Liggett and Sherwen Commentary

[boardhanger]

have been streaming from either RAI or one of the belgian stations. The Italian commentary during the Giro was priceless!! Switching back to ITV4 for the Tour has been doing my head in with tweedledumb and tweedle-even-dumber doing the commentary...

.......I feel your pain lad

 

[S2Sturges]

The commentary of PL and PS of last nights stage hit a new low point of shocking commentary. When people are riding off the front of the pack, all we hear is, "lance needs to pace himself up to the leaders like he did on the Joux plane in 2001". IRRELEVANT! All the way through the stage we get this commentary about Lance when there is a race going on! Then when we get to the sprint when lance is on the back when the sprint is opening up, "LANCE IS MAKING HIS RUN FOR THE LINE". He kept making those comments all through the sprint when lance was basically in 2nd last position. It would of been nice to hear about Fedrigo.

also during paris Roubaix, when the gap to Fabian Cancellara got to 61 seconds, Phil goes on about how that was the gap between LA and Jan Ullrich in the 2003 tdf! What the f### has that got to do with the race?

People may question why I am bringing this up now but last night pushed me over the cliff when it comes to intolerable commentary. Yes I have the ability to mute the tv, but why should I the viewer have to put up with no commentary and dead silence in the middle of the night? Surely some people who are involved in television and broadcasting of the tour can see my point?

It was just awful! I personally don't want to get Foxtel (pay tv) so I can watch the tour/cycling with proper commentary but if I have to I will because I don't want to miss out on watching this great sport.

The SBS commentator Matthew Keenan has been far better than 'ol Phil and Paul, I think they have been dumbing down the reporting of the race steadily over the years, hell even David Duffield had the good sense to shut up now and again.. I know that they are elder statesman of cycling racing etc, but all the repetition, inconsistency and in some cases pure inattention have indeed made me reach for the remote and mute the sound on several occasions.. time for some new blood I say.. any ideas on who?

 

[la.margna]

it's the Tour de Lance, not the Tour de France - that's why!

Sad. Liggett was once really excellent, one of the best. Now just a Pharmstrong prostitute.

But let's face it. The masses want Lance, all they care about is Lance. We here in this forum are a rare species.

 

[editedbymod]

The best comment yesterday was when Armstrong went on one of his p/sshand attacks against p/sshand midpack Frenchmen and Phil says "Lance looks around just like in 2001 against Jan Ullrich and says are you coming with me and they say not". 15 seconds later certain mid pack p/sshand French riders catch him.

 

[boardhanger]

The SBS commentator Matthew Keenan has been far better than 'ol Phil and Paul, I think they have been dumbing down the reporting of the race steadily over the years, hell even David Duffield had the good sense to shut up now and again.. I know that they are elder statesman of cycling racing etc, but all the repetition, inconsistency and in some cases pure inattention have indeed made me reach for the remote and mute the sound on several occasions.. time for some new blood I say.. any ideas on who?

For all the abuse Duffield gets. I liked him. Of course he may have been talking about some cheese when Indurain was on the attack. He may have done the commentary from a hotel room via mobile phone watching the same images as us. But at least it was honest commentary. Not predictable repetitive mantra.......Lancemainia is over. Move on.

 

[powerste]

</SNIP>

Then again, in less than a week, we will no longer see much of LA (excepting news reports from the New York Times, etc...), and the two old muppets won't have too much to refer to him about when commentating...

I've been wondering that too - with LA finally retired for good, what's their commentary gonna sound like next year? Wait, wait, I bet it's gonna sound like it did at P-R this year, when LA wasn't in the race . . .

 

[Hitchey]

It's relieving to hear that there are others that are so peeved by the commentary. I don't know if I can add any more complaints to the list of those who have already posted, but the PP show irks me beyond belief. My take on it, other then Paul in particular being a friend of Lance and basically having swallowed the Lance pill, is that their commentary has to be driven by the advertising dollars. Look at how Nissan, Radio Shack, Michelob ultra, rider ID bracelet or whatever it is, and livestrong, are plastered all over the screen non stop. Those commercial interests have to be providing over 80% of the advertising revenue that versus gets during the tour. It's apparent that when it comes down to being able to attract a few hundred million more revenue in advertising dollars or, maintaining fair commentary and losing a few hundred million dollars, they chose the money.
It makes you want to reach out and slap them sometimes, though I've come to forgive Paul more recently, especially since I personally feel his opinion on and debate with Phil about AC's attack the day when AS lost time was more reflective of the bad luck that just happens sometimes in a race. I thought that Paul was being a total ****er actually asking Phil if he ever rode the tour and implying that just because he had not ridden the tour, his opinion was not qualified.

