2009 TDF Liggettisms

[mickkk]

Ah wonderful stuff.

I wonder if they might be hung over half the time.

 

[Crunchy Frog]

First post: don't squash the rookie, please,

Hope everybody enjoyed our trip to Provence today.

Land of lavender and olive groves.

Oh, and Sherwen's encylopaedic knowledge thereof......


Best of all, for me, the large field of lavender that was revealed by the helicopter to have a message sown into it:

PL: "It says 'Provence de...': I can't make out the last word".

PS: "Lavender. 'Provence de lavender' - 'The Lavender of Provence.'

PL: "Oh yes. That makes sense".


Reading through this thread, I'm surprised that no-one has mentioned my favourite Sherwin habit, viz literal translations from basic French captions, best exemplified by the constant mantra of:

"Tête de la course: The head of the course".


And finally, a hearty "Well Done !" to Andy Schleck, who's miraculously defied the constant Liggett voodoo ("He looks in trouble!" "He doesn't look good !") for the last week or so to burn off everybody except Alberto and somehow finish second. Better luck with your Haitian mojo next year, Uncle Phil.

 

[pedaling squares]

Ah, funny stuff. You could make a great drinking game out of Paul correcting Phil's misidentifications. "And now Wiggins has cracked." "No, that's Zabriskie dropping off the back." "Oh... now THERE goes Wiggins." "No, that's Vande Velde." "Too right, Paul."

And if Andy Schleck was in trouble half as often as Phil thought, he'd be second from the lanterne rouge, not the maillot jaune.

BUT... I love listening to them, they are great cycling fans and they sure bring some excitement, some British pride, and some amusement to the broadcast.

 

[mapei81]

In his pre-Versus/OLN days, Phil was very very good. I think his home base was UK channel 4. He was still trying hard, and didn't have a rooting interest, unless a Brit was doing well on a particular day.

 

[saphblue]

Ah, funny stuff. You could make a great drinking game out of Paul correcting Phil's misidentifications. "And now Wiggins has cracked." "No, that's Zabriskie dropping off the back." "Oh... now THERE goes Wiggins." "No, that's Vande Velde." "Too right, Paul."

And if Andy Schleck was in trouble half as often as Phil thought, he'd be second from the lanterne rouge, not the maillot jaune.

BUT... I love listening to them, they are great cycling fans and they sure bring some excitement, some British pride, and some amusement to the broadcast.

Heh, the misidentificaions are amusing. My hubby and I often yell at the TV to correct Phil as if he could hear us. If I'm remembering correctly, I believe that Phil said Tourmalet twice today instead of Ventoux.

 

[180mmCrank]

Phil - "It's blowing cats and dogs up here"

 

[hfer07]

Paul:
Team Saxo is "assassinating" the competition at the bottom of the climb..

 

[cody_57]

Guys, best laugh I've had in a long time!

But you jinxed it for me. I would (somehow) just turn on my bs-filter and be fine, without even noticing all the errors/omissions (almost typed emissions, hehe) and now I just cannot find the filter switch anymore and really notice how funny/bad/terrible it sometimes sounds. Do know this is almost live and can be challenging, however, I think these guys are drinking and/or smoking stuff during the race.

It's a bit like the days when Muddle Talker (Murray Walker) was commentating Formula One lol

Absolutely true! You had/have to watch the broadcast to know what's happening!

 

[Rbudman]

I LOVE PHIL!!! If he were a religion Id convert! that being said; on stage 5 or 6 Tom Boonen fell in the rain and Phil stated:

"It looks like tom is having more trouble with white lines."

awesome!!

 

[auscyclefan94]

Phil said that Frank Schleck was in trouble on Ventoux and Wiggins was looking strong. He said it 5 times and then Frank finishes ahead of Brad by 20 secs. Also calling the ventoux the tourmalet was hilarious. LMFAO. He needs to go. He said on an interview that he will be commentating up to 2013. Imagine how many mistakes he will make then.

