[Closed] Orla Chennoui

She's a great presenter, I think Eurosport are killing it with cycling coverage at the moment (though some of the commentators are wearing). Buying GCN was a great move as they've got access to a different style of coverage and presenters too.

Was not aware Eurosport had bought GCN.

The chap with the really exaggerated pronounciation of Italian riders, his name escapes me, annoys me. Not as much as Carlton Kirby though he really is a throbber.

I like to play whisky bingo of an evening during the GT's when he says 'Ill be bound' or 'meerkating'

Was not aware Eurosport had bought GCN.

i thought it was the Discovery network that bought GCN? Are they the same?

Sorry, slightly misleading - Eurosport are owned by Discovery so they have same owners. Hence Dan Lloyd on some coverage and GCN using the official race footage in their daily highlight videos.

Yes, lots of time for Orla, although she and the other presenters all seem A BIT SHOUTY for La Vuelta.

Commentators, meh, don't think Sean Kelly's insight outweighs the drone factor, and the other guy spends a lot of time chuckling at his own non-jokes! Guess it's tough to fill the time though.

Only complaint is that the 'highlights' package is now 1.5hrs long! Who has that sort of time?! Some of us are in bed by 9pm...

Edit: that bloke from the Italian Football was James Richardson, he always seemed like a natural fit for pro cycling, wonder where he ended up...

I like to play whisky bingo

"Other beverages are available".
"Get that motorbike out of there".
etc...

Orla? Dubious dress sense but a good presenter, yes. I like Brian and Matt too.

What do you think of Matt and Brian's dress sense?

I trust you’ve all been following The Cycling Podcast where I think Orla was able to spread her wings. It wasn’t too long after starting there she left Sky.

It’s a great podcast & has the best coverage of ladies cycling to boot

Been....Actually Adam Blythe and Nico Roche’s dress sense is discussed a fair amount. Adam’s shirts especially. I don’t think it’s unfair to also comment on Orla’s dress sense.
Orla even commented to Adam once that his shirt ruined the show.
Eurosport themselves used to advertise in an amusing way “what jazzy shirt will Adam be wearing”.

@w00dster, fair comment! It probably relates more to me catching myself thinking about presenters. There's a certain BBC presenter who I think is brilliant, but often find myself thinking "what the hell is she wearing" closely followed by "why am I even thinking that?!"

So, my suggestion is we comment on everyone's dress sense. I quite like a jazzy shirt so Adam makes a good change from the usual male presenter dull outfits.

Back to the topic - it's the studio team at Eurosport that have been good, plus Matt & Bradley out and about. Carlton and Sean get wearing after a while, I quite like Rob Hatch's pronunciation habit, and Brian Smith never seems that excited about anything.

Still - I'd struggle to talk for hours and hours about not much happening.

She's very good.

And don't let me hear you slagging Sean Kelly off again.

Yeah Sean is great. Very performant.

Really like Orla's work as well. During the tour I'd watch the ITV footage for Boulting/Millar commentary then switch over for Eurosport's punditry.

Her podcast 'When Orla Met...' is well worth seeking out, as is her excellent piece in the current issue of Rouleur.

On the subject of Sean Kelly, I often wonder if he's deliberately mispronouncing names for his own amusement. He calls Caleb Ewan 'Cal Balloon'.

Gilippe Philbert was my favourite.

Edit: that bloke from the Italian Football was James Richardson, he always seemed like a natural fit for pro cycling, wonder where he ended up…

Aka 'A.C.Jimbo'. He presents the Totally Football Show podcast and, based on listening to that, the World's Strongest Man on TV. Before that he did the Guardian Football Weekly podcast, but split off to do his own thing a year or so back.

As far as cycling broadcasting goes, I reckon Orla seems better than she is mostly because Carlton and Sean are the presenting duo from hell. Kirby is the master of contrived, unfunny links and made-up specialist knowledge. Sean is incapable of putting clauses together in a logical order: 'It was a car, coming along the road, that surprised me etc'. And that's if you can make out what he's saying.

David Millar is on a different level imo. Intelligent enough to see stuff that other pundits miss and still a recent enough rider to understand how tactics and thinking work. He points out stuff you'd otherwise not notice whereas Sean and Carlton mostly just state the bleeding obvious over and over again.

On the subject of Sean Kelly, I often wonder if he’s deliberately mispronouncing names for his own amusement. He calls Caleb Ewan ‘Cal Balloon’.

Today they established that Pogacar is pronounced Pog-ah-cha. So Kelly called him Poj-ah-ka from then on. Fuglsang became Fogglesong, at one point. 😂

Very performant

What you're doing, I sean it... 😁

I prefer ITV 4's coverage in general as I think David Millar's insights are very good. Had to watch the Eurosport highlights on Quest for the Giro and was impressed by Orla and the studio team, but quite frankly Sean and Carlton as commentators are bloody dreadful. Ned and Dave rock.

Oh, and bring back Chris Boardman.

It's pronounced 'ROG -LICH' Sean not 'RODGE -LICK' Aaaaah!!

I agree about Orla though.

nbt+1

I expect the Eurosport ground / studio team and the Eurosport commentators operate independently.
I watched the Vuelta highlights yesterday on Eurosport and ITV and Boulting and Millar seem to know more about what's going on, or use educated insight whereas Kelly and Kirby just fumble around with guesswork and cliché. Millar also seems to have stopped making bold statements based on his ex-pro insights as he often predicted things incorrectly.

There are often better insights on various podcasts than you find on Eurosport. I just listened to the latest Wiggins one and there's a slightly bizarre section where he's discussing Quintana with Adam Blyth, who comments that Alex Dowsett says Quintana is an 'awful person' and not very fulfilling to work for / with, which then progresses into a more reasonable discussion of whether it's fair to brand someone an 'awful person' based on hearsay and from the narrow perspective of with a cycling team.

It might explain why Movistar's riders seem hell-bent on dropping their own leader from time to time and why Marc Soler threw a minor wobbly on being told to wait up for Quintana on yesterday's final climb. He didn't seem very interested in helping him when he could have won the stage.

The Wiggins post-cycling, counselling-inspired transformation is quite interesting. What he doesn't seem to have noticed in his quest to put the Wiggins cycling persona, with its black and white obsessive characteristics behind him, is that he's done it in quite a black and white, obsessive sort of way. Instead of acknowledging that there's a part of him that is that person, he's decided his own past is kind of dead to him in a way that arguably just shows that it isn't.

Which is all a bit of a tangent. But some of the podcast stuff is excellent and quite thoughtful.