Phil and Paul

[badboyberty]

I probably only understand two words of Flemish, that's why I choose to watch Sporza as my default for cycling coverage. I think almost all the commentator's are annoying %^&*'s so only being able to understand the riders' names works perfectly for me. I still get the excitement when something interesting happens but I don't have to learn about French castles or being chased by wilderbeasts.

 

[badboyberty]

Phil Anderson might need to be included in this thread....

The organisers did a remarkable job. I rode up Willunga Hill about a week ago and there’s not a single power point up there. It really is iconic Australia, nothing but bushland, so to see it with all that infrastructure along with a massive crowd, was just extraordinary

http://wwos.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=8406749

I suspect that "Top of the Range Feeds" have at least one power point, even livestock feed shops need lighting, and their "$1.20 a can" soft drink machine didn't look battery powered last time I used it...

 

[Anonymous]

Harmon knows who the riders are. he can guess just by lookong at their faces or styles. he knows their best results from their palmares and im not just talking about nibali or sanchez but also verdugo or grabowsky or leezer. ligget obviously doesnt know any of them not even sanchez but do you think there are more than 7 teams around from whom he can name a rider? Can he name an agr rider besides roche or a fdj rider or a rabo or vacan orkatusha one? and thsts just wt.
I bet my house he hasnt ever heard of androni. harmon meanwhile can probably name their first team

And Harmon would never tell us that THomas de Gendts favourite races were criteriums..

Or call the owners of a flanders flag immigrants

Actually, maybe harmon would say the latter.

 

[Llewellyn]

SBS should give Matt Keenan a go

Matt Keenan is good, seems to know something about the sport and takes a "Martin Tyler" approach to commentating by not saying something unless there's something to actually say.

I think Phil and Paul are probably OK if you don't know much about the sport but they're probably past their use by date

 

[mewmewmew13]

Matt Keenan is good, seems to know something about the sport and takes a "Martin Tyler" approach to commentating by not saying something unless there's something to actually say.

I think Phil and Paul are probably OK if you don't know much about the sport but they're probably past their use by date

lol . yes they're good when they're fresh...
once you've heard the schtick it just get recycled.

 

[Yeahright]

Personally I find P&P a bit of a laugh and lets not forget there ARE a lot of viewers who know nothing about cycling. Not everyone wears their bike shorts to bed.

Best for me is Matt Keenan.

Not wishing to derail things but the podium girls have set a high standard for the season! The blonde is a honey.

 

[gregrowlerson]

and lets not forget

This would have to be the most recycled phrase

 

[nvpacchi]

Imo kelly is great. His knowledge trumps all the banality in his voice. Liggett is the opposite his awesome accent cannot even drone out his ridiculous stupid comments

 

[Der Effe]

I probably only understand two words of Flemish, that's why I choose to watch Sporza as my default for cycling coverage. I think almost all the commentator's are annoying %^&*'s so only being able to understand the riders' names works perfectly for me. I still get the excitement when something interesting happens but I don't have to learn about French castles or being chased by wilderbeasts.

There's no such thing as 'Flemish', there's only Dutch

 

[The Barb]

No question they are getting worse. The constant mistakes and misstatements about strategy are extraordinary.

Sometimes it makes me angry, other times I do genuinely wonder if Phil is starting to lose his mental faculties and I should therefore just feel sorry for him.

Either way, less Phil and Paul, more Matt Keenan please.

 

[happychappy]

I watched the 96 tour the other day, they gibbered just as much inane nonsense as they do now. The only difference is Phil had this overwhelming air of smugness about him, you could almost see it in the air floating around him. Now he just looks dazed and confused.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Matt Keenan during the 2009 Vuelta:

"And as you know, the Spanish riders tend to be very good at descending. Well, some of them... if it's one of the two Sánchezes. Other than them, it's... variable".

Marty McDonald covering the 2010 Tour of Turkey solo was probably the best Anglophone commentator I can recall hearing. Keenan might be good if he had an analyst but his commentating solo drives me mad; Harmon has plenty of knowledge but a tendency to be too biased (2011, despite providing approximately 2 good WT stage races - Suisse and Tirreno-Adriatico, and despite hilly Classics being a bore, was apparently the greatest year of cycling in memory, probably because Evans, Gilbert and British people won lots). He makes a fair few mistakes but is usually prepared to correct himself. Phil and Paul don't even know they're making mistakes. Issoisso will be able to tell you about the legend that is Paulo Martins, a man who will make you pine for Liggett, however.

