Phil and Paul

[Afrank]

The story about Quintana being saved by a witch doctor was priceless!

I actually enjoy thair babbling nonsense immensely. I get several good laughs every stage. We've had little mountain steams, flamingos, horrible English to metric conversions, and now voo-doo! It's great comedy! Perfect dead-pan delivery every time.

I could do without the guy on the motorcycle. He seems like he's trying to sound like the X-Games announcers with frequent "Whoa" comments and trite cliche's.

During a descent, the moto-guy said something like "It's a good thing these guys know what they are doing because they are doing something they know how to do."

......oh my god...

...

 

[Froome_Beast]

The best one from Phil so far for me was in one of the earlier sprint stages in the closing stages when he called Cannondale and OPQS Cannonball and Omega Pharma Quick Stop.

His continual calling Quintana as Can-tara is getting quite annoying, surely someone can have a word with him about that?

 

[MacRoadie]

Director: Who the F*** are you? look.
Moto Guy: We're NBC, the broadcast partner for the United States; home of Garmin, Cannondale, Belkin, Radio Shack, Specialized, Trek, Bontrager, Coca-Cola, and a few others that I can't remember right now because Patrice keeps hitting every pothole and I really need to pee..

Now whether he deserves an answer or even asks the right questions, is another matter completely...

 

[UpTheRoad]

Phil got the elevation wrong. He had feet, Paul had metres. Then Paul launched into the greatest talk about how young Nairo was born very ill because of a bad omen or a curse placed on his mother. He was almost dead, bleeding from his ears and eyes and looking sickly.

Enter some shaman, ahem my bad, a naturopath or some ancient Aztec medical specialist who made a 'secret' concoction of 9 South American wonder plants. Instantly healed and he became the wonder climber we have today.

Was it one long story or did he repeat it 3 or 4 times? He said it over and over and over again and just would not shut up about it.

 

[MacRoadie]

Was it one long story or did he repeat it 3 or 4 times? He said it over and over and over again and just would not shut up about it.

Not sure, but Phil started with the "natural climber" routine (like he does with every Columbian, including anyone from Cartegena).

Then Paul launches into his story, leading with "Well, actually he wasn't born a natural climber".

Then, no sooner than the last words are out of Paul's mouth, Phil comes back with "For sure, he's a natural-born climber".

 

[Boeing]

I agree with regard to any team directors, but as it relates to race officials (ASO or UCI), I'm guessing that the word is out from the UCI and ASO to play nice with the major North American broadcast partner. This is the first post-Armstrong confessional Tour and I'd bet there is a VERY strong desire to make nice with US broadcasters at a time when their (and advertisers) interest and confidence in professional cycling may be lagging. Keep in mind, the current agreement between NBC and ASO was signed in June of last year, well into the speculation, but before the USADA report.

No, the US isn't the world's biggest cycling market, and it's not the critical element in cycling's future, but economically it's still pretty significant. Also, from the press release at the time:



so ASO has a bit more riding on the NBC deal than just cycling.

P.S. While financial terms of the NBC deal aren't known, France TV pays about $30 million a year to broadcast approximately the same package of events.

Good point.


I imagine the analogy i would use here is I am sure is he is received like a loud ugly American fresh off the boat ordering a baguette at a patisserie in Paris or a non fat latte at Cafe De Flore. eventually he will get something if he points long enough

 

[Boeing]

The best one from Phil so far for me was in one of the earlier sprint stages in the closing stages when he called Cannondale and OPQS Cannonball and Omega Pharma Quick Stop.

His continual calling Quintana as Can-tara is getting quite annoying, surely someone can have a word with him about that?

I'm waiting for the Ask Bobke segment with a question from a Tri fan asking if Quintana is related to the Quintana Roo bike company

or Paul with his " a lot of people are wondering about...." blah blah


Paul keeps leading some of his statement with " there's a lot of speculation in the chat rooms about Sky....etc"

If we do the math that means he must read this site. I hope so

 

[MacRoadie]

If we do the math that means he must read this site. I hope so

Can't wait for Phil's inevitable "Well surely "Pole" they must know that Sky has been very clear from the get-go that they are a clean team and won't tolerate any drugs scandals. And, if you look very closely at their machines, you'll see the very latest technology, including wheels made of carbon fiber and tyres inflated to almost 100 psi."

 

[mewmewmew13]

I'm waiting for the Ask Bobke segment with a question from a Tri fan asking if Quintana is related to the Quintana Roo bike company

or Paul with his " a lot of people are wondering about...." blah blah


Paul keeps leading some of his statement with " there's a lot of speculation in the chat rooms about Sky....etc"

If we do the math that means he must read this site. I hope so

what the h3ll does Paul know about 'chat rooms'...is this a 'chat room'?