 

[tigerboy]

I bow down before his Royal Liggettness.

He is the voice of cycling, the doyen.

 

[stephens]

At the end of today's stage, Phil said something about the yellow jersey safely making it across the line and Contador winning and then said "and Lance Armstrong finishes in second." Poor Andy, you've been forgotten already!

 

[Boleyn]

At the end of today's stage, Phil said something about the yellow jersey safely making it across the line and Contador winning and then said "and Lance Armstrong finishes in second." Poor Andy, you've been forgotten already!

During the White Jersey presentation he said something along the lines of "2 Tours, and 2 Yellow Jerseys for Andy Schleck."

 

[Parrot23]

I enjoy all of this stuff, including the errors, believe it or not. Part of the charm of the event (i.e., a little off-beat, and sometimes a lot, LOL). Tour for me would not be the same without it.

Can't think of any other sporting event where two people have to keep up a patter for several hours a day for 3 weeks, and a lot of the time it's really boring (not much going on). And Phil calls a sprint prob. better than anyone.

Now I'm gonna "reach into my suitcase of courage" and shut up.

 

[hfer07]

I just saw a couple of videos of Phil & Paul from the Australian media- I'm really disappointed to hear such a rubbish from Phil about Contador, and his endless Lance "worship"-very inaccurate and uncalled for-at Least Paul seems to have some balanced perspective when asked about the matter....
but I guess they'll come back next year, and once again we'll be complaining about their none sense....

 

[Blakeslee]

I just saw a couple of videos of Phil & Paul from the Australian media- I'm really disappointed to hear such a rubbish from Phil about Contador, and his endless Lance "worship"-very inaccurate and uncalled for-at Least Paul seems to have some balanced perspective when asked about the matter....
but I guess they'll come back next year, and once again we'll be complaining about their none sense....

Phil and Paul spend a lot of time talking about Armstrong because Versus is broadcasting to an American audience. They also spend a good amount of time covering the two American teams, Garmin and Columbia. They are simply playing to their audience as many fans tend to follow the riders and teams from their home countries.

 

[danyela]

After Cav's win in Paris 'we don't need a photo finish for that one because no-one else was even in the photo!'

 

[auscyclefan94]

I just saw a couple of videos of Phil & Paul from the Australian media- I'm really disappointed to hear such a rubbish from Phil about Contador, and his endless Lance "worship"-very inaccurate and uncalled for-at Least Paul seems to have some balanced perspective when asked about the matter....
but I guess they'll come back next year, and once again we'll be complaining about their none sense....

Paul is still very biased... he rode with lance for a year at Motorola.


Got some Liggettisms from the Worlds

"He's wise to say wise words"

He's (Evans) nailing Valverde into the places"

"Vinokourov has come back from his ban of blood changing"

We need a thread called Keenisms for Matt Keenan

 

[Ferminal]

I certainly laughed at the one about Vino when I heard it (thinking typical Phil to ignore the fact he's a cheat).

A minute or so later though he did correct himself and said it was a two year suspension for blood doping.

 

[Crunchy Frog]

Paul is still very biased... he rode with lance for a year at Motorola.


Got some Liggettisms from the Worlds

"He's wise to say wise words"

He's (Evans) nailing Valverde into the places"

"Vinokourov has come back from his ban of blood changing"

We need a thread called Keenisms for Matt Keenan

If you'd suffered BBCi with Hugh Porter (PBUH) you'd have binned this thread for good. At least Uncle Phil and his suitcase sidekick don't need to see the race numbers in double-wide to be able to ID the riders.

The first we knew of the race coming back together was Gilbert's time appearing in amongst those of the breakaway. Even then, if you'd looked away for the couple of seconds the graphics were on screen, you'd have been none the wiser as it was never referred to in the commentary, Cancellara just magically appearing out of thin air to all intents and purposes.

