Phil Bloody Ligget

disgruntledgoat

I just watched "The Quest" on DVD, the documentary about Simoni's 2003 Giro win. Phil at his finest.

Firstly, utterly brushing over any doping stories in the context of the race as if they were all just unfortunate misunderstandings.

Secondly, talking about Gibo on a rest day training ride, "He spins his little ring and the bike accelerates to 60KPH without any sign of effort" You what? Wouldn't that make him, oh I don't know, the greatest time traillest who ever lived? How can you read that with a straight face?

andyrr

Is the Quest 2 also commentated by Ligget ?
Hope not as I had quite fancied it but I also have a bit of an aversion to Liggett's over the top hyperbole spout nonsense style so if it's him then Ill give it a miss.

campagchris

Yes Liggett narrates/commentates on the quest2.
Ive been busy transfering my video's onto dvd and watching them and wish I had a £1 for everytime he says HERE or NOW at the end of a sentence.I never realised this first time around but it is annoying NOW

afx237vi

campagchris wrote:

Yes Liggett narrates/commentates on the quest2.
Ive been busy transfering my video's onto dvd and watching them and wish I had a £1 for everytime he says HERE or NOW at the end of a sentence.I never realised this first time around but it is annoying NOW

Damn. Is the Quest 2 worth watching anyway? I have the first one, but thought the same as the OP. Liggett's narration is unbearable.

Toks

disgruntledgoat wrote:

ISecondly, talking about Gibo on a rest day training ride, "He spins his little ring and the bike accelerates to 60KPH without any sign of effort" You what? Wouldn't that make him, oh I don't know, the greatest time traillest who ever lived? How can you read that with a straight face?

Dude don't take him so seriously its pure theatre. I love all the hyperbole and over the top dramatic commentary. A few comments stick out down the years. "its time for Ulrich to launch himself into space"; "off to hunt down the golden fleece" etc etc We know he's gonna get things wrong, exaggerate and ignore doping stuff but its cool;he's doing his thing and for the most part its quite entertaining.

Ramanujan

We know he's gonna get things wrong, exaggerate and ignore doping stuff but its cool

I'm sorry, but his ignoring the blatant doping in cycling makes him complicit in the omerta that kept it covered up in cycling for decades.
He did it because he makes his living from cycling and bad cycling press would jepordise his job.
I've found his glossing over of the doping issue over the years to be most disturbing.

DavMartinR

I think he is from the old guard and needs to go.
But on commenting about doping he can't probably comment due to leagal reasons even if he knows they are doping. If the UCI allow the rider to ride he can't just come out with....

here he goes on the attack again and doped to the eye balls,Yes it's been a good day for the dopers??

Would be good to watch though? For the one and only time he came out with it?

iainf72

DavMartinR wrote:

I think he is from the old guard and needs to go.

So if he's old guard, who's new school?

Harmon, who was "shocked" when Riis confessed.

Kelly who just says nothing?

DavMartinR

iainf72 wrote:

DavMartinR wrote:

I think he is from the old guard and needs to go.

So if he's old guard, who's new school?

Harmon, who was "shocked" when Riis confessed.

Kelly who just says nothing?

Duffield :?:

Finbar Saunders

I find him entertaining and better than many others I've heard. Who do people think is the best cycling commentator?

And DavMartinR is correct. What he is allowed to say on air doesn't necessarily represent his personal views.

Finbar Saunders

I find him entertaining and better than many others I've heard. Who do people think is the best cycling commentator?

And DavMartinR is correct. What he is allowed to say on air doesn't necessarily represent his personal views.

calvjones

Finbar Saunders wrote:

I find him entertaining and better than many others I've heard. Who do people think is the best cycling commentator?

And DavMartinR is correct. What he is allowed to say on air doesn't necessarily represent his personal views.

His column in C+ used to make his personal views pretty apparent. When he wasn't slagging off all the haters who dared question his favourite rider.

phearnde

Give me Ligget and Sherwin any day - much better than the muppet that ITV had commentating on Tour of Britain this year

sing_for_absolution

phearnde wrote:

Give me Ligget and Sherwin any day - much better than the muppet that ITV had commentating on Tour of Britain this year

Urr, his name's Hugh Porter :roll:

disquieting_museeuws

As a cyclist who came into the sport in the mid-80's I do feel let down by Liggett's attitude through those years and beyond. At first he seemed like a benevolent voice of cycling (naive on my part I guess). My abiding memory of him in the 90's is going on about how great it was that average speeds in the TDF were getting higher & higher. All I wanted was for the cyclists to slow down a bit for their own sake!

