2016 'PRO' cycling discussion.

[nathanong87]

the past 3 stages have been unreal. really exciting!

[boysa]

I think a big part of Nibali's strategy involved timing and actually peaking for the end of the race. When he won the Tour, remember, he was crap at the Dauphine and everyone wrote him off. Sure his rivals dropped one by one, but he was the strongest that year... at exactly the right time.

[HammerTime2]

This WW is so highly suspicious of anything Vino is involved with, he has no credibility with me. Maybe years from now, someone on Astana will confess as to just what occurred this past Thursday.

I think the Eurosport guy said something to the effect that Nibali's old acupuncturist was brought in on Thursday. Per http://blogs.wsj.com/dailyfix/2014/07/2 ... upuncture/ , Nibali was getting acupuncture treatments during his victorious 2014 TdF.

Hey, I'm just reporting what I heard. I have no knowledge one way or the other as to whether Nibali's performance was fueled only by bread, water, and acupuncture.

[bikewithnoname]

Yes Scarponi deserves credit in this race

Sticks in my craw a bit to congratulate someone that's on both Ferrari and Fuentes' mailing list to be honest.

Classy ride from Nibbles, looking forwad to seeing him, Chaves and the Dutchman (sorry I can't spell his name) race against each other again in the Vuelta

[Rondje]

I think a big part of Nibali's strategy involved timing and actually peaking for the end of the race. When he won the Tour, remember, he was crap at the Dauphine and everyone wrote him off. Sure his rivals dropped one by one, but he was the strongest that year... at exactly the right time.

The year he won the tour he trashed everyone on the cobble stage in the first week. It's a suprising turn around, not something I expected anymore.

[Vagabond]

The cream finally rose to the top. Nothing suscpicious here to me. Well done Vinnie! Two gutsy excellent efforts in a row. And Kudos to the Dutchman who's name I can't spell either and I'm not going to bother looking up. I've broken ribs in a crash before and there's absolutely no way that I would have done four big climbs in the Alps afterward. He's not a one hit wonder and he'll be on many podiums in the future in my opinion.

[KWalker]

It's sort of how Ryder won the Giro in 2012? I'm blanking on other similar rides although didn't Cadel also have losses in the first two weeks of the 2011 Tour to make up ground on the final few stages in the same way?

[ghisallo2003]

pan y agua y acupuntura

[xena]

I don't know what anabolic chicken Nibs has been taking the last 2 days but I want some.
Just brilliant. Great to see exciting riders like Nibs win.
Astana have been monsters the last year or so. They just don't care and will attack at every opportunity.
They will blow the tour apart.
Great win for Nibs and the old man Scarponi put down the heat " brilliant"
I would love Valverde to just focus on a GT though ,nothing else . He's had some pretty bad luck in the past and it would be great to see him win a Giro or Tour [ tour unlikely]
Bring on the Tour , bring on Aru. Don't let his season fool you . Come the tour he will be ready.

[Sacke]

It's sort of how Ryder won the Giro in 2012? I'm blanking on other similar rides although didn't Cadel also have losses in the first two weeks of the 2011 Tour to make up ground on the final few stages in the same way?

I looked it up, and actually that year, Hesjedal was never more than 31s off the maglia rosa. The Cycling Weekly article that displayed the graphic below, tells the story of a Christian Vandevelde that was the nagging voice in Ryder's ear to keep him at the front of the group all the time.

http://www.cyclingweekly.co.uk/news/lat ... iro-126427


Visibly, without Vandevelde, Hesjedal finds himself in his comfort zone at the back of the group, and loses small chunks of time until nobody considers him a real threat any longer.

This year, the swings in the time gaps were enormous. Kudos to the organisation to plan a route that would made the race exiting to the end.

Let's be fair to Nibali and say that he is clean.

What swings me to doubt him, is the way he races with a certain level of ruthlessness. I can't help but to wonder if he has the same kind of "the end justifies the means" mentality behind the curtains.

Steven Kruijswijk (Spelling: Think Kruiswik, and just add j's after the i's ) seems like the very opposite. He took full accountability for his fall, didn't blame the slippery road, the poor visibility or the wreck-less descending.

Nibali blamed team tactics... then possible health issues... then after being treated by special doctors, rose from the dead and after Kruijswijk crashed out, gained about 2,5 minutes on his closest rival on the two last stages.

Maybe Sicilian anger did elevate his levels, and acupuncture "unblocked" his body. I just can't find myself genuinely rejoicing over the victory.

[tymon_tm]

yeah, Nibali sure is riding under Vino, but shady connections can be drawn for all the big names. Krujswijk and Rabo - nuff said. Valverde... everything from teams, coaches to Puerto, probably Chacha comes as the least suspicious, although most folks would say he comes from god knows where (I know Colombia's about different drugs - coke and coffee, but still), Majka rode for Mr. 60% throughout his whole WT career, Jungels started his career riding along Klodi, Horner, Popo...

IMHO the crucial thing is, as spectacular as this Giro was, it all apeared pretty.. natural I guess. I mean it's perfectly understandable during the course of three weeks one has to have better and worse days - and they all had them. there were no TGV trains up the mountains like last Giro, only hard work of few individuals - like Scarponi or Amador - and some pretty solid team tactics. all in all, it was one of very few stage races I've watched without the feeling smth fishy's going on - if not the only one.

[Rob81]

Chaves in pink vs Nibali at Giro
last day
Italy
I bet you'd loose your bet

told ya

[wingguy]

Sanity check - I don't think Nibali's turnaround was actually that dramatic.

How much he had cracked and was having a bad race was being measured to Kruijswijk. Well, that's irrelevant. Nibali didn't turn it around enough to beat Kruijswijk, without the crash Mr Shoulders would have won by minutes. So that leaves Chaves. After the Paganella/Andalo stage Nibali was 1:43 behind Chaves, of which at least 45 seconds can be put on the ITT mechanical, IMO. So on pure performance he was about 1:00 behind, and then made up 1:50 in the last 2 stages over a much younger rider who's never been in that position in a GT before. I really don't see how that's a suspicious performance.

Quintana made up more time over Chris Froome in the last two stages of the Tour after being much further behind and no-one batted an eyelid.

[wingguy]

What swings me to doubt him, is the way he races with a certain level of ruthlessness. I can't help but to wonder if he has the same kind of "the end justifies the means" mentality behind the curtains.

That's nonsense. You absolutely, 100%, cannot tell who's doping because of their personalities. Especially not their media personalities. The nicest guy in the world could just be a great actor doped to the gills and the biggest anti-social dickhead could be clean as a whistle. It means nothing.

Also, if they did bring in special doctors to dope Nibali as a last resort do you think they'd broadcast that they were bringing in special doctors to look at him? No, they'd keep it quiet, because doping is a secret. That's like the people who propagate the myth that Armstrong only said that he never tested positive, not that he never doped, and it's a complete falsehood. Armstrong said many times that he never doped - because that's what dopers do. They're bare faced liars and they keep secrets.

[Sacke]

Fair enough.

Maybe Nibali has a killer instinct that is necessary to fight through the pain at the end of a GT, and the resilience (and pride) to do everything to prove critics wrong.

Chavez said afterwards that it's just a bike race, and was happy with the end result.

Maybe in a reversed situation Nibali would have fought even harder to keep the jersey by the slimmest margin.


Sent from my HTC One_M8 using Tapatalk