Phil Liggett was an elite amateur racer who turned down a pro contract in order to pursue cycling journalism, and has been covering the sport for more than 40 years. Paul Sherwen actually was a professional bicycle racer. I'm sure that together they still fall far short of bicycle racing knowledge compared to, say, some guy on the internet who reads Bicycling! while sitting on the can, but the rest of us realize they deserve a little respect.

If I was king, P&P critics would be punished by being forced to watch an endless loop of TdF coverage narrated by Sam Posey, John Tesch, and Pierre Salinger. A few hours of that should be enough for even the harshest detractor to understand how far bike racing coverage has come in the U.S. over the past few decades.