Sherwen is a sometime employee of L.A. so has understandable biases there.

I've always found Eurosport a lot more cynical & detached (even Duffield); although I miss the womanly wisdom of Christi Anderson as against the mostly nice-but-dull Emma Davies.

I think Harmon is the best live FWIW (though Liggett can still be good on the historical stuff).

Jez mon

I find Harmon's commentary the best. They all ignore the doping issue to similar extents. However, Harmon seems to ignore it the least (possibly!). As others have said, there is no chance of the commentators giving their true opinions and acknowledging the true state of cycling.

For what it's worth, I wouldn't waste breath getting annoyed at the commentary teams who have been ignoring the issue for years, but rather the UCI

drenkrom

Liggett gets on my nerves, but as far as the art of commentating goes he is a god. He may mistake riders' identities, theorize ludicrously on race tactics and turn a blind eye to doping, but the man speaks in soundbytes like few people in this business. It's amazing! As a sound engineer, I have a professional deformation of analyzing any voice talent on TV, and Phil is fantastic. There is hardly a single sentence in a whole Tour's worth of his commentary you couldn't chop out and use in a highlights show, a DVD or any derivative. He rarely makes a reference to something he said before ("as we were saying a few minutes ago..."), so you can splice anywhere to edit a race for highlights. Plus, every sentence has this highly-usable energy to it, making it stand on its own without problem.

What he says makes me roll my eyes all the time, but he's got loads of talent as a commentator. I just don't want to imagine what he'll be like this year, now that his pal is back.

simon_e

disquieting_museeuws wrote:

As a cyclist who came into the sport in the mid-80's I do feel let down by Liggett's attitude through those years and beyond.
...
Sherwen is a sometime employee of L.A.

Both are 'old guard', as already stated, who knows what Sherwen and colleagues got up to! They are too cosy with the tainted heroes of the past, some of whom probably have some serious skeletal collections in their closets.

To me their facade makes me think of something like a kindly uncle you always loved to be with when you were young.... but you now know he's best friends with a bunch of paedophiles. It was easy when you didn't know any better, no idea what EPO was or that cheating <gasp!> happened in pro cycling. Oh, the innocence of youth.

Look at it from their PoV: what do they have to gain by dwelling on the negative stuff (like doping) instead of glorifying the heroes of the day for the viewers? Too many inappropriate comments, rumours or even vague references could land them out of work, they get sued, the TV stations lose ad revenue, cycling coverage stops.... Ask German fans what they think of their (non-existent) TV cycling commentators.

Options: learn live with it, turn the sound off or go and do some gardening.

disgruntledgoat

It wasn't even the doping stuff that got my goat... It was the 60kph on the little ring on an easy ride! That really narked me for some reason!

campagchris

Should commentators make comments about doping :?: or wine,or grannies cutting the grass.
I don't think they should,Im more interested in the race.

Bonus

There's a few issues going on here I guess.

We all have a personal taste when it comes to listening to particular voices. Some of us may be "regional accent prejudice" for example. I find Phil's voice very easy to listen to. In fact out of all the comentators, the only voice I struggle with is the guy (possibly from Yorkshire?) who elongates the ends of the last word in a sentence. I particularly like Christi's voice :-)

As far as content of commentary goes, I'm sure the TV companies lay down guidlines as to what their advertisers want to hear and what they want to avoid. And I'm sure their legal departments have some say too ;-)

We've covered the issue of non-cycling related comments on here many times. Duffields "what wine I had with my dinner last night" comments for example. I find it easy enough to listen to - maybe 'cos I'm only half listening most of the time anyway.

Lastly, and I think this rang true for Murry Walkers F1 commentary too, the mistakes they make are some of the most amusing bits of the show!

In '89, towards the end of the Tour when Fignon pulled away from LeMond and Delgado on a climb, Phil said in an excited and knowing voice "and this is the point where Laurent Fignon won the 1989 Tour de France" . . . . :-)

So, IMO, keep up the good work guys (and girls)