhibition track, if it had to be done in a field I don't see how it could have been done better.

I thought the race was magic, although I missed the start, so didn't see any crashes. I thought the commentary was pretty good. They obviously weren't mountain bikers, but I thought the momentary was pretty good.

As for the course, well every time I take a photo of a trail that I think is really difficult, it looks totally tame on camera. So I assume some of that course was pretty damned steep!

shortcut - Member

Full respect to Fontana. I spotted the seat post was missing before the final pit - when did it actually go??

at the bottom of the 'rock garden' about half way through the final lap - the camera just picked up his saddle? snapping off, im guessing he took the post out himself - nicer souvenir than a water bottle for a spectator.

im guessing he took the post out himself

Yes, I'm sure he was carrying a multi-tool with him.

never heard of quick release???

any way - it was the post that snapped....
[img] [/img]
you see the saddle upsidedown just above the tire with the post extending from it towards his arse.

never heard of quick release???

On an Olympic rider's xc race bike? Hahahahahahahahaha 🙂

actually several of the womans and mens bikes were running quick release seatposts - it makes adjustment easier if you crash. 😆
minimal weight gain rather than a DNF for a twisted post.

so didn't see any crashes.

actually several of the womans and mens bikes were running quick release seatposts - it makes adjustment easier if you crash.

That's crazy 🙂

this forum just about sums up the british mentality by the so called pro riders who wer,nt picked by team gb,when in doubt slag everything off, the track, the commentators, no doubt the stw elite could do a hell of alot better? if you didnt like watching the race you have buttons on your remote called ,mute and off, always the same these types of forums all experts, if you think you can do better, then we will all be looking forward to seeing you in the next olympics, ive heard it all before in the club i belong too, weekend warriors i can do that, most dont last 3 laps, before giving up due to a mechanical, my arse,

red being heavier - loved it. Boardman did OK IMO, imagine if it had been Hugh Porter.

I thought Boardman was excellent.

Warner has been commentating exclusively for Ceebeebies during the Olympics, don't tell me you missed it?

Boardman has my respect for his road achievements but as a mountain bike commentator him and the other were pretty much pants.

The BBC should have got somebody who has raced xc to commentate. Nick craig , Tim Gould or David Baker come to mind, one of them must be presenter material.

Where do I complain?

if you didnt like watching the race you have buttons on your remote called ,mute and off, always the same these types of forums all experts, if you think you can do better, then we will all be

Wouldn't mind doing half-a-dozen laps of the course! Might take me 3 hours though 😉

Looks great as tailor-made track. Some of the lines looked solid trail centre black grade.

Nice to see great coverage on TV 🙂

Cheers
Paul

it,s not so much i dont like whats been said, its that these people actually believe themselves, i thought c boardman did an ok job,especially when you consider hes no mountain bike rider, but i would still rather listen to chris talk about mtbs than some of the so called stw elite, i dont see these people selling thousands of bikes each year, and also chris boardman is a hell of alot better at commentating than mark cavendish, at least you can understand chris.

Thought Boardman did an excellent job of being accessible for the non cycling viewers, yet at the same time factual enough to make it interesting for others. He clearly has respect for the mtbers, and his dry humour often makes me smirk.

Not sure what the complaints are all about, unless maybe the stw armchair experts are forgetting the target audience.

I enjoyed the race, the course looked great. It even looked like a had a samll gap jump. Not bad for an XC course.

Its a race course after all, it has to combine climbs, descents technical elements and overtaking areas in a short distance.

Missed the commentary as I was watching in abroad, and my Hungarian isn't good enough to know if the commentators grasped the myriad subleties of wheel sizes and chainring combinations.

Why are they making the course smoother after the event? Sure there's tons of lines just off route which could be chicken runs and leave the rocks? Are they leaving the course in place as is for a bit? Anybody know? I thought it looked a good, tough, xc course...

to answer the OP's headline question:
Because hes a phenomenally talented rider, who knows enough about bikes to be director of R+D for British Cycling for the last 9 years, part of a team that has delivered unprecedented success.
And as others have said if youd seen his TdeF contributions on ITV4 he has a bone dry sense of humour and isnt afraid to contradict a fellow commentator if he disagrees with him.

The only bit that annoyed me was them missing the seatpost break, but easier for me to see in the comfort of my sofa not trying to juggle 18 different tasks and watch multiple monitors etc.

As for the race, I thought the course was fantastic given its remit, to bring XC racing to spectators and a TV audience. A 30km loop with tree lined singletrack would have been a dead loss, the crowd and camera vantage points offered views of most of the action for minimal effort.

Hope Killeen makes a full recovery, sounded nasty.

Slightly OT but I thought the women's & men's times were remarkably close. Just 1 min 50 secs between them. Is that usual?

Didn't the men do 1 more lap?

Edit - men 34km / women 29km