Tour, drugs, life.

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I have no idea what Fabian Cancellara is doing in this image. When you’re a straight baller & splashed out in yellow like a boss, I guess you can do whatever the fuck you want. Eat your sandwich with no hands? Sure. Why not.

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I’m a huge Phil Liggett fan. I think him and Paul Sherwen are among the best color commentators in all of sports. What they do is fanstastic and has undoubtedly helped the sport of cycling immensely over the years. They have a special gift of being able to describe the sport in a manner which is neither overly-complicated nor condescending to the uninformed, while still offering a depth and richness that keeps the avid cycling fan engaged. They should be proud of the work they’ve done.

This, on the other hand, is not something Mr. Ligget shuold be proud of.

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Journalistic objectivity has gone completely out the window in this instance.

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About big jonny

The man, the legend. The guy who started it all back in the Year of Our Lord Beer, 2000, with a couple of pages worth of idiotic ranting hardcoded on some random porn site that would host anything you uploaded, a book called HTML for Dummies (which was completely appropriate), a bad attitude (which hasn’t much changed), and a Dell desktop running Win95 with 64 mgs of ram and a six gig hard drive. Those were the days. Then he went to law school. Go figure. Flagstaff, Arizona, USA

35 Replies to “Tour, drugs, life.”

  1. He’s blowing a snot rocket. Nothing but stainless steel coming out of that nose.

  2. …gotta agree with you about those lads, gianni…they’ve mastered the art of presenting the rich tapestry of this beautiful sport in a way that includes everyone…

    …they’re as much a part of my tour experience every july as the riders…

  3. …wow…just this minute watched the finale of today’s stage & those two take a very fast & exciting lead in & sprint & ramp it up even higher…absolutely awesome !!!…

    …(no reveals for those who haven’t had the chance)…

  4. Ligget is done man. There’s a fundamental part of bike racing in the last 15 years he is either ignorant of or complicit in. Either way, that makes him part of the problem.

  5. As much as I love Fabian and it pains me to say this… Rule 23 bro, rule 23.

  6. …thom…that picture was likely from yesterday…it didn’t rain all day & it wasn’t intense BUT it did rain…

    …just sayin’…for fucks, whoops, i mean fabian’s sake…

  7. Spartacus can wear shoe covers whenever he damned well pleases. When you have his palmares, then you get an exception to do whatever the fuck you want.

  8. …i don’t think there’s any doubt that phil is complicit but it likely comes from the standpoint of his having made a conscious decision not to defile the sport any more than it’s been, unless there is incontrovertible proof that can be presented to the public…

    …while that tact is disingenuous at best in light, it’s somewhat understandable (not that i agree with it), if one considers how the sport has provided him with a longstanding livelihood…

    …most of his statements or answers on the subject are calculated platitudes…“…you’ve got to have the truth…”“…innocent until proven guilty…” & it does get to be a johhny cochrane-ish “…blah, blah, blah…” when taken as a whole…

    …my favorite is “…i think personally at the moment…” which he uses here twice, leaves the door open should he need to change his tack if that incontrovertible proof can be presented…

    …i fully agree that that aspect of mr ligget’s life is not something he should be proud of, particularly his denigration of floyd, tyler & frankie, although he didn’t specifically name them…

    …but i’d suggest, that phil, as a true believer, is still a strong enough figure to “…lead us back to salvation…” if the sport ever gets that chance…

  9. Hey Cyclo Cross News: fuck off.

    It’s not his job to offer editorial opinions about the ethical quandaries facing the sport. It’s not his job to throw the sport under the bus so *you* can hear someone’s “mea culpa.”

    …And BGW…you can figure out how to hold more positions than Romney amidst your ellipses…and in my opinion his “conscious choice to not defile the sport any more than it’s been”…is the most honorable position that an elder statesman of the sport could take….

    Let the young guns, the hungry investigators, and the idiots from the sports section in the lay press froth at the mouth over Lance and Bruyneel and all those other douchebags. Let them do all the legwork and when they realize that all we care about is that the sport IS clean or is GETTING clean and that the proper procedures are in place to KEEP it clean. The last thing I want to hear is them rehash disgrace that’s a decade old on the air. I’d much prefer them telling me the history of the roadside Abby. It’s like stopping to smell the roses, courtesy of these brilliant commentators.

