2018 PRO thread

[thePrince]

lol the wheels on the thread go round and round....

early season : "zomg cav is so fat , grand tours will be the same as last year... "
during seaosn: "whoa that's thats the most exciting [insert grand tour] i've seen in a while , great racing! "
end of season: "grand tours are so boring, every year is the same"

I agree with you to some extent. Although this year was a little more like:

Giro: omg, Yates might defeat the Sky train by himself...nope, spent too much energy in first two weeks and fade...BAD.
Tour: Does froome really have enough salbutamol to win his 4th straight grand tour? Nope, Sky train left their own behind for a win.
Vuelta: whoa that's thats the most exciting grand tour I've seen in a while, great racing without the Sky train"

I enjoyed all three of them, don't regret watching a second. But outside of one Giro stage, the Vuelta was by the far the most dynamic in the race for the overall...and it's pretty clear that it happened because there wasn't a dominant [Sky] train. Just a bunch of dudes trying to figure out how to outride the next on steep slopes.

[KWalker]

Vuelta has been the shit for 5 years or so at least.

[Vermu]

Vuelta has been the shit for 5 years or so at least.

I’ve been really enjoying last 3. Great racing and really hard, perhaps even too, summit finishes.

Still Giro has been most exciting, followed by Vuelta and Tour has been more or less meh.


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[BdaGhisallo]

That’s a total non sense, do you recall any random guy winning the tour by luck before the 2000s (before generalisation of pm and radios)?
You pay attention to who is in the break, you team up with other teams who have same interest, you decide when to attack based on how you feel the others ... welcome to real cycling, anybody who races in his life know that this will end up in extremely dynamic races.


Envoyé de mon iPhone en utilisant Tapatalk

I would say that Oscar Pereiro in 2006 qualifies. And lucky not because Landis was DQ'd but because he was allowed in a break and gained many minutes. He didn't really feature at the sharp end of the race in the mountains but had enough time to shed some each day and hang on to hold 2nd on the podium, which then became 1st.

[eins4eins]

banning team radios will only give teams like sky an even bigger advantage. they have the money and ressources to inform riders about everything they need to know anyway. they will just put more staff with radios along the road. can't control oder regulate that, but small teams won't be able to afford the same manpower.

[tymon_tm]

lol wat

banning race radios will reduce greatly the possibility to react instantly when stuff happens. mechanical, attack, whatever's going on, riders know it as it happens. your leader can just sit comfy and wait for a good moment - without coms he would have to take more responsibility re: decision making, communicate it himself and quite possibly act on his own too. I believe it would make for a bit bigger time gaps when someone attacks, and smaller when someone suffers a mechanical or a puncture.

[BdaGhisallo]

I don't know exactly how it would be accomplished with regard to radios and safety but I think we should ultimately strive to get back to the place where riders are largely making the in the moment tactical decisions when the race is on. Team leaders and team road captains should be playing more of a role in that, imo.

[tymon_tm]

but they are. problem is - they're influenced (or rather: ordered) by team DSs. they are the actual team captains, although riding in cars and watching live broadcast. with strong and capable teams (yes - like SKY) you can just wait, observe, and when sitation requires, "push a button" - for instance tell to jump, increase the pace, or let someone go. of course it's not THAT simple, but it's basically how it works. riders often communicate asking "what to do" - which is nothing short of being put on a leash.

as for safety - can someone confirm how much "safety" messages are being forwarded to riders that way?

[bilwit]

banning team radios will only give teams like sky an even bigger advantage. they have the money and ressources to inform riders about everything they need to know anyway. they will just put more staff with radios along the road. can't control oder regulate that, but small teams won't be able to afford the same manpower.

see: 2012 Olympic Road Race

[nathanong87]

see: 2012 Olympic Road Race

which team sky was not a part of.

[bilwit]

see: 2012 Olympic Road Race

which team sky was not a part of.

look at the percentage of Sky riders & staff members involved

[bilwit]

I'll give you a hint:

Mark Cavendish - Team Sky
Chris Froome - Team Sky
David Millar - Garmin-Sharpe
Ian Stannard - Team Sky
Bradley Wiggins - Team Sky

Rod Ellingworth - Team Sky
Dave Bralisford - Team Sky

it's no secret that British Cycling and Team Sky were synonymous structurally at the time, right up until the jiffy bag fiasco really

[thePrince]

I'll give you a hint:

Mark Cavendish - Team Sky
Chris Froome - Team Sky
David Millar - Garmin-Sharpe
Ian Stannard - Team Sky
Bradley Wiggins - Team Sky

Rod Ellingworth - Team Sky
Dave Bralisford - Team Sky

it's no secret that British Cycling and Team Sky were synonymous structurally at the time, right up until the jiffy bag fiasco really

+Craig Reedie - Team UK. He was on the board of the organizing committee for the 2012 Olympics. Became VP of International Olympic Committee just in time for 2012 Olympics. WADA President as of 2014.

During his tenure as WADA president, you have zero Team Sky/UK athletes with a ruling (except Jonathan Tiernan-Locke who Sky/UK wanted out, and 4-month joke for Yates in the style of backdated LA saddle sore). Meanwhile, SKY/UK is dominating pro cycling, including wins in all three grand tours in 2018. And from 2014-current, the biggest doping stories involve SKY/UK athletes, which were all accounted for, LA style. Wiggins, Froome, Lizzie, Yates, Henao. Jiffy, testorone patches. Sure there are a lot of names with rulings, but the SKY/UK athletes get the good treatment, good to go. Just like LA - always some technicality amidst the BS.

And the salbutamol policies/testing protocals that worked for Ulissi, Petacchi, and others...weren't good enough to rule against Froome...and have since been confirmed to be good enough going forward. Only cyclists with the same level of protection right now are Belgain crossers.

[Wookski]

And the salbutamol policies/testing protocals that worked for Ulissi, Petacchi, and others...weren't good enough to rule against Froome...and have since been confirmed to be good enough going forward.

Here we go, the broken record tinfoil hat brigade returns

[Nefarious86]

And the salbutamol policies/testing protocals that worked for Ulissi, Petacchi, and others...weren't good enough to rule against Froome...and have since been confirmed to be good enough going forward.

Here we go, the broken record tinfoil hat brigade returns

When even the scientists who created the test question its validity....