Tour of Britain - a teeny bit boring?

Agree, its a bit boring but it's probably because I'm watching it straight after the Vuelta (which is anything but boring)..........also enjoy listening to David Millar insight

I wonder whether the same is true of the sponsors on local coverage of other tours. After all, most of le Tour's sponsors mean nothing to us, but presumably they do mean something to someone in France.

Having to work late so I caught up on the whole lot of highlights last night and wasn't particularly impressed...there didn't seem to be much/any sense of drama when key moves were happening and the coverage transitioned to different points in the race without there being any mention of it. Without the distance count-down in the top of the screen I'd have been none-the-wiser as to where they were in the race or that they'd switched to a different piece of footage.

The rider interviews/participation during the opening and end of programme sections are also cringe-worthy. Poor old Wault Poels seemingly had no idea he was going to be asked about Owain Doull and didn't seem to have a clue who the poor lad was.

And is it me or are the sponsor names explicity referred to each and every single time there's an opportunity. Instead of referring to 'the race', it's the 'Aviva Tour'. Feels like it's being rammed down your throat a little bit.

I'm sure it must be different if you're seeing the live footage - isn't it?

Oh God. Now I have found out that he supports Liverpool FC. My disgust with him is complete! Up the toffees.

I find the links involving Matt Barbet excruciating. According to his wiki page he was brought up in Mold, but he seems to have a strange southern drawl with mid Atlantic overtones. Everything he says sounds deeply insincere, and the other day he told Mark Renshaw that Gaviria's win was a 'text book' win for Ettix Quickstep. I know Matt presents the Cycle Show, but he just sounds a bit clueless about cycling. Now I have started stalking him I see Cycling Active lists his bikes as 'Independent Fabrication, Condor and Parlee' - the Parlee has Lightweight wheels. I can't really imagine him riding a Ribble or a Dolan.

Just rode round trip Kendal -Hartside - Kendal to watch brilliant T of B finish. This included climbs of Shap (11miles) and Hartside ( 5 miles )and into the wind slog back from Penrith to Shap summit ( 17 miles). 84 miles total and worth every drop of sweat . Mind you it may have been a different day had it been pissing down !

I rode out to see Monday's stage at three points along the route, including the finish, and it was great fun. Glorious day and great to see the riders up close. It's the third year I've been to see it, and I'll be back again next year if it's anywhere close, like within 50 miles.

I thought that Monday's stage into Colne was brilliant - racing worthy of a spring classic, and today's stage was similarly good with a group of riders properly going for it all the way to the end.

Nope, it's not just you. I guess its not helped by the fact the Vuelta is reaching such an exciting climax.

I like it, if only because I like seeing racing on our roads with our road markings and road furniture and our green scenery in the background.

It is a second division race and when up against the Vuelta it will always suffer. Does not help that the main Brit star appears to be off form and that sprint yesterday was plain weird.

However always good to have it on when working from home and with Eurosport coverage no need for ITV.

I do like Smith but Mat Stephens is far better !

Commentary team: Hugh Porter & Brian Smith

Not sure that it's boring per se, but the coverage is mince. Nothing shown until 1300 and they ruin that by doing a précis of the previous day (despite there being a repeat of last night's highlight programme immediately before)

Plenty of comments around here where Stage 4 passed through yesterday that you would have thought that there was absolutely nothing at all between Edinburgh & Alnwick. So those that turned out (and in some villages it was the entire population and more) were denied their 0.3s of fame in both live & highlight programmes.

Went to the finish of Stage 3 and while it was can impressive backdrop for the finish, the promo zone was risible. Plenty of people wanted to buy a ToB souvenir but none to be had.