January | 2016 | Steve Tilford

Phil Liggett is announcing down in Australia and is heading over to New Zealand to announce at the Legends of Cycling gala, so the New Zealand Herald thought they would do an interview with him. Man, can Phil put his foot in his mouth nowadays.

I’ve known Phil for a very long time. He was the promoter of the British Milk race the first year I went there over 30 years ago. He is a nice guy and pretty knowledgeable about the sport.

But somewhere he took a 90 degree turn and lost his way. I understand what he thinks his job is and how he feels he needs to place, or align himself, to do that job. But come on.

I believe he would do better for himself if he’d just stick to announcing and quit injecting personal opinions into the mix. He has been pretty adamant about his support of Lance over the years. I guess that is commendable, in some regard, but when you are on the wrong side of the truth, it doesn’t go so well publicly.

To the Herald, Phil said, “I built him up. I created him into a great cyclist, and he was, even though he took drugs.”

This statement is crazy. I’m not sure that a race announcer “can create a great cyclist”. Whoever wins the Tour de France, who previously had already won the World Road Championships, in my view, has already established his abilities. I think just about anyone announcing the Tours, those 7 that Lance won, would have to acknowledge that Lance was better than everyone else. I don’t think any specific person announcing could really take credit for having “built ” Lance up.

It is like Phil is taking credit for making Lance famous or something. I think that Lance did that pretty good himself. On and off the bike.

In my opinion, Phil has stuck by Lance, even when the obvious was obvious. They have a common background and rumors have it that they were in business together. Phil admitted he’d “MC’d his gigs around the world”.

So, he has his loyalty. But Phil, said this now – “I wanted absolute proof before I spoke against him and, despite what they say, they never got the proof.” They never “got the proof”? Where has Phil been the past few years? It is really embarrassing for him.

Anyway, like I said above, I’ve known Phil a long time. He was super nice to me early in my cycling life. When MTB racing was taking off, he flew over to Hawaii and announced the World Cup finals. I helped him out a little getting him up to speed on this aspect of the sport. But then Lance came along and started winning the Tour and then the media jumped on board the road scene.

So, really looking back on it, maybe Lance was the one that built Phil up? Maybe Phil just got mixed up on what he was trying to say and he meant that? I hope so.

I just figured it out. I bet it was mixed up in translation. Phil was getting interviewed by a New Zealand newspaper and he is British.

This video is from 2012. The part about Lance starts around 2 minutes in. Phil is still sticking with his 2012 views it seems.

Yesterday my 2016 luck just continued. And that isn’t a good thing. I decided to go outside and brave the drizzle, wind and cold and ride. I thought I’d just go for an hour or so, but I felt pretty good and decided to just ride into headwind until I felt like turning around. The wind was mainly from the west, but a little north.

Pretty soon I was on a real ride. I felt pretty great, at least for January, and my power was super. So I rode about an hour out against a 30 mph headwind and started back. My average wattage was approaching 300, but I knew that would go down with tailwind.

Fast forward a few miles and I am about 8 miles from home. One hill left. I decided I’d sprint the hill and call it a day. I’m not too big right now hauling through town, mainly because of all the sand on the roads, but also since I really can’t use my left hand, which is my rear brake on my cyclocross bike.

Anyway, I am at the bottom of the hill and get off my seat to sprint and next thing I know I’m going over my bars. I was using the Bar Mitts, so my hands were essentially stuck on my brake levers. That was a pretty weird feeling. Kind of like toeclips for your hands. Before I hit the ground, I realized that my right pedal had broken. But, I was wrong. My right crank arm broke at the pedal spindle.

On Strava, it said I was only going 23.8, but I hit pretty hard. I got up slow, cursing the whole time. I was standing in the middle of the road and a Highway Patrol car pulled up with his lights on. He said he was going at me from the other direction and saw the whole thing. He asked if I was alright and I told him yes, not really knowing if that was true.

He told me he would give me a ride home, but I told him I was okay. I told him my crank arm broke and needed to find my pedal. I thought it should be connected to my shoe, but it wasn’t. The officer got out and helped me look, but it wasn’t around. I thanked him again and he took off.

I decided to call Trudi, but she didn’t answer. She was out riding. I looked for the pedal and piece of crank arm again, but no luck. I had fallen on a bridge and it must have just went off the edge. I walked down the rock pile they had put for erosion, but soon realized I would be frozen by the time I might find it.

So I got on my bike and rode home, left leg only. The first hill I was only climbing about 7 mph and I knew I had 8 miles, so thought it was going to take a while. But I was riding mainly tailwind and when I got on the flats, I was cruising mid 20’s. So, I got home fine. For sure this is the furthest I’ve ever ridden with one leg. It wasn’t so bad. I averaged 186 watts. Maybe I should try it more often?

My bike was a mess. My cranks, obviously, were ruined. The arms had a Quarq power meter attached, so that isn’t good. Plus I destroyed my Bar Mitts and did a number on my Dura-Ace Di2 carbon levers. Plus, lost my right pedal.

Clothing, I destroyed my booties, gloves and thermal jersey. My hat and tights made it out unscathed.

My body could have been worse, but it isn’t great. Of course, I re-injured my thumb. That is a given. But I also broke the ring finger on my same hand, (left). I’m going to head over and get an x-ray this morning to see if it is displaced. Plus another one of my thumb. My left hand is a mess. Plus I tweaked my neck, hitting the ground somewhat headfirst. That will get better I think.

The good part is that I was going pretty well. Was thinking about searching for a race to do. I better put that on the back burner until I figure this all out.

Later yesterday, I drove back over to the crash site and searched for my pedal and crank arm piece for about 30 minutes. It is super bad luck it happened there. I think it went off the bridge and went down between a bunch of rocks. I’m really not that interested in looking anymore.

What are the chances of my crank arm breaking? I guess it happens sometimes. Okay, maybe that is it for the year? I can only hope.