Phil Liggett, the global doyen of cycling commentary, has announced his (partial) retirement. I spoke to him on Thursday. Fitz : Phil! You’ve just finished covering your 17th Olympics! That must make you – dot three, carry one, subtract two – old enough to remember when the Dead Sea was only sick? Is it that simple equation which caused you to announce that on the day that this is published – Sunday – is not just your birthday, but also the day of your retirement from the Olympics? Phil Liggett with Cadel Evans in 2010.
Liggett predicted Evans would win Le Tour, 13 years before it happened. Credit: Vince Caligiuri PL : Yes. I won’t be at the 2028 Games in Los Angeles because I don’t want to bore people, and I’ll be approaching 85 years of age.
But I will be doing all my other work for the foreseeable future, and so I will be on the Tour de France, which will be my 53rd, and I will be at the Tour Down Under and so on. So not full retirement, but it was certainly nice to be able to read all these kind obituary pieces, and see what people think of you after your “death”! Fitz : How old were you when you became completely engrossed by cycling? And how do you explain its massive attraction to those like me, who try, but just don’t quite get, why people are so absorbed by it? PL : Growing up in regional England, I was totally useless at every other sport. In rugby, they just threw me into touch.
In cricket, I couldn’t bowl. In football, the only goal I score.