I went down to Lawrence with Bill and Trudi last night to eat with my team mates and have a couple beers.  We hadn’t gotten together this year and it was nice to catch up some. We were waiting at Freestate Brewery, but it was going to be over an hour so we ended up down the street eating Mexican food.

Anyway, after dinner we were all talking about how hard it was to train since there has been ice and snow on the roads for the last couple weeks.  Eventually, my two young team mates, Benn Stover and Garrick Valverde started talking about riding Zwift.  A couple days ago, a few guys left comments that I should try Zwift to help shorten the perceived trainer times.

Zwift is a 3D cycling app that allows a rider to participate with other riders on the internet.  It has different courses and you can race or just ride different places.

I’ve known about Zwift for quite a while.  My friend, Mike McCarthy sent me an email a couple years ago about trying it out  Mike was World Champions in pursuit and is in the Bicycling Hall of Fame.  It was in the prototype phase then and since I didn’t really think I’d ride a trainer that much, I just skipped it completely.

Now I’m sitting at a team dinner and listening to Garrick say that he was riding along the coast and a group of 60 guys blew by him and he had to chase them all day.  It was funnier than shit. Benn said the same thing, he was “riding” along with one other guy and the guy jumped him.  It is so weird listening to them talk like it was really happening when in reality, it is an interactive video game.

Anyway, I think I might have to try it out some, just to keep up to speed with current trends.  It would be like not knowing about Strava as a cyclist, so it is nearly mandatory to at least get up to speed with it.  It you go to the Zwift website, you can get a couple weeks free.  I think if you’re a Strava premium member, that expands to two months.  That would get you most of the way through the winter, unless you live on the Canadian border.

Anyway, I’ll let you know when, or if, I try it out.  I rode outside yesterday for a couple hours and have a scheduled ride again today at 12:30.  It is supposed to be nearly 40 today, but windy once again.

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.