Graham Little whose company Century TV, broadcast the images of the Giro d’Italia to the world, has said there was a “determination within Northern Ireland” to ensure that the three day staging of the second biggest bike race in the world was a success.

Graham was speaking to The Impartial Reporter on Tuesday as the race returned home to Italy but it has certainly left its mark on Northern Ireland and indeed, the former Impartial journalist.

“The Italians could not believe the number of people in pink, they do not get crowds of six/seven people deep for flat stages into towns and villages but that is what they got in Northern Ireland and it certainly made a massive impact. The weather was poor but that was just accepted and the people made it,” enthused Graham who agrees that the image of the horses at Carnlough following the peloton, which was shot from a Century TV helicopter, was one of the iconic images from the three days.

Century TV employed 110 people, two helicopters and one airplane as host broadcaster to help beam the images live to over 180 countries throughout the world.

It was then a challenging weekend but one that Graham enjoyed.

“The feedback has been massively positive, it was stressful but there was a determination within Northern Ireland to make this work and it was great to be in the centre of that. It was like a huge storm blew in and it was exhilarating to be working in the middle of it all. The Italians were delighted and the world feed went well. Northern Ireland and all the fans did superbly. The Italians enjoyed every aspect of it and everybody bought into it to make it a success,” concludes Graham who is now in England helping present the rest of the coverage of the Tour with Sky Sports.

He admits it was a big weekend for Century TV and one that can only help the company.

“Our job was to get the live images and present them to all the TV companies in Italy and around the world. It went really well and I suppose as a company we have shown that we can do it for the second biggest bike race in the world. We have also shown for the past three years what we can do with the Moto GP, so all that has to be good for the company and it would be great to maybe get host broadcaster for the Giro in Italy. All in all, it has been a very positive weekend.”