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Re: "PRO" Cycling Discussion

Posted: Sun Jul 07, 2013 7:35 am
by jooo
I'm so sick of hearing that people are too thin. Y'all just brainwashed because everyone else is getting too fat!

Re: "PRO" Cycling Discussion

Posted: Sun Jul 07, 2013 7:43 am
by airwise
Clubagreenie wrote:I find it "un-natural" for Ritchie Porte to pull for a good deal of time then accelerate up past into second with a smile on his face .... Froome .. well great climber , looks like a prey mantis on his bike and awkward , big effort !!!... clean ? Na you would have to be naïve to think that .
Team Sky is very similar to Postal in a lot of ways ... maybe they have a good Dr. too


One point I would make is that Sky are incredibly professional. When I see the utter lack of professionalism in many European Pro teams, I'm not overly surprised Sky are able to be ahead of them.

As for yesterday's performance, it was no more exceptional than Saxo's on the Tourmalet in 2010 - maybe less so given the timing of the stage in the scheme of things.

Big gaps could very easily be explained in part by the heat - look at some of the favourites and their comments (T.J Van Garderen for instance.)

Re: "PRO" Cycling Discussion

Posted: Sun Jul 07, 2013 7:43 am
by Weenie

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Re: "PRO" Cycling Discussion

Posted: Sun Jul 07, 2013 10:05 am
by Guerdi
Image

Picture © Tim de Waele, www.tdwsport.com

Re:

Posted: Sun Jul 07, 2013 12:35 pm
by Leviathan
nm

Re: "PRO" Cycling Discussion

Posted: Sun Jul 07, 2013 1:26 pm
by Kermithimself
airwise wrote:As for yesterday's performance, it was no more exceptional than Saxo's on the Tourmalet in 2010 - maybe less so given the timing of the stage in the scheme of things.


The 2010 Tourmalet stage was won by Andy Schleck just ahead of Contador. They rode alongside eachother for about 12 km's before finishing? The team didn't do that much.

What we saw yesterday was like Riis back in 1996. In a completely different league by Porte and Froome. I would have love to see what Porte could have done on the climb had he not played the teamplayer role and drafting behind Moviestar.

Re: "PRO" Cycling Discussion

Posted: Sun Jul 07, 2013 1:35 pm
by airwise
They rode the Tourmalet at 6w/kg - a climb that is twice as long. Schleck attacked.

Now look at your critical power curve and see what the difference is between your 23 minute threshold and your 50 minute threshold.

Kris Anker rode the lower slopes that day at 6.6 w/kg. Again look at your CPC and compare your 12 minute threshold with your 23 minute one.

Re: "PRO" Cycling Discussion

Posted: Sun Jul 07, 2013 2:29 pm
by tymon_tm
prendrefeu wrote:... heck, EVERYTHING in the world - it's cyclical and the sad thing is people forget the phrase "we've seen this before..." actually has merit. It always had merit, and it always will (regardless if we're talking about doping in sport, global politics, or fashion trends). Each time the same counter-arguments come up and the cycle continues.


very well said.

no matter how hard one would try to broke that circle, he can't possibly win with the human nature. and that very nature is imprinted with patterns, such as tendency to cut corners. or, better say, to cheat

Re: "PRO" Cycling Discussion

Posted: Sun Jul 07, 2013 3:22 pm
by Tinea Pedis
Marvellous for Martin to show how weak the Garmin team is :roll:

Re: "PRO" Cycling Discussion

Posted: Sun Jul 07, 2013 4:17 pm
by tymon_tm
i can't help to think if only they had chased down Martin and Fuglsgang, Kwiatkowski would've won this stage. bummer..

Re: "PRO" Cycling Discussion

Posted: Sun Jul 07, 2013 5:14 pm
by DanW
Going back to yesterday's stage where Froome rode off in to the sunset...

