Phil and Paul

[BigRingAbuse]

A touching interview with Mr Ligget.

http://www.itv.com/tourdefrance/features/40-years-of-phil-liggett/

Surprised how blunt he is about some things.
Chris Boardman = "not a good bike rider"
Bradley Wiggins = "mentally fragile"

He also savages the impact of team radio on the spectacle, so a big thumbs up from me.

Some nice footage of Phil (or is it Alan Partridge?) at home by the fire with a bottle of Bordeaux. Liggett for president indeed!

Some Stage 17 nuggets:

Sherwen: "A few more riders trying to scuttle across the gap" (he loves that word.

Sherwen: "Richie Porte pulling that elastic plaster stretch plastic up" (his bandage)

Sherwen: "Vanendert with the old one two"

Sherwen: "Chris Froome is stomping all over those pedals"

Sherwen: "Chris Froome is turning himself inside out"

And all that.

 

[bikebottles]

Mute, hurry!

Paul is just intolerable, if only we could just auto-mute his segments. Does he think that every time, over and over that he mentions that "When I did ....such and such...." that we care or want to know. I remember when he tried to put Phil down, saying that Phil hadn't ridden in the Tour as he had. He is so horribly tiresome.

We were a bit amazed at Phil's comment today regarding the 'feeding station', saying something about "the little animals being fed at the zoo." Surely, he didn't mean this to be derogatory.

Ah, but we will miss the Tour when it is done this weekend.

 

[BigRingAbuse]

About 40k to go in today's stage, Paul was talking about a local rugby TV commentator in the region and Phil chuckled and made some passing comment about quirky sayings of Sport commentators:

"They all have their quirks, Paul, what was it a suitcase of … despair or something?"

Paul (deadpan): "Suitcase of courage"

At which point I fell off my chair.

Unbelievable. I think Paul will start milking this.

 

[Warhawk]

About 40k to go in today's stage, Paul was talking about a local rugby TV commentator in the region and Phil chuckled and made some passing comment about quirky sayings of Sport commentators:

"They all have their quirks, Paul, what was it a suitcase of … despair or something?"

Paul (deadpan): "Suitcase of courage"

At which point I fell off my chair.

Unbelievable. I think Paul will start milking this.

I was wondering what in the world they were going on about there.

The suitcase thing was funny, though. Anyway, I hear the cheese tastes of despair.

 

[Warhawk]

Anyone see the bit with the donkeys in the jerseys?

Man that was a tortured analogy.

 

[Tom T.]

Yesterday Paul mistakenly referred to Johnny Hoogerland as "Johnny Hooligan", I nearly spat out my drink.

Yes, my favorite moment of this intolerably boring race. Phil got a nice chuckle out of it.

 

[Alpe d'Huez]

I actually think they toned down some of the absurdities this year, and Paul is playing a little more off of the Liggitisms. Still lots to criticize though, mainly if you didn't know any better you'd think there were only about 4-5 teams in the race.

 

[Don't be late Pedro]

Cool! Thanks for posting this. Will check it out now!!!

UPDATE: Hey I just tried to play it and it must be georestricted. Someone who isn't me might suggest you download it (using a browser plug-in) and then upload it to youtube quickly so the rest of us can watch it?

You can use a trial version of http://unblock-us.com/ which should let you watch it. I find its worth the 5$ a month as there is so much stuff I can watch that would otherwise be blocked.

 

[SetonHallPirate]

Anyone see the bit with the donkeys in the jerseys?

Man that was a tortured analogy.

Reminds me of the Giro d'Italia, Steve Schlanger made a joke about "apparently Joaquim Rodriguez is not in pink, the maglia rosa instead belongs to Shrek's copilot" when a donkey was spotted on the side of the road dressed in pink.

 

[on3m@n@rmy]

After a replay of the dog induced crash that brought down several riders today including Gilbert, Phil called the dog a Pyrenean Mountain Dog. Phil... the real dog was black. A Pyrenean Mountain Dog is white.

 

[joe_papp]

About 40k to go in today's stage, Paul was talking about a local rugby TV commentator in the region and Phil chuckled and made some passing comment about quirky sayings of Sport commentators:

"They all have their quirks, Paul, what was it a suitcase of … despair or something?"

Paul (deadpan): "Suitcase of courage"

At which point I fell off my chair.

Unbelievable. I think Paul will start milking this.

Good find. Bravo.

I just heard/watched this tonight and was rotflmao. I don't remember if this level of mutual chops-busting existed b/w them in the early days or if this is more of a bit of hostility/venom?

You can use a trial version of http://unblock-us.com/ which should let you watch it. I find its worth the 5$ a month as there is so much stuff I can watch that would otherwise be blocked.

thx.

 

[Fergoose]

Apologies Joe, I'm not the most IT literate and don't have a Youtube account. However I do have my moments...