    100% behind you Big Johnny. They make it great.

  10. Oh yeah, I’m pretty sure that if Cancellara is breaking rule 23, or any other rule for that matter, then the rule book gets changed. Because whatever he’s doing, he’s doing it baller. Full stop.

  11. They’re shit commentators. They mispronounce about every riders name. They miss key events in the races. Their grammar and turns of phrase usually make no sense. They have been like this since I started watching And most of all cyclo cross news is spot on. They are by far the worst fucking sports commentators going.

  12. I’m gonna have to go ahead and come down on Danimal #11-12’s side. Well said, brother. I mean, I saw the shoe covers and I was like, ride on.

  13. Cancellara could ride covered in cum and tie-dyed dildos and I wouldn’t question the dude.

    Phil Liggett, on the other hand, annoys the fuck out of me. I don’t even care what he thinks of the drugs in the sport, though I’d bet money that he’d suck Lance’s dick right off if he had the opportunity. Listening to his and Paul’s commentary on racing is an insult to my intelligence. With all due respect to their experience in the sport, they speak to their audience like they’re a bunch of fucking morons watching a professional bike race for the first time. I can’t stand hearing those two talk. I couldn’t even tell you the names of the Eurosport guys I hear when I’m watching Eurosport feeds, but those guys are much more entertaining and at the very least they don’t assume that their average viewer is just some bored layman flipping through the channels.

  14. Phil makes a lot of mistakes lately. And Paul just needs to stop mentioning how much “he knows this course” or “knows what the riders are feeling” from the Tours he rode and never finished.

    Sean Kelly keeps it real. He never says anything like this while commenting on Eurosport. He has nothing to prove. Sean is almost too minimalist as a commentator though. He does know much more about the race and tactics than Phil or Paul though. Eurosport paired him with a polar opposite in Dave Harmon. Dave gets worked up, similar to how Phil commentated in the 80’s.

  15. It’s a little game around our place to keep tally of how many time Paul reminds us that he was once a bike racer. But we enjoy their commentary. My wife more than I, perhaps. The sound of these guys means that it is July.

    Bobke is getting better with the years. Moninger is a valid and welcome addition, but needs to relax and enjoy it more.

    Personally, I’m not a fan of Kelly’s interminable monotone, but he is getting better. He used to let sentences run for hours. Not so much any more. His knowledge is encyclopaedic.

  16. …if it’s on ‘eurosport’, (or similar type channels) it’s catering to a select & more informed audience…

    …if it’s on nbc, it’s programmed for the masses & to be honest, we’re fucking lucky to get it on mainstream tv…

    …whadda you guys expect…

  17. OTOH, imagine if you will having 2 honest and open announcers talking about the subject…it might only make things worse.

  18. …@ danimal…dude…you, gianni & i (& about 16 others) all did the same thing despite varying perspectives but you call me out for being ‘romney-ian’ ???…time to look where you’re pointing the finger…

    …two sides to every coin & in cycling there are aspects to be appreciated & there are aspects to be disgusted by & recognizing that is not fucking waffling…

    …once i got an idea of how truly pervasive the drug culture was in cycling, i had to change my perspective, which it think is an obvious move but having pulled my head out of the sand, i’ve made no bones about it…

    …example: phil liggit & paul sherwen…love ’em despite the obvious mistakes they make but those two are responsible for introducing cycling to the mainstream english speaking world…i (we) have only benefited by that vis a vis race overage on television…
    …yes, i wish they’d show some backbone regarding the obvious allegations regarding armstrong’s doping…separate from that, yes, i still appreciate what they’ve accomplished…

    …example: lance armstrong…i think the guy is a major hypocrite, a pathological liar, a pathological egotist & a deceitfully vindictive bully…i don’t like the person i see behind the livestrong image whatsoever but having watched the cyclist never waver through the incidents he encountered on the road & to stay absolutely focused through an incredible run of 7 ‘tours’ is, to my mind, an amazing athletic feat…
    …i wouldn’t shake the man’s hand & i wouldn’t accept the opportunity to say “…great rides…” but i recognize the accomplishment…

    …in both cases, i see that as being aware of the two sides of the same coin but i guess if you see that as ‘romney-ian’, you’re entitled to your opinion…don’t let it bite you down the road…

  19. #16 Rhys and #13 Steve got it right

    I used to listen and love Paul and Phil back in the days when there were no other commentators in English. Same thing with Armstrong. Back in the day I thought he was really a changed man after the big C.

