# Phil-isms



## wtfbbq (Apr 5, 2012)

My favorite so far was in the prologue regarding Zabriskie. 

"He's a vegan. Doesn't eat any meat." Short pause. "Or anything else for that matter."


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## adam_mac84 (Sep 22, 2010)

liked that one too


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## Marc (Jan 23, 2005)

My favorite Philism so far was where Phil/Paul completely mistook the 1k-to-go marker for an intermediate sprint for the actual intermediate sprint.


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## Eric_H (Feb 5, 2004)

In the sprint replay today "Nibali has crashed, Nibali has crashed, Nibali has crashed. Oh wait, it's actually Ivan Basso".

Anyone following the race even halfways closely could tell it was Peter Sagan IN THE FREAKIN' GREEN JERSEY!!

I'm actually starting to miss Schlaeger and GoGo just a bit....


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## zosocane (Aug 29, 2004)

Eric_H said:


> In the sprint replay today "Nibali has crashed, Nibali has crashed, Nibali has crashed. Oh wait, it's actually Ivan Basso".
> 
> Anyone following the race even halfways closely could tell it was Peter Sagan IN THE FREAKIN' GREEN JERSEY!!
> 
> I'm actually starting to miss Schlaeger and GoGo just a bit....


Please, no Schlaeger and GoGo -- those guys are dullville. I will take Phil and Paul any day. Love how they dramatize the most boring of flat stages. I will take Phil's mistakes any day over any boring announcing team. Like the EuroSport team with Sean Kelly (zzzzzz).


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## iclypso (Jul 6, 2011)

As I mentioned in another thread, my favorite Phil-ism of this tour was his assertion that Czechoslovakia split into Slovakia and Slovenia. Luckily Paul jumped on that one pretty quickly. There is also the chronic "WTF"-moment when he claims that Cavendish/Renshaw/Sagan/Goss/Greipel is "nowhere to be seen" when the rest of the world can spot the rider on the 3rd wheel.


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## Marc (Jan 23, 2005)

Phil and Paul are simply getting old. I've taken to using Eurosport for audio as the mistakes from Phil/Paul have just gotten obnoxious. And please not Schlanger and GoGo. Phil/Paul at least know about cycling and cyclists...Schlanger and GoGo spend half the broadcast reading how many kms to go.


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## weltyed (Feb 6, 2004)

my favorite was when phil was kicking of the rust in the prologue. tony martin needed a new bike. then they showed the replay of him pulling over for the bike and phil shouts, "oh, now what? there appears to be a problem with this bike as well!"
paul quietly corrected, "actually i think this is just a replay."

they work so well together. nothing beats "chaingate" though. they were at each others throats about that.


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## Sylint (Jul 27, 2009)

just ignore the name of the rider they call out, because it's probably wrong. Other than that..I love those guys.


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## mtnroadie (Jul 6, 2010)

Marc said:


> Phil and Paul are simply getting old. I've taken to using Eurosport for audio as the mistakes from Phil/Paul have just gotten obnoxious. And please not Schlanger and GoGo. Phil/Paul at least know about cycling and cyclists...Schlanger and GoGo spend half the broadcast reading how many kms to go.


Yeah I too have turned to Eurosport for better coverage, better commentary, and less advertising. Sean Kelly is a bit boring though. 

I just heard this on there…. "Tyler Farrar must really be frustrated he cant even go for the Argos-Shimano bus without having 6 Argos-Shimano riders get in front of him!" :lol:

I almost fell off my chair laughing, you would never hear that on American PC TV.


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## Marc (Jan 23, 2005)

mtnroadie said:


> Yeah I too have turned to Eurosport for better coverage, better commentary, and less advertising. Sean Kelly is a bit boring though.
> 
> I just heard this on there…. "Tyler Farrar must really be frustrated he cant even go for the Argos-Shimano bus without having 6 Argos-Shimano riders get in front of him!" :lol:
> 
> I almost fell off my chair laughing, you would never hear that on American PC TV.


Eurosport has fewer adverts only relative to NBC's TV coverage. Phil/Paul do a bit better with talking about scenery, the Eurosport guys do better with filling air time with random history/stories and getting names right the first time.


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## Kneedragon (Jul 27, 2010)

*Not really a 'Phil-ism' but close...*

Is it just me, or does anybody else find it strange that Paul always needs to re-assure the audience that for any point that's made, it's because "they're _professional_ bike riders".


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## paredown (Oct 18, 2006)

I dunno--I've heard Phil and Paul commentating so long now that it has become the voice of the Tour...not always dead accurate, but comfortable, like hearing your relatives blab on at Thanksgiving.

I have to say, I still like 'dig deep in their suitcase of courage'--they managed to work it in today, although I think it was Paul who used it.


