“Napoleon Bonaparte, Charles de Gaulle, Jacques Chirac, Bernard Hinault, Brigitte Bardot. Francois Hollande your boys took a hell of a beating!”

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In honour of one of sport’s legendary commentaries and to commemorate British success in the Tour de France. See you all on the road on #yellowsunday

“Napoleon Bonaparte, Charles de Gaulle, Jacques Chirac, Nicolas Sarkozy, Bernard Hinault, Brigitte Bardot, we have beaten them all, we have beaten them all. Francois Hollande can you hear me? Francois Hollande your boys took a hell of a beating!”

Going to tweet this over to Eurosport – sadly as an international broadcaster I’m sure David Harmon is far too professional these days to yell this when Cavendish hits the front on the Champs tomorrow, but one could dream.

Bjørge Lillelien, Norwegian sports journalist and commentator made the original when he commentated on Norway’s 2-1 victory against England in a World Cup qualifier in Oslo on 9 September 1981. At the end of the match, alternating between English and Norwegian, he proclaimed (in Norwegian) “We are best in the world! We have beaten England! England, birthplace of giants”, before taunting a roll call of famous English people.

“Lord Nelson, Lord Beaverbrook, Sir Winston Churchill, Sir Anthony Eden, Clement Attlee, Henry Cooper, Lady Diana, vi har slått dem alle sammen, vi har slått dem alle sammen [we have beaten them all, we have beaten them all]. Maggie Thatcher, can you hear me? Maggie Thatcher […] your boys took a hell of a beating! Your boys took a hell of a beating!”

Wikipedia has a good list of other parodies and a link to the original commentary which is brilliant. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bj%C3%B8rge_Lillelien

 

1 thought on ““Napoleon Bonaparte, Charles de Gaulle, Jacques Chirac, Bernard Hinault, Brigitte Bardot. Francois Hollande your boys took a hell of a beating!””

  1. Sad to see my compatriot Cadel out of the running this year (and likely now to be close to the end of a great career). But Porte and Rogers can at least share a little of Sky’s glory. Wiggins and Sky were just far too good. They deserved their win, but unfortunately it made for dull second and third weeks of the Tour. Like the old US Postal days.

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