Paul Sherwen is generally seen as Phil Liggett’s counter-point, dutifully keeping the iconic duo’s race commentary on course, helping to convey to the English-speaking world the sport of Professional Cycling. Liggett, of course, has undeniably helped shape this great sport for Anglophones across the globe, having been the English voice of this sport since before I was born – and for that I’m eternally grateful to him; merely the sound of his voice warms the cockles of my cold, black heart. But as much as he is inextricably bound to the sport, the last time he got a fact right must have also been before I was born, if he ever has.
The balance Liggett’s special breed of factual rigor is Paul Sherwen. Not only does he have the insight of an ex-pro with which to season his commentary, he has several other highly technical analytical tools at his disposal, such as actually watching the race. Furthermore, Paul is able to counter Uncle Phil’s constitution under pressure – which resembles that of a knock-kneed Rhode Island Red in a washing machine on a delicates/knits cycle – with his Sprinter’s Cool. Whereas Phil can be heard squawking and clucking incomprehensibly with excitement as a race unfolds, Paul peppers the commentary with self-deprecating jokes about his own career and adds a Swahili proverb or two that might be helpful for the riders, were they only able to hear him.
In this current role of his, as the commentary equivalent of Autocorrect on Liggett’s iPhone, it is easy to forget that Paul was among the most respected riders of his day. Seen here stringing out a bunch (in complete Rule Compliance, I might add) reminds me of the various tales of tenacity that earned him the respect not only of his fellow riders, but of race organizers.
One such example is of the 1985 Tour de France when Sherwen, a domestique with no chance at the overall, crashed in the opening kilometers of a Pyrenean stage and was left to fend for himself while Bernard Hinault raced for the win at the front, making small children of grown men. Refusing to give up, Sherwen limped through the stage alone, accompanied only by a single Gendarme’s motorcycle. More than an hour after the stage winner and well outside the time limit, he finished the stage. The race jury, moved by his resolve to finish the stage, reinstated him and allowed him to continue on in the Tour. In a word, respect.
I think of all the people in the cycling world I most admire, it has to be Paul Sherwen.
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Nice one, roadslave! Pretty cool you can trace your birth as a Velominatus to a single day. And so recently, now you are all in.
Mine was a bit slower, a used road bike here, some used shorts with a chamois there (I know, but hey $2 at the thrift store was pretty cool to a guy riding in boxer briefs), an ebayed jersey with pockets...
Now I can't imagine my life without cycling. I too played a ton of other sports growing up & even played through college. The only one I still play is a bit of soccer twice a week. What I love about cycling is that it allows me to be as competitive as I desire. I used to be extremely competitive, but now I just don't have that same fire to push, shove, grind for it. But, on the bike I can push myself as hard as I want when solo, head to a group ride if I want to mix it up there, and now I'm starting my first CX season.
I was lost for a few years after college, need a sport to keep me going but hadn't yet chipped away my Velominati-layers.
It feels good to have uncovered my bedrock!
@wiscot
Actually, they've done it pretty regularly; a road stage in the morning and a TTT in the afternoon...as recently as 1990, I think.
The 1978 bit was also kind of a last-straw. The riders had been involved in long transfers where the team busses were coming down from mountain-top finishes along with all the other spectator traffic, sitting there for hours in their team busses/cars as they crawled off the mountain. They'd get in to the hotel late at night, not having had dinner or their massages, and not get to sleep until 2am or later. Then it's up at 5am for an early race start and pretty soon you find yourself in a rider protest.
What's amazing is that Hinault was not yet the Patron at that stage; he just seemed to fall into that role naturally. The other riders were fidgety and nervous, while Hinault just stood there like a rock, nearly motionless.
@Jeff in PetroMetro, @wiscot
Oops.
@scaler911
Haven't you heard? We're all a bunch of twats. Check with some of the sage postsers over on The Rules.
@roadslave
Amazing, awesome. In some ways, I wish I could remember the day for me. I started cycling to help stay fit for my focus at the time, Nordic Skiing. I was quite good, too - planned my whole life around it - training for the Olympics and all that. There wasn't a question in my mind that I would win a Gold Medal in the 50k. Since I was 8 years old, I had been training for that.
Then, one day - and I remember exactly where I was, walking up the hill to my parent's house - I realized it was Fall and I would be hanging up my bike to start skiing again soon. And I felt sad about it. That was the day I realized I was a cyclist, not a skier. And bit by bit, all that focus on skiing just faded away.
Never went to the Olympics, never was nearly as good at cycling as I was at skiing, but I loved it so much more. That's passion. It has nothing to do with how good you're actually at something; it has to do with how much you love it. That's the point that all the douchenozzles who read The Rules and then tell us to fuck off are missing.
Passion and competency are totally unrelated.
@frank... I hear ya, buddy. A bit of Lemond in you (old skool Lemond, I say quickly)? didn't he take up cycling as a way of keeping fit for (girly downhill) skiing (not the hard x-country stuff).
I think passion is an over-used phrase, particularly in the corporate world "We are PASSIONATE about selling office goods" etc.)... My wife, who is way out of my league, works in the art world, and she giggles everytime we see something like that... In her world (aka, paintings of the "Passion of Christ" etc.) passion means suffering... it means wanting something so much that it comes at a cost or a sacrifice (think OCD and neatness)... it's nice to see in your post above what I think is the correct usage... I think you have it fucken spot on:
"never was nearly as good at cycling as I was at skiing, but I loved it so much more... passion and competency are totally unrelated" AMerckx, brother
Doesn't mean we can't try to be like the pros and Look Fantastic, or talk shit about cycles all day... no matter what Adrian or Stephan say.
@frank
Passion and competency are totally unrelated.
I have a new motto. Marvellous. (Oli might suggest that the word is 'competence'. But I feel more passionert about 'competency'.)
@frank
Don't bother me right now, I'm riding, and that's all that matters. Oh shit, why am I even here, I should get back to just riding. Never liked hanging around here anyway. I heard the founder is a douche.
@frank
That's a great photo.
@roadslave
A-fucking-Merckx