They had Ned and Adam doing an event last night. So probably for that after charging everyone to go in 
The other bike shop down the road doesn’t plan quite so well - they’ve got an event with Jens Voigt in London 
. Other side of the country - brilliant idea from their “marketing team”.
I do prefer Ned Boulting to Carlton Kirby & think that all the other BBC & Eurosport sidekicks bring something interesting to the commentary & analysis.
But Pippa York, despite an excellent palmarès she’s neither insightful or entertaining.
There’s a whole thread on Carlton Kirby on a cycling forum I frequent. TL;DR; he does not have many fans
Oh aye 
What other bike shop down the road?
Trek? They had a “networking” ride this morning with a free breakfast 
I might be a bit of an Outlier, but I like Kirby.
Sometimes it feels like confessing to eating babies would be less controversial…
That’s been going for 7yrs, I’m quite late to the party 
.
Is that footage from his doorbell cam?!
Not actually organised by the shop!!! Just a freeloader that has conned people along the way.
Joy of corporate bike shop chains. But all the LBS’s have long gone sadly.
Strangely I don’t mind him. Sean Kelly on the other hand…
Not only the actual tone of his voice, but he doesn’t actually say anything at all except repeating Carlton, and then repeating what he just said, over and over and over and over again.
When I started cycling, I was chatting to some Irish bloke at Peak Tea Rooms (top of Bottom of the Oven climb on yesterday’s stage)
He was telling some tall stories and was pretty entertaining.
When I left with my club mates, they asked if I knew who it was, I had no idea - just thought it was some bloke who’d been around a while and liked to ride his bike
Sean Kelly makes me laugh, when he gets over excited during the run in. In the middle of a sentence he’ll just crash & go “Nnnnng” & need to reboot before carrying on.
For me cycling coverage is chaotic because of its nature. It does not occur on a small, defined patch of grass which you can cover with 25 cameras. It does not have the money for a glossy, multi million pound production and glistening, ultra professional commentators/pundits.
That’s part of the charm for me. You can really feel that they are sitting in a studio, watching a feed, trying to work out what’s going on as much as we are.
Sometimes they have to describe 5 hours of sod all. Sometimes they have to describe action that’s going off so fast, in so many different places that it’s impossible to keep across all of it.
I like that, feels more real, more grass roots and less like sport trying to be Hollywood.
Feel similar about Kona coverage, loads moan incessantly about it but I quite like the fact you need to triangulate the coverage/commentary, the tracker and website comments to get a good feel for what’s going on. Keeps me engaged.
I’m probably an outlier for this, given the negativity I see from cycling/Kona coverage.
Just realised that one of the intermediate sprint stages for stage 7 is 200m from the house so it is going to be interesting. Debating with my daughter where to go and watch the tour as we also have the 2nd KOM which is 4 miles away.
Kom over sprint, you’ll see more as they’ll be going slower
