"PRO" Cycling Discussion

[ultyguy]

Danish sportsprofessor, and bike rider, Lars Nybo is questioning the performance of Froome. Not so much the fact that he rides fast, but the fact that there's a difference of 5.3% down to the closest competitor. At the Olympic 100 meter run it was 1.2% from 1st to 2nd, in the marathon it was 0.34% and triathlon it was 0.16%. The "normal" range is from 0-2%, so a 5.3% is huge.

Um-wat?

He was 29 seconds faster than Quintana up Ventoux, which equates to just under 1% for the climb. Overall in the tour, he is 0.1% ahead of Mollema in total GC time.

You're not serious are you? We're taking w/kg on that parts of the Tour that actually matter (summit finishes and ITT). As I noted 2 pages ago, we have Froome and at 5 minutes we have the next 6 guys w/in 1 minute....right.

Yes, I think we all have the consensus that Bertie was juiced before, all you have to do is look at Verbier 2009 for example. But that itself makes the current comparisons so interesting.

ruskibear- yes, thanks for fixing my English!

[Tapeworm]

I hope some folk here are considering a career change, WADA could use folk who know who's doping and who's not just by looking at them, will help save a lot of time and a lot of unnecessary testing.

Not sure how "knowing" pans out in banning athletes but these are minor issues I am sure.

Witch hunt anyone?

[ultyguy]

'knowing' leads to targeted testing which has come on a bit. It's a burden of proof issue. Sky need to release the files.

[ave]

>He was 29 seconds faster than Quintana up Ventoux

I think Quintana had quite a gap beforehand, didn't he? So that's 29s + 40s or something like that. Or you can view it that in 1400meters (sub 4 minutes?) he got 29 seconds on him.

[Liggero]

happy to see almost everyone agrees on Froome doped; if we have to wait for UCI to solve this situation we are *f##k* up...

I think Froome is slowing himself down, he could have a 10 minutes gap over second rider in the GC already, but he just doesn't need it...

[ave]

Is Froome a clever, intelligent guy? Does anybody know?
I mean, if I were him, I'd certainly hold back a bit, to make it all a bit believable. Like he did in the TT, but that might have been a team call.

[Tapeworm]

Strange, I am sure a little while ago people were calling for the banning of power meters and now it's "release the files". Either everyone has power meters and submits the files to WADA/UCI or it stays the way it is and they can just keep the files to themselves.

As for the targeting... yeah, because they generally skip stage winners and the like.

Burden of proof? Massive load of crap. Proof of what? Excellent performance? Isn't that the point of sporting events? What proof are you looking for?

[MattSoutherden]

I think Quintana had quite a gap beforehand, didn't he? So that's 29s + 40s or something like that. Or you can view it that in 1400meters (sub 4 minutes?) he got 29 seconds on him.

Yes. But up the same climb. Quntana put in his effort early, Froome later. They both started the climb in Bedoin at the same time and finshed 29 seconds apart.

[MattSoutherden]

You're not serious are you? We're taking w/kg on that parts of the Tour that actually matter (summit finishes and ITT)..

So you're saying you know the actual power differentials required for the 100m, triathlon, marathon? Or just the time differentials?

[ultyguy]

Matt- no, I'm referring to you calculating % diffs off total GC time

Tape- I don't say ban them, not in that camp, I say release the data, I loved it in 2011 when we had realtime data for a bit there. But then again, it's not like data can't be manipulated.

[wingguy]

>He was 29 seconds faster than Quintana up Ventoux

I think Quintana had quite a gap beforehand, didn't he? So that's 29s + 40s or something like that. Or you can view it that in 1400meters (sub 4 minutes?) he got 29 seconds on him.

A gap which Quintana made by attacking... on Ventoux.

[wingguy]

Not to mention Quintana (who was actually born at altitude) was absolutely blown at the line and Froome looked like he could have continued to the top of Everest......

He may have looked that way*, but the fact that he needed 5 minutes on oxygen after the finish and almost fainted on the podium tells a slightly different story, no? I can understand being suspicious of the results, but some people seem to be intent on inventing reasons to be suspicious just because they don't like the guy...



* I thought he looked like he'd given it everything and was deep in the hurt locker, but hey ho.

[btompkins0112]

Was that on the extended coverage or something? I didn't see any of that. I was simply commenting on what I saw as they crossed the line and immediately afterward that was available on coverage. I want to believe everyone is clean as much as the next guy, but looking at all of the evidence it is difficult.

[djconnel]

What if Sky's using legal performance enhancement (something not yet illegal)? Like Jacque Anquetil's alleged blood transfusions?

[MikeyT]

http://ca.reuters.com/article/sportsNew ... 9B20130715