PLEASE CONTACT your provider INDIVIDUALLY, AS WELL AS SIGNING, BECAUSE THAT WILL PROBABLY HAVE A GREATER EFFECT.

EUROSPORT E MAIL:

[email protected]

Maybe they'll finally listen.

Thanks to all who have signed. I have - again - sent this to them (10/10/24, with 2,437 signatures - and 1,877 people taking the time to comment!).

If you’ve watched Eurosport cycling, you'll know.

My primary issue with Carlton Kirby is that he doesn't commentate on what is happening (he rambles whatever is inside his head). The major problem with this is that you cannot follow a race he is commentating on unless you are watching it - i.e. you can't have it on while doing other things and then return to the screen when it gets interesting because by the time Kirby has noticed many minutes will have passed. He also never tells you who the riders on screen are - and if he does, he's usually wrong. He's obsessed with what he thinks is going to happen, preferring baseless speculation to commentating on what is actually happening.

ADDITIONAL: 13/4/21 - Some have said that this petition is 'cruel', but if you're in the public eye then you are open to criticism of your professional abilities - or are we now not allowed to criticise the abilities of authors, actors, sports people, musicians, etc.?

Also, Kirby criticises riders in almost every race. Partly, of course, that's his job - but if you give it out, you have to take it. Also, I would say many of his criticisms are unfair and/or cruel. As just one example, the long list of criticisms he has levelled at Thibault Pinot.

Next time you watch, ask yourself how many of his critiques are aimed against non-Anglophone riders.

3/4/22:

Commentating during the 2022 Ronde with 222km to go, Kirby says:

Aranburu could have finished as high as 5th in Milan-Sanremo, but didn’t think it was worth his while so he eased off at the end and came in 13th.

Twaddle. Nobody – but nobody – doesn’t sprint for 5th at the end of a Monument. Pure invention; based on nothing.

I’ve now just watched the end of Milan-Sanremo again: Aranburu wasn’t in the first group behind Morhoric, so he literally couldn’t have come higher than 10th. And within the second group, he sprints hard, coming 13th overall.

Drivel. Again.

Stage 15, Tour de France, 2023 – Crash is caused by spectator. Before the many replays, Kirby claims it was a speed bump. Why not wait to see what actually happened rather than making something up? After the many replays, Kirby claims it was a young boy (the spectator is clearly the same size as other adults) ‘getting over-enthusiastic and punching the air’. As is so often the case, utter invention: it did not look remotely like someone punching the air. It was clearly someone with a phone, as has since been proven.

26/8/22: Stage 6 of the Vuelta, Kirby informs us (clearly based on nothing) that Mark Padun is 'a master' at descending in the wet (at that precise moment, Padun is descending very gingerly, taking pretty poor lines). Minutes later, Sean Kelly points out that Padun is 'not getting around the corners well... not comfortable whatsoever on the descent'. Kirby laughs. For no reason.

27/8/22: Stage 7 of the Vuelta, Herrada wins the sprint and has his arm in the air in celebration. Kirby tells us that Batistella is punching his handlebars in celebration. How can someone who watches so much cycling know so little? Punching the handlebars is the almost universal sign of frustration at losing. Even my partner, who doesn't watch cycling, could tell who had won. But Kirby is only interested in his own narrative: McEwen told him twice that Herrada had won, but Kirby kept eulogising about Batistella's 'win', even as Herrada celebrated further coming past the camera. Utterly self-absorbed: he had already decided who'd won. It's embarrassing now.

1/9/22 – 4.2km to go, Stage 12 Vuelta a Espana: the riders are going uphill.
Kirby:

‘… as they get to this step, but it doesn’t last long, it’s like your mum’s old step, give it a polish, give it a clean and then a clean pair of heels to everybody else…’

And this sort of meaningless, demented jabber is not at all unusual – I could have chosen many examples just from today.

Reasons for this petition:

If you don't like something, how else can you change it - by saying nothing?

The races are only on GCN/Eurosport. I speak no language other than English. It's their commentators or silence.

He's ruining the sport I love - I avoid many races purely because he's the commentator.

One example of his commentary, from 11/3/21 Tirreno-Adriatico:

Carlton Kirby: 'Yates is the heart and mind of this breakaway group'. Baseless. But he's British and that's all that matters to Kirby.

Carlton Kirby: 'João Almeida, who won't worry anyone in the General Classification'. 4th in last year's Giro d'Italia.

Simon Yates drops back to the Peloton in the last 2km - Carlton Kirby: 'Yates has decided this isn't worth the candle' - i.e. he's saving his energy. Yates was obviously cooked - why else would anyone work for dozens of kilometres and then give up in the final 2km? Yates ended up going out the back of the peloton, losing 1.22.

There's also his lack of knowledge. “Simon Clarke, who should have won the 2016 Milan-San Remo” is just one in a long, long line of things he invents from nowhere and then portrays as facts, banging on about them throughout a season. (Clarke is a very good rider, but there is nothing to suggest he SHOULD have won the 2016 M-SR. Watch the race.)

He clearly thinks he's the star of the show. The unrelenting, inane chatter (did any of us want to know that his wife had their third child by caesarean section?), peppered with the repeated clichés (just see how many times he says 'puppy paws', ‘joining the party’ or a dozen or so others).

Please tell your friends: I’ve read so many negative comments about Kirby that unlike most online petitions this one could work.

(PS If there's anything here about donating, that's the website host - nothing to do with this petition - there is nothing to donate to.)

Quote:

I would love to see this Eurosport commentator substantiate even 1% of the outrageous claims he makes. I have just turned Catalunya on and he has already come out with:

I think he fell victim to his agent, so now he is at x team.

— Tao Geoghegan Hart (@taogeoghegan) March 25, 2019

Owain Doull described Kirby – quote:

a proper muppet.

Those who know, know.

https://road.cc/content/news/258178-live-blog-outr...

July 2024:

Kirby lowlights just from the last 40 minutes of Stage 16 of the Tour de France, 2024:

12.7km to go - the front five riders, including his own rider, are constantly attacking each other, and Vaughters points out that they need to stop that and keep a steady high pace to hold off the GC group behind: “This is garbage if you are trying to win the stage”.

Kirby responds: “They are spurring each other on as well, Sean. They are reminding each other of what is at stake today.”

So, you have an expert making an intelligent critique, and you have the imbecile disagreeing with him in his first sentence and then - inevitably - inventing some cod-psychological nonsense.

Sean replied to Kirby, “I think they are faffing around too much”. Vaughters, “I agree”. They were both quite pointed about it.

5.5km to go - Pogacar attacks. Kirby invents (go back and watch it) that Vingegaard asked Pogacar for a turn and then proceeds to wax lyrical about how that is when Pogacar knew to attack.

Kelly makes the point that Visma should not have ridden hard all day and should have given Vingegaard more support at the end of the stage.

Kirby replies that Visma “may have had no other option”. - They literally chose to ride on the front all day.

He then claims that “they wanted to make a statement”. - No team is ever trying to 'make a statement'. The phrase has no meaning. (Naturally, Kirby uses it a lot.)

He really is just “saying words”.

Kelly ignores what Kirby said and reiterates is point. I'd love to hear what Kelly really thinks of the man. Because Sean is not a man to suffer fools gladly, I suspect.

About Evenepoel, Kirby says “Earlier today, he said that just to be close to Vingegaard and Pogacar was a privilege”. No, he did not. We all saw the interview. And he did not say that. So, you are now just making up quotes to suit your narrative.