LondonLax Posted July 16, 2016 Share Posted July 16, 2016 3 hours ago, HanoiVillan said: The fact that the organisers can apply common sense, instead of blindly sticking to rules that nobody wants, is frankly one of the best things about the sport. Although I agree the outcome was the best they could have applied it was a mess of their own making. The organisation of the tour does seem to be a bit amateurish at times, I can understand it must be a logistical nightmare with the size of the stages and the number of people watching but still... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HanoiVillan Posted July 24, 2016 Share Posted July 24, 2016 Well, Froome wins again as everyone knew he would, at least from the end of the first week onwards. Froome is an incredible cyclist, but he's also riding for an incredible, and more importantly, incredibly rich, team. Here are some of the riders Sky could afford to leave at home over the last three weeks: Michal Kwiatkowski (former World Champion) Leopold Konig (former Grand Tour top 10) Lars Petter Nordhaug Philip Deignan Benat Intxausti Nicolas Roche The first two of those riders would have got into every other team in the peloton. For some of the weaker teams, every one of those six riders would have made their starting nine. That's not to mention their three sprinters, all of whom stayed home as well. It's a strength in depth that must be so depressing for every other team. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LondonLax Posted July 24, 2016 Share Posted July 24, 2016 The onus is on other teams to catch up though, that is how the sport improves. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HanoiVillan Posted July 24, 2016 Share Posted July 24, 2016 Well, yes and no to that. We've seen before that pro cycling can enter a period where one team is so much better than the others - Renault, Banesto, US Postal - that other teams simply can't catch up for a long period. I'm not suggesting there's anything can be done about this, by the way, but we're probably at the start of a very long period of Sky dominance. They've also just poached Diego Rosa for next season, so that's Astana's strongest mountain domestique gone. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HanoiVillan Posted July 24, 2016 Share Posted July 24, 2016 Looks like Prudhomme is not too thrilled by the Sky train: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LondonLax Posted July 25, 2016 Share Posted July 25, 2016 It's a bit like Formula 1, and even football for that matter, where it can be quite easy for a team to dominate for a period. Success breeds success in sports with very few measures designed to create a level playing field (salary caps, standardized machines etc) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HanoiVillan Posted July 25, 2016 Share Posted July 25, 2016 I agree. There's actually quite a few similarities between Sky and Bayern Munich IMO, even down to the 'kneecapping the rivals' transfer strategy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
villakram Posted July 25, 2016 Share Posted July 25, 2016 Froome is indeed incredible: Elite in the mountains and the ITT! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikeyp102 Posted March 5, 2018 Share Posted March 5, 2018 Some really depressing news coming out of the sport today. Oh oh The Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) select committee's report into combatting doping is a devastating blow to the reputations of some of the biggest names in British sport. To Lord Coe, the most powerful figure in world athletics and architect of the London 2012 Olympic Games, who is accused by the select committee of misleading parliament about when he first knew of corruption allegations. To British Cycling, for so long the country's best-funded, most successful and respected sports governing body, where a "serious failure" to keep basic medical records, was deemed "unprofessional and inexcusable". And to UK Athletics, whose former chief medical officer Dr Rob Chakraverty - now the Football Association's chief doctor for the senior men's England football team - the MPs want investigated by the General Medical Council (GMC), after being "shocked" he gave an injection of L-carnitine to athlete Sir Mo Farah without recording the dose on medical records. But it is Sir Bradley Wiggins - Britain's first winner of the Tour de France and most decorated Olympian - and his former boss Sir Dave Brailsford - the man credited with turning cycling into the driving force behind Britain's ascent into an Olympic superpower, and in charge of the sport's dominant team - for whom the 50-odd pages make for particularly grim reading. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kuwabatake Sanjuro Posted March 5, 2018 Share Posted March 5, 2018 Nothing new there really, with all of what is known and has come out about British Cycling/Team Sky over the past few years it would take some serious gullibility to believe they were anything other than dirty. Same story with Farrah, the BBC's athtletic coverage does be seriously North Koreanesque and I find it amusing watching the likes of Radcliffe cheerlead. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kuwabatake Sanjuro Posted March 5, 2018 Share Posted March 5, 2018 I do hope some of the recommendations are brought through though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
