"PRO" Cycling Discussion

[jooo]

Nice finish by J.Rod at the end of yesterday's stage.

I didn't see the whole stage - what happened to Evans? He seemed a bit off on stage 4 but to then finish almost 8 minutes down must be a little disheartening after sticking with the favourites in Oman.

[dereksmalls]

I want to believe SKy are clean and I am giving them the benefit of the doubt until proven otherwise. I can sleep well at night in that thought. I do find it fascinating to watch: are they gonna catch them back by slowly increasing tempo or will the break survive? Nail biting stuff in my opinion, did they calculate right or not?

[ticou]

He's a domestique in the sense that Heras was one for LA. And Indurain was one for Delgado (briefly!).

[ichobi]

@daveno7 nah. Key is Sky buys guys to be workers that are outright talents. I can think of 8-9 they have that have higher earning than my #1

@daveno7 their final climb tactics are very intelligent and neuter explosive climbers. But you need 3-4 €600,000+ domestiques to make work.

From Vaughters tweet yesterday.

[erty65]

If it is only financial doping, it's still plain wrong.
In T/A a domestique (Uran) was finishing together with other teams' leaders.

Really?

[Willier]

Nice finish by J.Rod at the end of yesterday's stage.

I didn't see the whole stage - what happened to Evans? He seemed a bit off on stage 4 but to then finish almost 8 minutes down must be a little disheartening after sticking with the favourites in Oman.

Still, it could be worse

[Martin.F]

Does anybody have a Strava segment for yesterdays hillclimb?

[DuncanS]

[Still, it could be worse


Brings new meaning to the term, "ambulance chaser."

[KWalker]

I think you guys are a bit confused as to how much their riders actually make. Only 3 are actually high paid, although they did get Tour bonuses.

How is it financial doping? Have you ever seen how many hundreds millions of dollars are sitting on a baseball or football field at any given moment? Paying people well to do their job isn't a bad thing IMO and maybe other teams should do a better job of enlisting high dollar sponsors and not tarnishing their image/driving them away with poor performance and doping/management debacles.

BMC also has a ton of money and can't produce the results as much.

[micky]

Andy dnf at Tirreno.

[indigo]

Also, wasn't there an Inrng piece a while ago examining which pro-tour teams were the best funded ? Iirc it was Rabobank ..

Sky do have a strong squad, but I think they are successful thanks to being intelligently managed, not just buying the best talent.

[KWalker]

Most of Sky's "talent" wasn't exactly talent when they formed, but people with a lot of potential.

Think of all the domestique help RS could actually buy Cancellara for the classics if they weren't wasting money on a rider who can't even finish a race.

[de zwarten]

In the last 50 years, the ones winning stage races have all been taking doping and nothing has really changed in that aspect. The chances that this dominating team called Sky is doped are far bigger than not. Sky is winning and setting record times at certain climbs with VAM comparable to the very best (doped). It can be that they have the best riders, but the best riders are just the most likely being doped. I realize that it's not nice to hear for the athletes competing in this beautiful sport, but until now, it is reality.
So while one can support his favourite team, it would be very naive to wholeheartedly defend them now as you and me do not know anything about what is happening behind the curtains of the team bus, what is happening on Tenerife or in appartments somewhere in Europe. It seems like nothing has been learned from USPS and Armstrong if reading some of the reactions in this topic.

[twigstim]

Does anybody have a Strava segment for yesterdays hillclimb?

http://app.strava.com/segments/782273

This is the closest match to the exact stage.

[Martin.F]

Twigstim: Thanks! Is the Strava segment longer or shorter than the hillclimb? 5 minutes diff between KOM and Porte is quite a bit!