I once pointed out Phil Liggett has forgotten more than we could ever know about cycling. Unfortunately he only knew as much as we could ever know to begin with.

 

[craig1985]

I'm amazed Carlton Kirby hasn't raised a mention here, he was cringeworthy during the 2010 ATOC, although he raised the same gripe about the Swiss-German dialect that Libertine has mentioned on here. Magnus Backstedt for mine is pretty good when he does races for Eurosport. I also like Kelly, especially how he always says "Eye-talians".

 

[craig1985]

You won't see me disagreeing with you about Brian Smith.

 

[Ferminal]

Indeed Smithy is good, Kirby is sometimes fun because you really don't know what's going to come out of his mouth next, prefer his sort of bad than the P&P bad. Harmon is just boring for me.

Dutch, Italian and Spanish commentary trumps the lot.

 

[No_Balls]

Phil and Paul are commentators for people who know nothing about cycling, I don't know how many times I've heard them explain a pace line. I think it's time for NBC sports to hire a new commentator like Merckx or Indurain maybe.

Ohhh....No! Not Indurain. One of my fav-cyclists of all time but could give Sean Kelly a run for his money what "boring commentators" concern. Sometimes he has been a commentator on spanish television and it is awful.

 

[No_Balls]

I watched the 96 tour the other day, they gibbered just as much inane nonsense as they do now. The only difference is Phil had this overwhelming air of smugness about him, you could almost see it in the air floating around him. Now he just looks dazed and confused.

Back then, they could at least identify riders.

 

[will10]

I'd rather listen to a Dutch/Flemish stream that I only recognise the odd words than listen to Carlton Kirby "commentate" (I use the word loosely).

 

[El Pistolero]

Ohhh....No! Not Indurain. One of my fav-cyclists of all time but could give Sean Kelly a run for his money what "boring commentators" concern. Sometimes he has been a commentator on spanish television and it is awful.

And Merckx is already a commentator at RTBF.

 

[sublimit]

Indeed Smithy is good, Kirby is sometimes fun because you really don't know what's going to come out of his mouth next, prefer his sort of bad than the P&P bad. Harmon is just boring for me.

Dutch, Italian and Spanish commentary trumps the lot.

Kirby mainly talks a lot of crap, Harmon can be annoying with his less than perfect rider identification at times but talks less rubbish to be fair though.

Backstetd is good because he seems to know what he's talking about in the main.

 

[Thomsena]

If only you could undestand danish. Rolf Sorensen is absolutely brilliant. Loads of great, interesting anecdotes, he spots the riders before everyone else, great analisis of the finishes (rides them before every stage on the Tour) and obviously knows alot about the technical stuff. Some idiots have a problem with him talking about himself too much - true. He does talk a lot about his own time in the peloton - and that is ****ing brilliant as well.

 

[kenjude]

Phil Liggett almost didn't seem to notice they were on the final sprint today, even when the overhead shot started and you could clearly see what was going on. Only when the camera shot switched to the view from beyond the line did he seem to twig what was going on.

As a pair I think they could do with shutting up occasionally. Sherwen seems to feel the need to fill every second that Liggett doesn't fill. And wasn't Phil an old woman as far as getting concerned about the gap the final break had? 16k to go and he's worried about 40 - 50 seconds?

Definitely some pro-Green Edge commentary going on as well with a clear reference to the right result after the first intermediate sprint.

 

[Richeypen]

Phil Liggett almost didn't seem to notice they were on the final sprint today, even when the overhead shot started and you could clearly see what was going on. Only when the camera shot switched to the view from beyond the line did he seem to twig what was going on.

As a pair I think they could do with shutting up occasionally. Sherwen seems to feel the need to fill every second that Liggett doesn't fill. And wasn't Phil an old woman as far as getting concerned about the gap the final break had? 16k to go and he's worried about 40 - 50 seconds?

Definitely some pro-Green Edge commentary going on as well with a clear reference to the right result after the first intermediate sprint.

kept referring to Ogrady as ' the most important rider in the break' yesterday.

 

[Anonymous]

Yep, that time of year.

However, I am betting we don't get a "Is this Hincapie's year to win Roubaix" thread this year.

 

[happychappy]

Yep, that time of year.

However, I am betting we don't get a "Is this Hincapie's year to win Roubaix" thread this year.

This is Tommy Danielson's year! He's going to win everything. There's no room for Hincapie posts this year.