And the first inkling we had of Cadel's presence was, oh yeah, his decisive attack. No idea where he came from, either.

When I'm pining for P & P, something's up. And not in a good way.


(To be fair HP is a very good track commentator, but fresh air/the lack of wax and varnish seems to scramble his brain somehow).

 

[sadfitty]

From the worlds RR, speaking about Alexandr Kolobnev:

"The last time he won a race was when he was second in these world championships in september 2007"

 

[gianthands]

If you'd suffered BBCi with Hugh Porter (PBUH) you'd have binned this thread for good. At least Uncle Phil and his suitcase sidekick don't need to see the race numbers in double-wide to be able to ID the riders.

The first we knew of the race coming back together was Gilbert's time appearing in amongst those of the breakaway. Even then, if you'd looked away for the couple of seconds the graphics were on screen, you'd have been none the wiser as it was never referred to in the commentary, Cancellara just magically appearing out of thin air to all intents and purposes.

And the first inkling we had of Cadel's presence was, oh yeah, his decisive attack. No idea where he came from, either.

When I'm pining for P & P, something's up. And not in a good way.


(To be fair HP is a very good track commentator, but fresh air/the lack of wax and varnish seems to scramble his brain somehow).

I thought the BBCi coverage was laughable (two track experts commentating on the World Road Race) ... until about two hours in, when I started to tear my hair out at their complete incompetence!!

On the Cadel point you made - When Evans was breaking with Rodriguez and Kolobnev I had just turned the sound back up again (to get the atmosphere and the fans) and Porter was shouting about 'An Australian! It's Gerrans! It's Simon Gerrans'. And on the screen below it read 'Evans'. On the screen! His own screen!!!

 

[auscyclefan94]

I thought the BBCi coverage was laughable (two track experts commentating on the World Road Race) ... until about two hours in, when I started to tear my hair out at their complete incompetence!!

On the Cadel point you made - When Evans was breaking with Rodriguez and Kolobnev I had just turned the sound back up again (to get the atmosphere and the fans) and Porter was shouting about 'An Australian! It's Gerrans! It's Simon Gerrans'. And on the screen below it read 'Evans'. On the screen! His own screen!!!

he probably didn't believe that evans actually attacked as everyone says he doesn't attack.

 

[reubenr]

Phil so needs to retire.

I have come to dislike this man. If you listen, he is a rather arrogant person with an agenda. Whether it is him personally, or Versus, he has to accept responsibility for sounding like an Armstrong Groupy, insulting the intelligence of Contador, and actually screwing Cavendish with his comments on obstructing Hushovd, which was never reviewed on replay. If they had, you would see that Cavendish never cut the man off. They were going around a very abrupt corner (how do the track organizers do this?) and Hushovd was too close to the barrier and had no where to go. Please, can we have someone else do the tour, like Universal Sports, or somebody that knows what they are doing and just not sitting on their thumb? Irwin is an exception. He knows when to shut up.

 

[Kingsley A]

I thought the BBCi coverage was laughable (two track experts commentating on the World Road Race) ... until about two hours in, when I started to tear my hair out at their complete incompetence!!

On the Cadel point you made - When Evans was breaking with Rodriguez and Kolobnev I had just turned the sound back up again (to get the atmosphere and the fans) and Porter was shouting about 'An Australian! It's Gerrans! It's Simon Gerrans'. And on the screen below it read 'Evans'. On the screen! His own screen!!!

I concur with you and Crunchy Frog on the quality of the BBC commentary. All their cycling coverage seems to be focused on the track with road racing a minor afterthought.

Their highlights program on Sunday night also showed this. Having spent about 35 mins of a 50 min program actually showing highlights of the race and a very brief interview with Dave Millar. The remaining 15 mins was spent talking to Pat McQuaid - about the Olympic track program, Dave Brailsford - about the Olympic track program (I don't remember a single mention of Sky) and a special feature on Chris Hoy!