    My disillusion with P & P began when I realized they were lying through their fucking teeth about so much in the pro peloton. And I realized that there were more informed commentators like Sean Kelly and the crew at Eurosport. I discovered this on a trip to London where I was entranced by the Euro coverage of the Vuelta. I almost didn’t leave my hotel room that day

    It’s all a matter of style in your commentators. i like the dirt, the nitty gritty, the down and dirty.

    Shock top raspberry, wheat ipa and a belgian white down the gullet after a hard day pouring concrete. Time to kill a few slow moving brain cells.

  20. yeah, what Rhys said. Joseba Beloki down with a fractured femur or whatever and there was nothing about him. Lance takes a short cut and for the next 4 years its what a superb bike rider, not just a racer, but his handling etc etc. He would indeed have sucked lances dick right off given the chance. While paul stood at this side wanking along to some fucking inane commentary.
    I’m off to france this weekend. I cannot understand the commentary there, but its better.

  21. Please don’t hate on Phil. Leave him out of it. Work on your grammar instead.

  22. To the newbie, P&P provide pretty good commentary. Personally, I find them initially grating but if you turn watching them into a drinking game, they become increasingly entertaining. The rules I follow are:

    Drink every time the camera switches from riding to P&P, & vice versa,
    Drink every time Phil mispronounces a name or term (e.g. Leaky-gas),
    Drink every time P&P mention “back when (I) was racing”,
    Drink every time P&P’s predictions turn out wrong,
    Drink every time a racer NOT in the tour is mentioned,

    There’s probably more, but the the combination of the late hour when I get my tour fix and the alcohol knocks me out faster than a sprinter when the peloton hits a HC climb.

  23. …so…is sagan ‘that good’ or does he just have a really good czech chemist as a behind the scenes sponsor ???…

    …he killed at the tour of california & with some healthy wheelsucking, he’s killing here at the big show…

  24. …if ya wanna be insulted by the tour broadcast, that “…cannondale – the best bike in the world…” commercial is a good place to start…

    …& who’s brilliant idea was it to put yellow helmets on the leading team ???…

    …that kinda stuff offends me way more than phil n’ paul ever could…

  25. Yeah the yellow helmet thing is confusing me a bit this year. There was a team that was invited to the tour 2 or 3 years ago that had a yellow kit. It wasn’t the same as THE yellow, but it was close enough that it threw me off all the time, especially with the video quality of the internet feeds. I can’t remember the name of the team.

  26. Also, if we’re gonna start daydreaming about who could take over commentary in American broadcasts, I’d vote for DZ!

  27. …years ago, team ‘ONCE’ (spanish lottery) (manolo saiz’s team before liberty seguros) (sorry – guess i’m ‘phil & paul-ing) had bright yellow jerseys as standard kit & when they rode the tour, the tour organizers made ’em switch to a pink version…

    …they (organizers) seemed to not be concerned so much these days…

    …wait ’til a different team takes over the team lead from sky & it’s gonna seem goofy, if not confusing to see the change(s)…

    …maybe it simply ought a’ be a yellow strip on a normal team helmet…

  28. Back in the pre- mandatory helmet days the leading team wore yellow caps. I think they’re just bringing it back. My hunch is that it’s the UCI getting in the way of the Tour organizers making teams with yellow kits change their color. That or teams just don’t care anymore. My understanding was that ONCE did it out of respect for the yellow jersey, and that it was a gentlemen’s agreement between the team and the organizers.

  29. I’m with Jason, Steve and Rhys.
    P & P are not good commentators. Maybe they were at one time but I’d find that hard to believe. I’ll set aside their thoughts on the drug culture and just look at how they comment on the race. They make lots of mistakes and just miss what’s going on too much of the time. Hearing them during the tour of CA constantly talking about how important of a race this is just made me laugh. It’s almost as if they were trying to convince themselves. Not to knock the T of CA but to try to compare it to Paris-Nice is just silly.
    I’d rather watch a Eurosport feed on an 11 inch computer than P & P on a 40 inch HD TV.