 

[Boeing]

This is the exact quote from Paul Sherwin yesterday regarding sky dropping off the back on stage...." Well they dug very very deep yesterday and on the social media they started saying well team sky is too strong they must be using some kind of method to boost their performance. Well you can see now this is a fairly straight race now Phil because they didn't recover over night they had a very hard time yesterday and now they are just trying to pull themselves back into the race. This is the sort of race we would have witnessed 50 years ago."

 

[Boeing]

what the h3ll does Paul know about 'chat rooms'...is this a 'chat room'?

Must be a language barrier. I speak southern Californian. Like in the SNL skit actually my bad

 

[MacRoadie]

Must be a language barrier. I speak southern Californian. Like in the SNL skit actually my bad

Dude.......

 

[Race Radio]

Paul was on CNNi this morning, babbling that he is not an "investigative journalist" he just calls bike races

 

[karlboss]

From Paul on australian coverage talking about Froome "it's not like he came out of nowhere, he was second last year"

 

[darwin553]

From Paul on australian coverage talking about Froome "it's not like he came out of nowhere, he was second last year"

Also should have said 2nd in the Vuelta in 2011 to back up his theory

 

[karlboss]

Also should have said 2nd in the Vuelta in 2011 to back up his theory

I chuckled and thought to myself, keep going back just a little further.

 

[Duke_S]

Phil again never recognizing any riders, just whoever he likes most in the team. Any Astana rider becomes Kessiakoff even though he abandoned a week ago. Any Argos rider = Degenkolb.

Today when Kittel's final lead out man went down:
There's a crash right in the middle there. And that's Kittel who's gone down I think, no it may have been Degenkolb.

 

[el_angliru]

And I agree. Motor bike guy is a tool and offers nothing.

I'm watching the Tour on Danish television, but now and then there are a few snippets of English commentary from a motor guy. I'm not sure though whether I hear the same (or as many) of the comments from the motor guy as you do in English speaking countries.

But sometimes Rolf Sørensen is commenting from a motor bike, and I think I've heard some interesting things. During the exciting 2nd stage in the Pyrenees (stage 9) he talked with both Saxo Tinkoff and Movistar during the race. He also talked with Garmin when Dan Martin and Fuglsang were riding for the stage win. It was really interesting to hear the Garmin DS being confident that Dan Martin would win the sprint! Sørensen also noticed a few things during the stage long before cameras were there, for instance when Rogers went back from the front gruop back to Contador to help chasing Froome and Valverde.

Rolf also talked with the Quick Step DS Brian Holm, which again was quite interesting (Rolf having ridden in the same era as Bjarne Riis and Brian Holm of course helps, besides being Danish). Sky refused to talk to him though. No wonder considering the presseure they were under!

I believe a motor guy can be pretty useful, but like I said, I can't really comment on the NBC guy (I heard someone saying he's a former alpine downhill athlete with no relation to cycling?).

 

[mewmewmew13]

Phil again never recognizing any riders, just whoever he likes most in the team. Any Astana rider becomes Kessiakoff even though he abandoned a week ago. Any Argos rider = Degenkolb.

Today when Kittel's final lead out man went down:
There's a crash right in the middle there. And that's Kittel who's gone down I think, no it may have been Degenkolb.

LOL
yep...hilarity ensues

 

[Nick777]

We have no choice down here - Phil & Paul take over from Matt Keenan after a few minutes & are on air for the next ~ two hours.

Do they not realize that they are constantly repeating themselves..?

 

[nickel999]

We have no choice down here - Phil & Paul take over from Matt Keenan after a few minutes & are on air for the next ~ two hours.

Do they not realize that they are constantly repeating themselves..?

I have subscribed in the past to feeds for the Giro and TDF and I don't understand why they drop Keenan out only after the initial Kilometers.

I think he displays a great depth of knowledge. I *guess* he continues broadcasting on SBS? I'm on the east coast USA

 

[darwin553]

I think he displays a great depth of knowledge. I *guess* he continues broadcasting on SBS? I'm on the east coast USA

No he drops out too on SBS. Early trip to the bar I guess

 

[autologous]

I can't link to the video directly, but the video embedded in this article contains a little moment that fits perfectly with Phil's "It'll be a great day for television watching and that is for sure here" , almost like the fan is talking to Phil directly.

 

[auscyclefan94]

I have subscribed in the past to feeds for the Giro and TDF and I don't understand why they drop Keenan out only after the initial Kilometers.

I think he displays a great depth of knowledge. I *guess* he continues broadcasting on SBS? I'm on the east coast USA

He does the early race coverage for ASO. In Australia our feed starts from the start of the race so if I wanted to watch the start online, I could listen to Matt. I think he will get the full coverage in a couple of years time. Matt commentates all the classics excluding Roubaix, the Giro and Vuelta in Australia and does a good quality job.

 

[EarnstMorrissey]

Does anyone know of any English streams for the tour available in Aus without these two commentators?

None of the steephill ones work for me and I just can not stand them. They rarely talk about the actual cycling, and when they do they get it wrong. Makes me look like a genius to my family though correcting all their mistakes.