Phil and Paul

[willbick]

Haut Jura national park is 165 hectares according to Phil. Must be the worlds smallest national park

 

[Warhawk]

Haut Jura national park is 165 hectares according to Phil. Must be the worlds smallest national park

Forgot 3 zeros there.

FWIW, the smallest national park site in the USA is a messy .02 acre room.

 

[Michele]

"The climb finish on the top!"

 

[jens_attacks]

^^^ lol . classic phil

 

[42x16ss]

^^^ lol . classic phil

I noticed that Sebastian Lang and Sebastian Vandevelde(wtf!) were in the break at various points last night

 

[Rossco8]

Today Phil called Oleg Tinkov an oligarch. Phil must have missed this article in the WSJ.

http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304477704579256001136342732

 

[Carstenbf]

CN called him an oligarch in an article a couple of days ago.

Guess most take it to mean very rich Russian guy.

 

[gregrowlerson]

Holding my breath in anticipation for Paul's inevitable, "this is a beast of a climb" comment tonight

 

[Akuryo]

CN called him an oligarch in an article a couple of days ago.

Guess most take it to mean very rich Russian guy.

"Very rich Russian guy"

 

[rata de sentina]

These morons are really plumbing the depths today. Not sure if I can take much more of this drivel without chucking stuff at the TV.

 

[ILovecycling]

vai vai vai Allesandro!!!!!

 

[MartinGT]

Is Phil even listening to Paul?

Paul - "Is that Rogers attacking? No, its Majka"
Phil - "Oh is that Roche trying to come across? <pause> No, its Majka"

 

[Bernie's eyesore]

Is Phil even listening to Paul?

Paul - "Is that Rogers attacking? No, its Majka"
Phil - "Oh is that Roche trying to come across? <pause> No, its Majka"

Majka is not an English speaker, he probably hasn't heard of him before.

 

[ggusta]

Holding my breath in anticipation for Paul's inevitable, "this is a beast of a climb" comment tonight

haven't heard many 'cat amongst the pigeons' this year from paul. or does that get trotted out in week 3 ?

I think he is trying to whittle his list of quaint witticisms down to a manageable 4 or 5. 10 is just too many.

 

[ggusta]

Majka is not an English speaker, he probably hasn't heard of him before.

After all the nonsense they each spew they have plumb given up on what little they say that IS or COULD BE correct. Signal to noise ratio is way out of whack.

 

[Potomac]

haven't heard many 'cat amongst the pigeons' this year from paul. or does that get trotted out in week 3 ?

I think he is trying to whittle his list of quaint witticisms down to a manageable 4 or 5. 10 is just too many.

He was saving for the Horner attack, which never came.

 

[murali]

Anyone noticed Westra being called as Tosatto?

they have two different jersey colors. but still.......

 

[T-Nielsen]

Anyone noticed Westra being called as Tosatto?

they have two different jersey colors. but still.......

But as riders they are sooooo a like...

 

[Swiss Tony]

Time to put Phil and Paul out to pasture and Shoot Kirby through the head

 

[davidsonduke]

Give 'em a break

The cognoscenti of every sport think the announcers are terrible. Read web comments by basketball, soccer, football fans all over the place. Most of us know that we'll never be Lebron James or Lionel Messi, but we sure as hell can be Brett Musberger or Paul Sherwin. We know the sport, we're smart, and we know how to talk. We'd be way, way better than Phil and Paul.

Except that's it's a lot harder to talk for 2-4 solid hours than anyone knows. If any of us were to attempt to fill in for Phil or Paul, comments on this forum would crucify us in the first 10 minutes. We'd make so many errors of every kind we'd make Phil and Paul look like geniuses.

I have my own criticisms of them, principally that they won't stop talking, but somewhere they (whoever "they" are) decided that constant commentary is they way you do a bike race. But as I listened to the early commentator on the nbcsports web feed this morning, I realized that their voices are the sound of the TDF to me. When I heard this other voice, although he seemed pretty good, it just wasn't the Tour de France. And then about 9:00 I heard their voices, their cadences, and the race was on.