 

[boardhanger]

It's relieving to hear that there are others that are so peeved by the commentary. I don't know if I can add any more complaints to the list of those who have already posted, but the PP show irks me beyond belief. My take on it, other then Paul in particular being a friend of Lance and basically having swallowed the Lance pill, is that their commentary has to be driven by the advertising dollars. Look at how Nissan, Radio Shack, Michelob ultra, rider ID bracelet or whatever it is, and livestrong, are plastered all over the screen non stop. Those commercial interests have to be providing over 80% of the advertising revenue that versus gets during the tour. It's apparent that when it comes down to being able to attract a few hundred million more revenue in advertising dollars or, maintaining fair commentary and losing a few hundred million dollars, they chose the money.
It makes you want to reach out and slap them sometimes, though I've come to forgive Paul more recently, especially since I personally feel his opinion on and debate with Phil about AC's attack the day when AS lost time was more reflective of the bad luck that just happens sometimes in a race. I thought that Paul was being a total ****er actually asking Phil if he ever rode the tour and implying that just because he had not ridden the tour, his opinion was not qualified.

I agree completey about the commercial interests destroying the actual showing. It's ridiculous.

 

[Timmy-loves-Rabo]

"LANCE IS MAKING HIS RUN FOR THE LINE". He kept making those comments all through the sprint when lance was basically in 2nd last position. It would of been nice to hear about Fedrigo.

yeah that was pathetic. Liggit is such a joke. PS is not much better.

They spend about 70% talking about LA -- 20% about evans and wiggans -- 9% about the local castles and 1% about every other ride -- english speaking nation riders that is, non English speaking riders don't exist.

aldo seariously, PL has no idea what he is talking about... lol @ him saying sanchez was a bad descender the other day.

 

[LKing25]

The best comment yesterday was when Armstrong went on one of his p/sshand attacks against p/sshand midpack Frenchmen and Phil says "Lance looks around just like in 2001 against Jan Ullrich and says are you coming with me and they say not". 15 seconds later certain mid pack p/sshand French riders catch him.

Yeah i LMAO when the other riders rode up to Lance like they were out shopping for groceries.

 

[TRDean]

yeah that was pathetic. Liggit is such a joke. PS is not much better.

They spend about 70% talking about LA -- 20% about evans and wiggans -- 9% about the local castles and 1% about every other ride -- english speaking nation riders that is, non English speaking riders don't exist.

aldo seariously, PL has no idea what he is talking about... lol @ him saying sanchez was a bad descender the other day.

I have a lot to complain about the P & P show...but the pictures and descriptions of the castles etc. are not one of them. I really enjoy seeing the scenery and history!

 

[boardhanger]

I have a lot to complain about the P & P show...but the pictures and descriptions of the castles etc. are not one of them. I really enjoy seeing the scenery and history!

Me too. The senery and history is brillant.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

The most fun is listening to Phil try to pronounce things.

Other than the really annoying falsehoods he propagates, such as Euskatel for Euskaltel and Kreuzinger for Kreuziger (the latter being a bad habit he picked up from Paul), there is comedy gold to be had. I wonder if Naomi Cantell will ever match the performance of Noemi Cantele? Or just where the surname Fool's Gang, as in Jakub, comes from?

 

[LOOKFOOL]

yeah that was pathetic. Liggit is such a joke. PS is not much better.

They spend about 70% talking about LA -- 20% about evans and wiggans -- 9% about the local castles and 1% about every other ride -- english speaking nation riders that is, non English speaking riders don't exist.

aldo seariously, PL has no idea what he is talking about... lol @ him saying sanchez was a bad descender the other day.

you gotta love those ridiculous, built for the masses, animated clips that explain how and why riders rotate in a group..During the spring campaign they bring out the "eschelon" vid..

 

[boardhanger]

you gotta love those ridiculous, built for the masses, animated clips that explain how and why riders rotate in a group..During the spring campaign they bring out the "eschelon" vid..

.........annoying!!! if an adult dosen't understand aerodynamics at that stage of life then what the feck??? C'mon as a child I knew that something must be making those riders crouch in behind each other??? Why must we be pepperad with commentary directed to this so called uneducated mass.? Is the couch potatoe cyclings future? No. Then why pander to them?

 

[hrotha]

How did they pronounce "Totschnig"? We got lots of "Totsching" in Spanish TV.

