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Post Tour de France 2001 The interest in David Duffield reached
fever pitch toward the end of the Tour de France 2001. Emails were
received and the best ones are below for your enjoyment.
From:
Agreeable Richard
Marco Richard Nice one Richard. For all our readers out there it was Richard and his wife Jenny who provided the initial spark for this website. Speaking to them I realised that it wasn't just me that was a big Duffield fan. For all these years I kept my obsession quiet thinking it was just me that was a bit strange and then after meeting these two I realised that there were loads of us out there. It was only fitting therefore that the two of them finally got to meet DD in the Pyrenees in 2001.
From:
Neil Great site, I reckon old
Duffers is the natural successor to Murray Walker never mind what some of
the “po faced” ones say. Neil Smith Blunt and to the point. Unusually so in fact! Thanks Neil - we missed that one as we were still in France and missed a fair bit of commentary.
From:
Trevor A couple more for the
collection: Trevor Thanks Trevor. Have you noticed how a lot of the longer words in the commentary get trunca...
From:
Tim "...Sean Kelly, four times winner of the green jersey, winner of the Tour of Spain, winner of Paris Nice no less than seven times in 1982, 1983, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1987, 1988 twice winner of the Paris Roubaix in 1984 and 1986 twice winner of Milan San Remo in 1986 and 1992 twice winner of the Tour of Lombardy in 1983, 1985, 1991..." means... "You are on your own, dear Listener, I've got my head buried in my reference books and I've no way of knowing, or indeed ever finding out, what's happening in the race at the moment" I also noticed a bit of latin football style commentary (Goooooooooooaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaalllllllllllllllll!!!!!!!!!!!!!) sneaking in at the end of one of the later stages. Tim. Blimey Tim You were fast to be able to write that lot down.
From:
Lance David is a living
re-creation of that other great sports commentator, John Arlott, who used
to fill in the time when the batsmen had 'put up the shutters' at Lords
(Or was it the Oval?) talking about the gasometer next to the
ground! Lance (Northumbrian RC) We should send DD a cake, for when its a bit quiet. Lance, I noticed the description of Paris at the end of the Tour as well. Their was quite a gap between crossing the line and the presentation and you could almost hear the producer shouting down David's earpiece "15 minutes to go - Give 'em some flannel to keep 'em there". At least we got a tourist guide to the city even if it was a bit sketchy!
From:
Martyn Another one of his
favourites is "a great rate of knots" used in "and the
bunch will come thundering down the finishing straight at a great rate of
knots". It becomes ever more apparent that there is a fine line between genius and nutcase!
From:
Keith, USA
As an American who has
suffered through the dearth of cycling coverage in the US I was thrilled
that OLN covered the TDF and the Giro. Phil and Paul do a creditable job
of commentary. The glaring problems with the coverage, however, are two:
first, OLN has "Americanized" its coverage by including Bob
Roll, Kathleen Murphy, and the talking head winner of the year, host Bob
"Big Hair" Varsha. Roll raced bikes but is a foolish boob;
Murphy is an incredibly incompetent pretty face; Bob Varsha is a race car
and motorcycle announcer for God's sake whose efforts at profundity are
laughably inept. ("The Tour de France is the most spectacular
sporting event I have ever witnessed." Yep, it beats watching
motorcycles going around dirt tracks doesn't it Bob!) You're absolutely right - he would never make it in the US. Thats probably why he is so popular over here as things are less commercialised and not so smoothly polished. Glad you had the opportunity to watch Eurosport in France and one day - if Lance keeps on winning you might be lucky and get more sustained coverage of all cycling events back home. Thanks for the email Keith.
From:
Shaun on one of the mountains a
rider looking tired was described as "trying to breath through he's
ears" I like the ears description. Yes we were all over the place in Northern France for the first 3 stages. It was a lot of fun and some of our lot were lucky enough to be taken into a local's house and invited onto his balcony where he had a telly and a lot of nice food. It cost them an Addiscombe jersey and a years free membership but was worth every penny. What a result!
From:
Pete, Slovenia I am an ex-pat Yank living
in Slovenia (not far from Trieste, where Dave and Mike first got their
Bianchis), and a full-fledged Duffield addict! What a pleasure to find all
my favorite Duffieldisms collected and codified in one place! Great stuff! Cheers, Thanks Pete. One of the great things about cycling is how it knows no boundaires and is enjoyed by people of all nationalities. Keep up the spotting and keep in touch.
From:
Pete, Slovenia P.S. - "penny numbers" was the term he used when talking about the number of riders in the TdF from the various countries: "four from country X, three from country Y, and the rest is penny numbers" (i.e. ones and twos). As long as Lance is in yellow and David's in the box, I'm a happy man! Cheers again, Pete Thanks Pete. Do you think DD is happy when Lance is in yellow as well? He does seem to have a penchant for a lot of the English speaking riders doesn't he?
From:
Jonathon Here is an article on the
great man from the Guardian in 2000 : http://www.guardian.co.uk/Archive/Article/0,4273,4035269,00.html She will be won over soon. It always happens with the girlfriends. You'll be coming home from work soon and she will be sat there telling you all the action you missed. And then she will suggest that you both take a holiday in the Alps when the Tour goes through and that you should both go and watch Alpe d'Huez because "This is what bike racing is all about". And she will enjoy it but don't take the bikes with you to ride up the mountain because that will be pushing it a bit too far.
From:
Bengt, Sweeden Hi, I really enjoyed your site. If you need translations Duffield to English imaging the trouble we have had! I am sorry to say that we have lost DD on our Eurosport as they have started to comment cycling in Swedish. He is not bad but he is no DD! I have thougt about buing an extra satellite dish just to be able get Eurosport UK. Do you have any background on the expression "have to see a man about a dog"? Yours Bengt ,Stockholm, Sweden Heja, Heja. Thanks Bengt. I was in Stockholm recently for the Stockholm marathon but thats another story as DD would say. We had Eurosport in the hotel but alas no DD. Still, its better than nothing. "By the way" you could always move your analogue dish slightly to the side to tune into to the Astra satellite that carries English Language Eurosport although this will require a ladder and a trip outside into the rain whenever you want to change channels back to Swedish TV!
From:
Andy I have entered Phil Liggets CTC challenge ride in the Peak District and having just read the latest Comic I am delighted to report that Duffer is taking part. What a Bonus!! Andy, if you get a chance please print out these pages and give them to him if you see him or maybe drop them into his ttricycle saddlebag secretly. If you get to chat with him please report back for all his thoudands of fans who regularly tune in!
From:
podofdanny i think this site > is
what cycling is all about < its obvious you guys are like Fausto Coppi
> go out and ride your bike and ride your bike< and can > reach
speeds of 45kph thats a sniff under 30mph< >tell us about the
showers Sean-is the water always cold< Thanks podofdanny. The whole DD Paris Roubaix thing is thrilling and we always have an Addiscombe party round my house when it comes around.
Thanks everyone for the emails. Please keep sending any info you might have on the great man and for those of you out there who don't like David's style of commentary then in the words of the man himself: "If you can't stand the heat of the kitchen then don't come into it!" Has anyone got any pictures of themselves with David? It would be great if we could display them on here, perhaps with his autograph is someone has that as well.
Other Duffield Pages in The Agreeable World:
We Love David Duffield Intro
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