So who are we to believe?

[Skillgannon]

I thought Simoni rode great in the Giro last year.

As Cunego has shown...the Giro and the Tour are completly different ballgames.

[Ant]

track & field (who really watches that?)

Me if it's the only sport on TV

[HTFU]

Who has access to this info: The time to climb just alpe d'huez this year vs years past in the tour? Im curious if people were a lot faster in the serious doping days, and when armstrong juiced his way to the top.

[CharlesM]

There's your rub.


Cycling is an easy target to beat on. The entire sport runs on damn near the budget for a single F-1 team.

And do you see the authorities taking FIFA to task? Hell no. They don't dare, because it's a massive money machine that can shove a 3 ton weenie up your a$$.

The sport is so weak that it allows it's self to be bullied.


I'm not saying cycling isn't deserving of some of the ass kicking it takes. I'm saying it's not due the percentage of the focus it gets. But it's simply too weak to stand up for it's self so far...

I think if the teams all get programs like CSC, Garmin, Columbia etc, they'll be a lot better off.

The other sports are not clean, they simply maintain a more clean and professional image through controling the athletes and the story.

[Hyde]

I thought Simoni rode great in the Giro last year.

As Cunego has shown...the Giro and the Tour are completly different ballgames.

I'm trying to compare Simoni in last years giro to this years giro.

[Hyde]

Who has access to this info: The time to climb just alpe d'huez this year vs years past in the tour? Im curious if people were a lot faster in the serious doping days, and when armstrong juiced his way to the top.

The record up alp is held by Pantani If we continue in a somewhat clean race atmosphere that record may never be broken. As far as the doping years as opposed to this year, it would be interesting to see the numbers.

[DocRay]

Who has access to this info: The time to climb just alpe d'huez this year vs years past in the tour? Im curious if people were a lot faster in the serious doping days, and when armstrong juiced his way to the top.

Do people in this forum even understand cycling? There is a big difference between a 14K time trial up the alp and the July 23rd stage.

If you want to figure out if a US Postal member juiced, ask Hamilton, or Landis, or Andreu, or Beltran, or...

[Auk]

Not to mention that the year Pantani set the record, the stage was, basically, a flat run-in to the start of the climb.

[HTFU]

Who has access to this info: The time to climb just alpe d'huez this year vs years past in the tour? Im curious if people were a lot faster in the serious doping days, and when armstrong juiced his way to the top.

Do people in this forum even understand cycling? There is a big difference between a 14K time trial up the alp and the July 23rd stage.

If you want to figure out if a US Postal member juiced, ask Hamilton, or Landis, or Andreu, or Beltran, or...

Uhhh, thats why I asked the time up just huez and not the overall stage, and not for a time trial either. Do you even understand what I wrote?

[Auk]

We understand what you wrote, but giving the times is useless, as each time they cimb it is not the same events that lead INTO that climb. Now, if they used the exact same route, over the same distance, over the same climbs prior to hitting the base of the alp, then it would be a useful distinction between the times.

And as for the times, here they are as I've cut/pasted them from another thread.

Sastre's time would rank in 17th in the 'official' standings. The top 10 are:

1 Marco Pantani 37'35 (1997)
2 Lance Armstrong 37'36 (2004)
3 Marco Pantani 38'00 (1994)
4 Lance Armstrong 38'01 (2001)
5 Marco Pantani 38'04 (1995)
6 Jan Ullrich 38'23 (1997)
7 Floyd Landis 38'34 (2006)
8 Andreas Klöden 38'35 (2006)
9 Jan Ullrich 38'37 (2004)
10 Richard Virenque 39'02 (1997)

[HTFU]

The overall stage times are meaningless, but leading up to the alpe I would consider the riders to be sufficiently tired out by the time they reach the base to compare the climbing times between different years. Time trials are obviously excluded.

[Auk]

No, overall stage times are not the point. The overall stage profile is very relative however to the discussion of the time to climb the Alp. The year Pantani set the record, it was pan flat up to the base of the climb. Other years, not so much. This year, not even close.