They're far from perfect, technically or personally, but they are the sound of bicycle racing for me and for a lot of folks, and I won't mind hearing them for a few more years.

 

[InterestedSpectator]

They're far from perfect, technically or personally, but they are the sound of bicycle racing for me and for a lot of folks, and I won't mind hearing them for a few more years.

I agree and the point about commenting to multiple broadcasters proves that the constant repetition is needed, otherwise all those returning from those frequent ad breaks would not know what was happening. It's very annoying for we watching on ITV 4 (more than enough ad breaks on that!).

 

[Frosty]

A definite critic of P and P here but this commentary is what i credit with getting me interested in cycling (from 2:00 onwards although the first two is worth watching too)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sQojh-wqL04

 

[pot belge]

I agree, I liked Phil in the eighties and early nineties. It was after the worshiping of wonderboy for 10+ years that they really became a parody of themselves. Now they are just awful and senile.

 

[gregrowlerson]

The cognoscenti of every sport think the announcers are terrible. Read web comments by basketball, soccer, football fans all over the place. Most of us know that we'll never be Lebron James or Lionel Messi, but we sure as hell can be Brett Musberger or Paul Sherwin. We know the sport, we're smart, and we know how to talk. We'd be way, way better than Phil and Paul.

Except that's it's a lot harder to talk for 2-4 solid hours than anyone knows. If any of us were to attempt to fill in for Phil or Paul, comments on this forum would crucify us in the first 10 minutes. We'd make so many errors of every kind we'd make Phil and Paul look like geniuses.

I have my own criticisms of them, principally that they won't stop talking, but somewhere they (whoever "they" are) decided that constant commentary is they way you do a bike race. But as I listened to the early commentator on the nbcsports web feed this morning, I realized that their voices are the sound of the TDF to me. When I heard this other voice, although he seemed pretty good, it just wasn't the Tour de France. And then about 9:00 I heard their voices, their cadences, and the race was on.

They're far from perfect, technically or personally, but they are the sound of bicycle racing for me and for a lot of folks, and I won't mind hearing them for a few more years.

Excellent post. It is not an easy job.

Probably what annoys me the most is their clear bias towards English speaking riders. A non English speaking rider will need to have four times the palmares of said rider to get mentioned as often, and this does detract from the coverage.

They are also biased towards anyone who has ever been seen on camera riding the Tour before, as opposed to having huge ignorance towards those who have had good performances in the Giro and Vuelta. I don't even think that they know of the Zoncolan, since (difficult good vs. evil situation for Paul as it's an Anglosaxon rider but non Tour achievement ) Rogers won on it this year, but Sherwen just says that he won on a mountain there, or some such thing. I must admit that I can't name all the Giro climbs either (nor those of the TDF), most definitely not off the top of my head, but if you are in that priviliged position to be able to sprout about road cycling to a worldwide audience, then you should bloody well know what you are talking about.

I don't mind having a little bias with cheering for riders (natural for Paul to get excited if an American is doing well), in fact it can add colour to the commentary ("Big George" ), but you shouldn't mention one riders name ten times and ignore another because of it, especially if they are both of similar ability as cyclists and are having an equally high impact on the general classification.

Besides, it only adds to the ninja powers of Zubeldia

Oh yeah; focusing on guys like Voekler dropping when they're already an hour behind annoys me too. But blame the French director for that

 

[orangerider]

Phil is much better this year. Paul has completely lost it being in love with his own voice talking about nonsense. Case in point, the attack by Nibali today was in plain sight, Phil pointed it out, yet Paul kept yapping on until he reacted in such a cliché verbal way to show he wants to dominate the airwaves. I'll take Phil for another 10 years if Paul gets shown the door today.