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## JSR (Feb 27, 2006)

paredown said:


> I have to say, I still like 'dig deep in their suitcase of courage'--they managed to work it in today, although I think it was Paul who used it.


I heard it, too. And tomorrow we head for the hills. The Tour has officially begun.

JSR


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## Opus51569 (Jul 21, 2009)

Paraphrasing from today's stage.

"There's Malecarne in the breakaway. 'Malecarne', in Italian, means 'bad meat'."

How can you not love that?


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## stumpbumper (Jan 22, 2011)

To me, Phil and Paul are the TDF and I don't believe anyone else could come close to filling their shoes. I really enjoy them and if they or Bobke ever depart it just won't be the same. 

But if Phil screams out one more time "Mark Cavendish--fastest in the world" or "World Champion Mark Cavendish" I'm gonna go throw up. :mad2:


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## Marc (Jan 23, 2005)

stumpbumper said:


> To me, Phil and Paul are the TDF and I don't believe anyone else could come close to filling their shoes. I really enjoy them and if they or Bobke ever depart it just won't be the same.
> 
> But if Phil screams out one more time "Mark Cavendish--fastest in the world" or "World Champion Mark Cavendish" I'm gonna go throw up. :mad2:


What gets me is every time they reference the Tour of California, they have to spew out the steroid-producting title sponsor. It is one thing if the sponsor orders them to do so during the race broadcast itself...but when they're commentating on the TdF, it really grates.


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## iclypso (Jul 6, 2011)

Sylint said:


> just ignore the name of the rider they call out, because it's probably wrong. Other than that..I love those guys.


Case in point, today Tyler Farrar was called Tyler Hamilton. Took a second for me to process that mistake.


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## SicBith (Jan 21, 2008)

Opus51569 said:


> Paraphrasing from today's stage.
> 
> "There's Malecarne in the breakaway. 'Malecarne', in Italian, means 'bad meat'."
> 
> How can you not love that?


That was brilliant. I have noticed Phil slipping a little bit, but they are doing play by play from a booth at the finish line looking at the same footage we are with no commentary delay. Pretty tough. Yep they getting older, but they are one of the things America has grown to love about pro cycling. Imagine if we had Terry Bradshaw doing it. F'in bad meat.... i had coffee coming out my nose. I wonder if that guy was on Saxo Bank in 2010?


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## JSR (Feb 27, 2006)

Marc said:


> they have to spew out the steroid-producting title sponsor.


You might want to google that one.


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## Marc (Jan 23, 2005)

iclypso said:


> Case in point, today Tyler Farrar was called Tyler Hamilton. Took a second for me to process that mistake.


Today they mis-named Greipel on the sprint to the line.


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## 55x11 (Apr 24, 2006)

stumpbumper said:


> To me, Phil and Paul are the TDF and I don't believe anyone else could come close to filling their shoes. I really enjoy them and if they or Bobke ever depart it just won't be the same.
> 
> But if Phil screams out one more time "Mark Cavendish--fastest in the world" or "World Champion Mark Cavendish" I'm gonna go throw up. :mad2:


some of you guys are so easily annoyed. So they do make an occasional mistake in identifying a rider and they misspeak sometimes (mostly Phil) but does it really bother you all that much? Mark Cavendish IS the current world champion, and AMGEN Tour of California is called that because, well, that's what it's called. 

I like their commentary. In the past morning shows were voiced over by Phil and Paul and evening re-runs were done by Bobke and maybe Trautwig or someone else. What a big difference - Paul and Phil were soooo much better. They know their stuff and know how to keep the finish exciting. It is very difficult to keep talking for 3 hours straight especially if nothing interesting is happening, so I would cut them some slack if they misspeak once or twice, especially if it's obvious (like calling Goss "Greipel" in intermediate sprints or saying that Hutarovich rides for Katyusha, which is what they said this morning). Just use your own "awesome" knowledge of pro cycling to substitute for their mistakes.


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## Dwayne Barry (Feb 16, 2003)

Personally I find Phil's ability to sound surprised and flabbergasted by the crashes in the first week of the Tour amazing. At least this year I haven't heard him making it sound like this is unusual.


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## JackDaniels (Oct 4, 2011)

I don't know my favorite but "Tejay van Garderen, the american with the dutch sounding name" is really getting old.

"Levi Leipheimer, the american with the nazi sounding name."