 

[DrC0721]

but everybody else seems to know. The PP show is irrelevant when it comes to the actual sport of cycling. Its about entertainment for the cycle-ignorant masses. The basic assumption, by Versus, is that the masses (if there is such a thing in cycling ) really only want to hear about LA. So same script every day. Put it on auto pilot. yakety yackety yackety "a certain Mr Lance Armstrong",yackety yackety yackety, "Lance". Those are the cards we have been delt. We have to dig into that suitcase of courage, the valise of valor, the sachel of strength, the backpack of bravery, the pocketbook of pluck and take our punishment like men.

You're not kidding. I hate having to explain to people when they came in the bike shop about why no GC rider gets in the breakaway everyday or "why don't they pedal harder". Half of these people don't know the difference between Giro and Vuelta.

 

[boardhanger]

How did they pronounce "Totschnig"? We got lots of "Totsching" in Spanish TV.

hrotha.........explain that name???????????????

 

[Martin318is]

fortunately for us in Aus we dont get that stuff - it must be versus. Also, for all the other races of the year we DO have Eurosport Austrlia available and get the race plus about 3 repeast of the event across the next few days in case you missed it. (I think PR got 4 repeats this year).

I ate off my own leg when I realised that the ______ at SBS had got themselves exclusive rights to the Tour. When I was living in the UK we had about 3 channel options on SKY.

 

[Moose McKnuckles]

fortunately for us in Aus we dont get that stuff - it must be versus. Also, for all the other races of the year we DO have Eurosport Austrlia available and get the race plus about 3 repeast of the event across the next few days in case you missed it. (I think PR got 4 repeats this year).

I ate off my own leg when I realised that the ______ at SBS had got themselves exclusive rights to the Tour. When I was living in the UK we had about 3 channel options on SKY.

Thank your lucky stars you don't get Versus. You may be tempted to throw stuff at your TV. Watching Roll and that other Versus muppet call the stage is absolute torture for a cycling fan.

 

[hrotha]

hrotha.........explain that name???????????????

What sort of explanation do you want? I suppose it might be tot, "dead" + the apparently fairly uncommon name "Schnig"? :\

 

[Hitchey]

So, another question I do have in all honesty is what percentage of the viewers of the tour are hard core cyclists/ex or current racers/people that really understand cycling? I ask only because I question if my personal constant annoyance of the versus broadcasts actually put me in the minority when it comes to the total viewing audience. Is versus really catering to the viewing majority out there rather than to the miniscule percentage of posters on this forum that complains?

For example, I have a good friend that is quite the enthusiast rider, rides 3-4 days a week, no racing experience at all, a very smart guy, an admitted Lance fan, and just loves the versus commentary.

 

[Spare Tyre]

fortunately for us in Aus we dont get that stuff - it must be versus. Also, for all the other races of the year we DO have Eurosport Austrlia available and get the race plus about 3 repeast of the event across the next few days in case you missed it. (I think PR got 4 repeats this year).

I ate off my own leg when I realised that the ______ at SBS had got themselves exclusive rights to the Tour. When I was living in the UK we had about 3 channel options on SKY.

I'm glad SBS got exclusive rights to the Tour. They are the TV-channel-on-a-shoe-string-budget that have broadcast the tour every year for a couple of decades now, at a time when the competition/commercial outfits wouldn't have dreamt of doing so. It is SBS who have developed the Australian cycling audience.

It'd be nice if it didn't come with P'nP, though. And Tomalaris.

I have seen Versus coverage and, yes, it's terrible in many ways: there are too many interruptions to the race so no sense of continuity or flow; too many ads, puff pieces etc, and the commentary team, of course. SBS, by contrast, has ad breaks for approx 2 minutes (guess) every 15 minutes. The ads are annoying, but at least between times there is uninterrupted cycling and no "brought to you by" **** cluttering up the screen.

I don't know how much clout SBS has in all of this. It must be cheaper to buy the P'nP commentary than to pay for independent commentator/s, and they (SBS) and we (the Australian "market") are small fry compared to Versus and the North American market.

 

[mainemike]

witness a dead horse beaten.

 

[53x11 in DC]

Here's a thought....

Anybody in America remember when we used to get our Tour de France news via 2-month-old "Winning" magazines in the bike shop? Remember when a HUGE leap was the 30-minute recap of the WHOLE TdF on CBS, or Wide World of Sports, or whatever it was?

I agree with the original point, but...... just turn the TV down, and be glad that we can see 50% of every day's stage, 4 times a day.