By Darren Kane
Depending on your viewpoint, Augusta National is the hallowed ground of world sport. Or Old Trafford. Or maybe Kogarah Oval. But for millions upon millions, the whole of France is a cathedral; its ribbons of tarmac slung onto alpine mountains like discarded string.
If Richie Benaud is the doyen of cricket commentary, Paul Sherwen and Phil Liggett are cycling’s equivalent. They spoke to me this week, as the peloton of the 101st Tour de France passed through the intestines of the Alps, and prepared to tackle the mighty cols of the Pyrenees.
In bloom: The sights and sounds of France are part of the lure of the Tour.Credit: Reuters
Darren Kane: You’ve been commentating together since the halcyon days of Eddy Merckx.
Phil Liggett: We’ve been together 28 years now, and I believe we are the longest running duo in sports television. I’d reported on Paul throughout his pro riding career. In 1986 I heard he was retiring. I asked if he’d like to try television. The next year my TV company decided to go big on the Tour, and we needed a second voice. We’ve been together ever since.
DK: Three decades watching the pendulum of pain hurtle towards the peloton. What keeps you coming back?
PL: This is not a sport made for a television, but it offers spectacular images on the roads of the world. You never see the same race twice. France is a beautiful country, which provides the natural terrain to make the Tour such a great spectacle. And then this year, 5 million spectators over three days through the UK; the two favourites crashed out before halfway. The only thing which stays the same is the 5000kms Paul and I have to drive each year to keep up with the race.
DK: In a way, cheating and the Tour go together like hand in glove. Henri Desgrange, the first race director, declared in 1904 that the second Tour would be the last. Yet 114 years later, here we are. Why has the Tour not rolled down the hill backwards?
Paul Sherwen: So many spectators watch this event for its beauty; its history. The majority of spectators don’t watch another cycling event all year. If you compared the Tour to the Olympics, which is on every four years, there are probably similar percentages in terms of cheating. But people still love the Olympics because they only turn it on once every four years. My gran never thinks about the steroids someone might be using, but she still loves the Olympics. That said, all sports have to fight doping.
DK: Some days the champions dance on the pedals, but on others the kilometres pass like kidney stones. Your most vivid memory of covering the Tour?
PL: 42 years covering the Tour; there are many memories. Getting blown up by ETA [the Basque seperatists] in Spain during the 1992 Tour. The finish to the 1989 race; Laurent Fignon losing to Greg LeMond by eight seconds. I’m standing between them – Laurent crying to my left, LeMond jumping for joy and screaming his lungs out on the right.
DK: Marco Pantani climbed like an angel. Top sprinters can kick in the turbo, open the nitrogen and go boom! Who’s the best all-round cyclist you’ve seen in a grand tour?
PS: I never saw Eddy Merckx at his best, although I raced against him in his last pro year. For mine he would have to be the greatest all-rounder of all time. The next guy who springs immediately to mind is Irishman Sean Kelly. Given the right route, I think he could have won one Tour.
DK: The best Tour stage you’ve witnessed?
PL: There are many. I always enjoy the escapers, who gamble and win. My first Tour in 1973 was won by Luis Ocana. He won all the stages that mattered. Even all this time on, I think the first was perhaps the best.
DK: Pro riders have that knack of being able to ride into their own personal purgatory. What’s the sport’s defining attribute?
PL: Pro cycling is, without doubt, the toughest sport in the world – mentally and physically. I don’t condone doping, but I can understand it. But drugs do not replace the talent of an athlete and the long, lonely hours required to stay in the saddle. The sacrifices riders make in their private lives, and the pain endured on and off the bike. Professional cyclists are special people, who have contracted an incurable fever. They cannot get riding and racing out of their system. They are underpaid, and deserve every praise they get.
DK: Is professional cycling a sport of the future?
PS: The sport offers a new arena every day. So many people write to us commenting on the aerial views and the history of France, not just about a bunch of blokes with their “bums in the air in lycra”.
DK: An ascent of the Tourmalet, or an afternoon trying to stay upright on wet cobbles. Which demands a rider reach deeper into their suitcase of courage?
PL: Cobbles are almost impossible to steer on when wet. The bends, descending the Tourmalet at 100 km/h, are the same in the wet. When you fall on the cobbles you just go “thud”; you don’t slide. When you fall on the Tourmalet, well you just learnt how to fly. The riders possess instinct like no other, that’s why we watch in awe.
DK: Will the GC winner be known by the time the peloton climbs to Hautacam next week?
PS: Vincenzo Nibali is outright favourite. We’ll have a better idea after the Alps and the Pyrenees. I think we’ll know who’s going to win the Tour before the final time trial, but after the first week, well anything can happen. Who could have predicted abandons from both Chris Froome and Alberto Contador.
DK: For 20 years a trident painted on a sliver of road, high in the Pyrenees, has signalled the Tour’s Devil would soon appear. What’s it about the Tour which serves as a magnet for El Diablo, and his mankini-wearing brethren?
PL: The Devil’s not picked up so much by the cameras these days. I don’t know why, but maybe it’s because he has risen from a crackpot performer to more of a business, and the producers purposely cut him out. He used to always appear with 20kms to go. People like the Devil are at all the major races these days. They add to the atmosphere of a unique sport, entertaining the public in bizarre places.
DK: I reckon people learn as much about French chateaux through listening to you as they do about men turning pedals in anger. Do you research these things?
PL: Paul has become "the man" on the sites of the world. We started it as a joke. If a picture of a chateau came up unannounced, we knew we were in pretty safe hands assuming Louis XIV lived there! Nowadays, France has realised the importance of showcasing itself to the 150 million viewers we get daily. We have a detailed book now, but every now and then we still get caught.
Lance Armstrong. Should the investigation into his nefarious activities have been handled with greater confidentiality?
PS: It should have been done a lot quicker, instead of allowing it to slowly eat away at the foundations of the sport. It has hung around for a long time and is still hovering.
DK: Do you think the role played by Armstrong’s team doctors and management, in enabling his doping, has been underplayed?
PS: To me, there hasn’t been total closure yet. There are still a lot of unanswered questions.
DK: How confident are you that cycling is now “clean”?
PS: The more we go forward, the more I believe in the success of the battle. Seeing guys from two or three years ago getting caught is a good sign. There are not too many “weird” performances now. Biological passports are getting rid of the cheaters, and making it harder. Also, the mentality of the youngsters coming through has changed. A few years ago you’d never see 22 or 23-year-olds having a chance. Now they’re right up there, challenging early in their careers.
DK: To wear the "maillot jaune" is to mingle with the gods of cycling. Can Richie Porte wear yellow on entering the Champs-Elysees next weekend?
PS: If Team Sky want Richie Porte to win, they have to keep the pressure off him and see how he gets through the Alps. Then they can begin to strategise. Riding as a “free agent” in the second phase of the race means he doesn’t have the pressure on his shoulders that comes with being a big favourite. Right now, he’s in a good position.
Polishing the crystal ball, what will be the biggest change to professional cycling in the next 20 years?
PS: Cycling shows off a country better than any other sport. I can envisage a real World Tour, linked more into tourism. The support these events, such as the Tour Down Under ... get from multinational followers – it’s phenomenal.
Twitter: @sportslawyer7