veloman Posted March 5, 2018 Share Posted March 5, 2018 The Tiernan-Locke person has a real axe to grind as he was chucked off Team Sky as his biological passport showed discrepancies which has NOT happened to Wiggins. The asthma drug he was prescribed is an iffy steroid but quite legal if declared AFAIK. Before I took up bike racing I suffered from terrible asthma and was given that stuff he was given under the name Kenalog; it was incredibly effective but GP would only give it once a year and only reluctantly the next year. I can't help but feel someone has got it in for Wiggins. Hope I'm right about it all but then I hoped Armstrong was innocent ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LakotaDakota Posted March 5, 2018 Share Posted March 5, 2018 if you have severe asthma, Heart issues or anything else that requires extreme medication then perhaps being a top athlete isn't for you... A job / lifestyle that requires you to cycle hundreds of miles per day, swim/run hundreds of miles per week / play tennis for hours every day really isn't the most sensible option. There's a whole bunch of good stuff that is all legal under TUE yet people get banned for the stupidest things. If you need an otherwise banned substance in order to compete you should not be competing. Froome is exactly the same, The difference is he appears to have got caught out by having twice the daily permitted amount of salbutamol in his system by 5pm on a day where he was losing his lead... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kuwabatake Sanjuro Posted July 5, 2018 Share Posted July 5, 2018 It is going to be some ugly 3 weeks for Sky and Froome, it will actually make the TDF worth watching more so I see the sense in the corruption. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LondonLax Posted July 5, 2018 Share Posted July 5, 2018 On 06/03/2018 at 09:31, LakotaDakota said: if you have severe asthma, Heart issues or anything else that requires extreme medication then perhaps being a top athlete isn't for you... A job / lifestyle that requires you to cycle hundreds of miles per day, swim/run hundreds of miles per week / play tennis for hours every day really isn't the most sensible option. There's a whole bunch of good stuff that is all legal under TUE yet people get banned for the stupidest things. If you need an otherwise banned substance in order to compete you should not be competing. Froome is exactly the same, The difference is he appears to have got caught out by having twice the daily permitted amount of salbutamol in his system by 5pm on a day where he was losing his lead... A lot of professional athletes suffer from 'exercise induced asthma'. They were unaffected by asthma at the start of their careers but it is quite common to develop it with the extreme regime modern athletes put themselves though. Conversely I also know of professional athletes who got started in their sport because they were asthmatics as children and were prescribed exercise to help strengthen their lungs. I don't think it would work to ban asthma medication and I don't really see a benefit from doing so. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HanoiVillan Posted July 5, 2018 Share Posted July 5, 2018 Really struggling to get excited about the TdF this year, as I expect it to be yet another Froome procession (as long as he survives the cobbles, anyway). I don't think he should be racing, I don't think he should have been allowed to race the Giro, and I think until he and Sky get the uppance which should righteously be coming I will find it hard to love the sport again. However, I will be doing a Fantasy league on velogames, and if anyone wants to join the league code is 762671116. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
veloman Posted July 19, 2018 Share Posted July 19, 2018 Which Vt'ers are watching the Tour ? Which channel do you prefer , Eurosport or ITV 4 ? And finally , what the hell are SKY going to do with the Froome/Thomas situation. I have actually met Geraint Thomas at a wedding and you couldn't meet a more down to Earth individual; admittedly he was mainly a track (pursuit) rider then so don't know if success has changed him but suspect (and hope )not. The French don't seem too impressed do they - hence the booing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maqroll Posted July 20, 2018 Share Posted July 20, 2018 What sort of Welsh accent does Geraint Thomas have? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maqroll Posted July 20, 2018 Share Posted July 20, 2018 Excellent stage. Bardet looks like a star. But are they all doping? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
villakram Posted July 20, 2018 Share Posted July 20, 2018 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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