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## flyrunride (May 2, 2012)

:thumbsup:I love Phil's comments during sprints... especially when cav wins... "The Manx Missile"... "The Isle of Man" ... "The fastest man in the world!!!"....:blush2:


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## steelbikerider (Feb 7, 2005)

Watch an NFL game or any pro sport with the captions on. The commentating is always full of mistakes, misidentified athletes, horribly mangled phrases, grunts, sound effects and wrong info. And these are stadium sports with multiple cameras and a limited field of play. After watching the TDF for a week or so, its gets easier because the rider positions in the peleton are more established but the camera angles, small numbers and helmets still make it hard to quickly id riders.
Phil and Paul are still much better than any of the other commentators around. Schlanger and GoGo were intolerable in the last 2-3 kms before a field sprint. 
My favorite Phil comment from many years ago was about rider trying to not lose too much time on the last climb of an Alpine stage when Phil said "he's suffering quite nicely".


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## ti-triodes (Aug 14, 2006)

I love these threads every Tour. Seriously, there are tears streaming down my face from laughing so hard. Phil is one of a kind.

I know I'll miss him when he retires.


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## ohvrolla (Aug 2, 2009)

This is the steepest part of the climb and I'm afraid it gets steeper later on.


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## pr0230 (Jun 4, 2004)

*He's Cracked*



adam_mac84 said:


> liked that one too


Love when someone has dropped... He's Cracked !!!

Vin - Nuke- er- off... actually can't stand to hear it...

Cheeky Move!


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## 1LaneLam (Jun 19, 2012)

"These are desperate moments!" 

"The front group is dangling out there like a carrot in front of a donkey." - Stage 6


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## EWT (Jul 3, 2011)

If they predict a break may be able to stay away in the last couple of kilometers of a race, the guys in the break may as well sit up and quit right then. At least Phil and Paul can do the mile to kilometer conversion correctly unlike Mr. "1 kilometer = 1/2 a mile" Roll.


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## RRRoubaix (Aug 27, 2008)

iclypso said:


> Case in point, today Tyler Farrar was called Tyler Hamilton. Took a second for me to process that mistake.


Yeah, that one was pretty bad. I think Paul realized what Phil said, but didn't bother correcting him.
Was it the day before when Sagan had endo'd in a crash? They played it over and over, each time Phil and Paul saying it was Vincenzo Nibali or Ivan Basso. No dudes- look at the GREEN jersey! See how it's not the weird poisonous green of "leaky-gas"?

Then in yesterday's absolutely massive crash-fest, they were calling a downed rider -very clearly in a FdJ kit- Boassen-Hagen.

Yes, I will miss them when they're gone.
Yes, they are the voices of the tour.
Hell, even all their mistakes are endearing in the end.


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## Fignon's Barber (Mar 2, 2004)

phil and paul do a great job. they fill air time and keep it entertaining on these long flat stages, which isn't that easy to do. how can you not love them?


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## flyrunride (May 2, 2012)

LOL! I remember this one :thumbsup:



1LaneLam said:


> "These are desperate moments!"
> 
> "The front group is dangling out there like a carrot in front of a donkey." - Stage 6


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## Cygnus (Nov 26, 2004)

consistent overestimates of speed and percent grade.


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## The Tedinator (Mar 12, 2004)

What? You guys didn't enjoy Marcus "Backstedt" pulling on the front for BMC today?


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## Dwayne Barry (Feb 16, 2003)

ohvrolla said:


> This is the steepest part of the climb and I'm afraid it gets steeper later on.


Phil did this today, but I can't remember the particulars just that the second part of the sentence completely contradicted the first part.


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## captain stubbing (Mar 30, 2011)

last year he kept on referring to nicholas roche as stephen roche and now this year he is referrring to dan martin as neil martin!

an older beauty i remember....kolobnev doesn't win many races, last time was at the beijing olympics when he won the silver medal.


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## crankee (Aug 2, 2003)

Phil talking about Stage 8's Col de la Croix climb: "It's very steep. It's 14% increasing to 11 in places." Ya gotta love him.


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## Kodi Crescent (Aug 3, 2011)

I can appreciate the difficulties of getting old and trying to get it right while on live TV. I'll miss these guys when they're gone.

I didn't get to see all of Stage 8, but there was a shot of some cows running. One of them commented about the milk from the cows being used to make fine Swiss chocolates. The other said they were only going to produce curdled milk if they kept running like that. What's not to love?


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## Rob (Mar 3, 2004)

Paul is young (56), Phil is almost 69. I'll miss him when he hangs it up. He is the voice of bicycle racing to me.


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## ti-triodes (Aug 14, 2006)

A couple of Stage 8 moments

With a helicopter shot of some horses being led around:

"it's a very horsey area"


During a rider profile of Cadel:

"147 lbs. A good weight to ride around in"


Seriously, this is priceless!


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## bayAreaDude (Apr 13, 2012)

I wish Phil was my dad.


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## 1LaneLam (Jun 19, 2012)

Phil is priceless! The man knows his stuff even if he gets riders' names wrong! I love hearing him talk about every town and building the peleton passes by.


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