2017 Tour de France

[daffy]

Happily the organisers of the Vuelta have delayed the start until the day after I return from holiday so I shall be glued once more to the pedal strokes.

To get you in the mood, here's details and the video of Maldita Nerea's 'Bailarina, official song of La Vuelta 2017:

http://www.lavuelta.com/la-vuelta/2017/us/pre-race/news/ahc/rtve-and-la-vuelta-2017-will-dance-to-the-beat-of-maldita-nerea.html

Time for a new thread I think.

[BoxTunnel]

ITV's coverage is excellent IMHO, but whatever happened to Phil Liggett?  Boulting is a good commentator and I love David Millar's insights as he was so recently in the peleton, but Liggett is a legend! Gary Imlach has always been excellent with a deep knowledge of every sport he covers (I seem to remember him covering NFL in the eighties?) and Chris Boardman is... Chris Boardman, great at time trials and hour records but does he really understand the modern peleton?

However, ITV are certainly doing excellent stuff with the TdF.  I also enjoyed the BBC's "BeSpoke" daily podcast.

Greg Lemond won the 1989 Tour by 8 seconds from Laurent Fignon, beating him in a final time trial which finished on the Champs Elysees

Fignon notes wryly in his book "We were Young and Carefree" that he is remembered as the man who lost the Tour by 8 seconds rather than the man who won it twice.

Ah, I completely forgot that the stage was a time trial, thank you.

[njee20]

ITV's coverage is excellent IMHO, but whatever happened to Phil Liggett?  Boulting is a good commentator and I love David Millar's insights as he was so recently in the peleton, but Liggett is a legend! Gary Imlach has always been excellent with a deep knowledge of every sport he covers (I seem to remember him covering NFL in the eighties?) and Chris Boardman is... Chris Boardman, great at time trials and hour records but does he really understand the modern peleton?

Liggett and Sherwen are still commentating, but ITV used to buy the rights from an international distribution network, NBC use it, among others IIRC. Obviously that got expensive, and they have an extremely competent duo in Boulting and Millar.

I still miss all the idiosyncracies of messrs Liggett and Sherwen though! "He's doing a job of work", "he's digging deep into his suitcase of courage", "... in this sport of professional bike racing", "little Tommy Voeckler", "he's good on the descents, he used to be a mountain biker". There's a separate thread right there!

[BoxTunnel]

ITV's coverage is excellent IMHO, but whatever happened to Phil Liggett?  Boulting is a good commentator and I love David Millar's insights as he was so recently in the peleton, but Liggett is a legend! Gary Imlach has always been excellent with a deep knowledge of every sport he covers (I seem to remember him covering NFL in the eighties?) and Chris Boardman is... Chris Boardman, great at time trials and hour records but does he really understand the modern peleton?

Liggett and Sherwen are still commentating, but ITV used to buy the rights from an international distribution network, NBC use it, among others IIRC. Obviously that got expensive, and they have an extremely competent duo in Boulting and Millar.

I still miss all the idiosyncracies of messrs Liggett and Sherwen though! "He's doing a job of work", "he's digging deep into his suitcase of courage", "... in this sport of professional bike racing", "little Tommy Voeckler", "he's good on the descents, he used to be a mountain biker". There's a separate thread right there!

Not to forget the great David Duffield on Eurosport, a character if ever there was one.  His classic one liner being "It's curtains for Karpets" but there are so many more.  I was also sure that Duffers' partner in crime Sean Kelly (who apparently once answered a radio commentator with a nod of his head) could not actually count, as he was always saying "a number of miles up the road" or "a number of miles to the finish"!

[njee20]

Duffield and Kelly were the reason I couldn't stand Eurosport commentary! Duffield was always too busy recounting some incredibly tenuous anecdote about cheese and chateaus whilst the race winning break went or someone had a huge crash!