FAREWELL Gary Imlach and the ITV Sport team for the
excellent Tour de France coverage you have provided us over the years. For the 2025 show will be your grand finale,
a victim of business deals and the end of “free to air” cycling coverage.
The good news, according to Cycling Weekly, is that race highlights may still be provided “free
to view” another channel in 2026!
But what a buggar to lose the brilliant daily live
broadcasts and nightly highlights on ITV which all began with Phil Liggett
presenting on Channel 4 over four decades ago, as the “Voice of Cycling”. He
was later joined by former pro, the late Paul Sherwen and the pair became Tour
regulars on British Television.
Now ITV has lost out whenWarner Brothers Discovery struck
a deal with Tour organisers ASO and the European Broadcasting Union for
exclusive rights to cycling’s major races which will end “free to air
coverage.”
I’ve read that ITV did not make a bid as our sport
disappears next year behind a “paywall.”
I will miss your nightly one-hour tightly-edited
stories which so perfectly encapsulate the day’s action and the excitement the
Tour brings to the roadside. It’s almost
as good as being on the race yourself, and I can say that as one who was
experienced it up close when serving my time on the press corps which rolls
with the action. That was in the 80s,
Your spot on analysis, interviews with the top
riders of the day, the general interest cameos about places enroute, old
footage of past heroes, all stories which capture the atmosphere and flavour of
Le Tour.
It has hooked
in general viewers with the breath-taking
theatre that Le Tour provides, as
the field speed past castles moated chateaus
and in north, the sombre magnificence of
cemeteries for the millions of war dead before, at last, reaching the French
Alps and Pyrenees.
All of this brought to our screens and hosted by
Imlach – in the hot seat since 1990 - providing sharp and succinct analysis with
that wry smile and dry sense of humour.
He is supported by commentators Ned Boulting and
former pro David Millar; Matt Randall and Daniel Friebe for the cameo slots;
plus post-race analysis by former Olympic champion Chris Boardman and ex Sky
Team ride Peter Kenna ugh, now manager of the XDS-Astana.
You never know what stories they
will come up. Only last week there was the delightful side story Imlach told concerning
Meyrignac l'Eglise, the smallest town ever to host a Tour stage.
They sought out the mayor and were
surprised – and amused – to find themselves pressed into action to save his
piece des resistance – a giant floating message on the boating lake which had
been blown off course - It was a floating message advertising the Correze
region.
And so it was the ITV team
including Imlach and the camera man climbed into paddle boats to pedal out over
the lake to tow the floating message back into the position, the better to be
visible to the TV helicopter when/if it flew overhead.
It did of course. And viewers the
world over hopefully took note.
Allez. And now back to the racing
action to tie up this evening’s program, as Imlach himself might say.
*And the latest, as I finish this
piece, sees Pogacar in full “Demolition Derby” mode, on Thursday…OK, that’s a car race in which the winner literally
drives into and smashes all the other cars off the track – but same difference!
For Pog’s attacks destroyed his
closest opposition on the first Pyrenean stage to win by two minutes over
Vingegaard, taking back the yellow jersey from Healy with everyone else
nowhere.
I am reminded of how the young Superman – in the film – tested his
extra ordinary capabilities as a young boy by running across the fields and
keeping pace with an express train. Watched by goggle-eye passengers.
Except our own real live SuperPog went
one better and left the train behind.
What ever next?
No comments:
Post a Comment