I think the more telling thing is to look at Froome comparatively to the riders present on the day:

Would you really expect Valverde to have the time gap he did to Froome. Probably. Contador? Certainly not. But when you consider Froome and Valverde were the only "team leaders" who were a cut above their domestiques then the reality is probably that Froome was the only GC guy to really perform (and had one of his best days- very early in the Tour no less without too much already in the legs) and the other GC had a particularly hard/ bad day. Sky as a team knackered everyone and the weather had a very big helping hand no doubt.

Basically, Froome had a very good day when all others suffered and Froome made the most of it. Typical SKY.

SKY have a knack of making everything work perfectly which exposes others little faults and mistakes. Wiggins Tour win is a decent example where he didn't do anything especially spectacular but didn't give anything away either and was lucky to not necessarily be against the strongest competitors. Everything was well planned and luckily came together in the end.

That being said, Froome comes across as especially "ambitious" in some of his comments and Wiggins fall outs which leads me to wonder if he could be tempted by short cuts...

Re: "PRO" Cycling Discussion

Posted: Sun Jul 07, 2013 6:09 pm
by KWalker
Tinea Pedis wrote:Marvellous for Martin to show how weak the Garmin team is :roll:

Since this is directed at me and you seemingly can't read clear English, I never said the riders on the team were weak, I said that they were not a threat to Sky or any team with GC ambitions. I quoted Vaughters as saying that they would give Sky a run for their money as my reference. Is this clear enough? Even when I broke down each rider I said Martin was a great rider, but my point was that they wouldn't have a team capable of, like Vaughters said, giving Sky any trouble in the GC battle.

Anything else you need me to clarify for you or is being smug more fun?

Re: "PRO" Cycling Discussion

Posted: Sun Jul 07, 2013 6:10 pm
by KWalker
Sky looked very human today. Froome climbed slower, Porte got blown out of the water, and their team was fairly isolated in response to the barrage of firepower against them. I'd be much more suspicious if they rode today just like they rode yesterday.

Re: "PRO" Cycling Discussion

Posted: Sun Jul 07, 2013 6:50 pm
by prendrefeu
Sorry, still suspicious of Sky as a whole. I really don't care if there's a subtle favoritism from some people because they know someone on the team (not just you Karsten, there are others here who personally know people riding for Sky) or do to nationalism. I'm wondering if any bookies out there placing the over/under on when their drug of choice or doping program will get revealed. Yeah, I wrote it. There it is.

Anyway, I'm glad to see some teams take an aggressive, attacking method against the yellow jersey wearer from the start. It's a refreshing change from tradition, I think, and I hope it continues into the flat stages as well... Perhaps it's less likely, but it would make the flatter stages certainly more interesting, even though I'll be off riding while it is on air and then catch the last few minutes when I return back home, hoping to see those 'instant flashbacks!' of key moments in the stage.

Considering how far back Pinot and a few other French teams have found themselves after the day in heat (Étape 7), some of them might as well go into "ridiculous attack" mode next week that will cover both television-camera time and throw a few potential wrenches into the plans of the lead teams, such as Sky, as their methods can open doors for other methods of attack by riders in contention for various jerseys.

Re: "PRO" Cycling Discussion

Posted: Sun Jul 07, 2013 7:13 pm
by KWalker
I'm not saying Sky is clean, but whatever it is they have I'm guessing its not illegal yet.

Re: "PRO" Cycling Discussion

Posted: Sun Jul 07, 2013 7:13 pm
by Weenie

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Re: "PRO" Cycling Discussion

Posted: Sun Jul 07, 2013 7:26 pm
by mdcreed81
Hey boys. I did a 1 hour podcast with JV where he talks about the tour team and the like. Also just uploaded another podcast with Katie compton.
you can find it on itunes here https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/ope ... d668239719

Also, there is another podcast where we talk the tour pretty much every stage. that's here
https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/rac ... d668459898

In the latest one we talk about sky's domination.