You can use a trial version of http://unblock-us.com/ which should let you watch it. I find its worth the 5$ a month as there is so much stuff I can watch that would otherwise be blocked.

Or get something called Modify Headers on Firefox. Then Youtube how to use it. Free, legal and all you'll need is to seach for IP codes of different countries

 

[egtalbot]

Dear God, P&P are at it today. So many errors and incorrect analyses, and I've only been watching for ten minutes. The best one was about Nibali. The guy has a huge lead on JVDB, who is not a great TT guy, and Paul says that to get on the podium, Nibali has to ride the time trial of his life.

Again - they're trying to create drama where it doesn't exist. That's 80-90% of their problem day in and day out.

 

[Derrick]

Well of course Egtalbot. Trying to make out something astonishing is going on when in fact little of interest has happened for a week would test anyone let alone P+P who seem to talk more rubbish by the year. Unfortunately with the British successes in cycling we have more and more journalists in the british press and media in general who haven't the faintest idea about bike riding spouting more and more nonsense. However for real ineptitude try listening to Hugh Porter. World champion he may have been but he doesn't have the vaguest idea what's happening.

With regard to making the less than ordinary sound earth shattering if we take the first 5 or 6 stages they were all around 200k and all took around 5hours give or take. That's 24-25 mph. Much was made of the speeds achieved on the run in. "They're doing 45 mph" . I should B****y well hope so. They had just spent the previous 4 hours doing 22-23 mph. Some of you out there must have ridden in the days of the unrestricted field size races on the motor racing circuits. With comparitively flat roads and 200+ fields you can roll round at well above 25 mph without turning the pedals in anger. It would be virtually impossible to go slower but the commentators have to make it sound good. The frightening thing is so many beleive them.

 

[auscyclefan94]

According to Liggett, Boardman did the 4km pursuit in 1 minute and 11 seconds. He said it multiple times!

 

[T-Nielsen]

According to Liggett, Boardman did the 4km pursuit in 1 minute and 11 seconds. He said it multiple times!

Wow... It takes me twice that long.

 

[Casualfan]

Unfortunately, I think the fatigue from the 18 previous stages spent commentating, combined with the pressure of a British winner, a return to terrestrial television and the deadly combination of Vandenbroeck and Van Garderen put pay to Phil today, and he cracked. He frequently referred to a rider named Tejay Vandenbroeck and at one moment, couldn't say Van Garderen's full name after 3 attempts, leading to him giving up and muttering "there are too many Tejay's in this race", which made me laugh out loud

 

[Caruut]

Phil: "Froome is driving like a tractor through the second time-check"

 

[Boeing]

Good find. Bravo.

I just heard/watched this tonight and was rotflmao. I don't remember if this level of mutual chops-busting existed b/w them in the early days or if this is more of a bit of hostility/venom?




thx.

But the chop busting is amusing.

I have to give paul credit for his immediate corrections on the fly

I dont remember the particular riders but toward the end of the TT stage Paul corrected Phils math immediately. Phil called the time gap at the line at 11 seconds and Paul jumped in "actually Phil it 12 seconds but.."

and another finish Phil was counting down the seconds and misjudged the landmarks calling the finish about 30 yards too early. Paul simply suggested "actually Phil the finis is a bit further down the road" (paraphrasing of course.)

only alcohol could cause so much confusion and a clear representation of the dangers of Vodka and Red bull in the Senior community

 

[yetanothergreenworld]

Sherwen on the two-man crash in the final Ks of Stage 20:

"It just goes to exaggerate how dangerous the Tour de France can be."

 

[Armchair cyclist]

I'm willing to bet, Paul, that the black guy with baggy shorts is not, in fact, the US Ambassador to France.

And the bloke in the suit giving an award to Sorensen is not female.

 

[Carlo Algatrensig]

I'm willing to bet, Paul, that the black guy with baggy shorts is not, in fact, the US Ambassador to France.

I'm probably wrong but I thought it was the retired athlete Maurice Greene. So when Paul said it was the US Ambassador i was like "WHAAAAAAAAAAAT????????????????"

 

[Michele]

I'm willing to bet, Paul, that the black guy with baggy shorts is not, in fact, the US Ambassador to France.

And the bloke in the suit giving an award to Sorensen is not female.

Fantastic!

 

[Gubby Allen]

Only dipped in during the ads on Eurosport and it was horrendous, just in that time. He was talking about how Sky still had a team of 8 having "only lost Switsou Kanstantine"

What made it worse was only 20 seconds earlier Sherwen had been talking about him having crashed out and with his name at least in the right order. I'm not sure that they even listen to each other.

Then bigging up the breakaway under the 25km which was at a whopping 23 seconds and they were pondering if it could be brought back if it gets much bigger.

The peloton's ability to reel back about 0.9 seconds a km? Don't know about that.

 

[Michele]

They have been for too long missed and finally back.