"PRO" Cycling Discussion

[Kermithimself]

My guess is Andy was a doper from his early days on and is now clean. Makes sense given he started to completely suck after 2010 when Contador got busted.

Except he was 2nd in the Tour de France in 2011, won a stage, and was 3rd behind Frank and Gilbert in Liege-Bastogne-Liege.

His downward spiral started when Bruyneel came to the Leopard team in 2012, as well as he developed a knee-injury and had that fracture of the sacrum.

[wingguy]

you can check out all the gifs i make, cycling, soccer (sometimes), and car related at http://natelife.tumblr.com/tagged/natelifegif
(shameless plug).

No matter how long I watched it for that crash into a bollard on a 90 right did not start to look any less painful

[nathanong87]

yea de haes was yolo-ing that corner =(

[petepeterson]

Looking forward to seeing how Wiggo goes sunday. Certainly lots of talk in the press. I imagine he'll be working for EBH but might surprise some folks.

What is weird about Andy is that he is not even close to where he once was. I agree it is warranted to question what kind of preparation he was doing previous to the past few years. He has been injury free for a while and is same weight so you would think he could get to at least 95% of where he used to be with some decent training. Does he even make Trek's tour team?

[lippythelion]

Haussler will probably crash out of P-R early after getting a custom painted bike.

[djconnel]

Haussler's been rather anonymous this year. The bike is the opposite: very nice. Any more info? What model frame is that?

HH quote in NYT:

“To be honest, I think if you want to go and race there, you have to be pretty stupid,” said Heinrich Haussler, a veteran rider whose best finish at Paris-Roubaix is seventh, in 2009. “Your hands are shaking, your wrists are throbbing, your shoulders are stiff, your back is aching, your neck is pounding, your. ...”

[MattSoutherden]

Haussler`s bike for Roubaix

Nice.




Did I say nice? I didn't mean nice.

Is that his German style or his Australian style showing?

[nathanong87]

[szymonef]

My goodness, Contador was flying up those hills today!

[caddis]

My guess is Andy was a doper from his early days on and is now clean. Makes sense given he started to completely suck after 2010 when Contador got busted.

You can quess what ever you want, but NO way...

[KWalker]

I don't buy A Schleck's excuses. You don't all of a sudden drop down to being too slow to even finish a race. Other riders might get dropped or finish outside the top 10, but he is almost pathetic. Went from one of the best stage racers to worst pros in about a year.

Sucks Sky is choosing EBH as their leader. I feel that his hype has come and gone. Some good results here and there, but can't see him winning a classic, ever.

[dominikk]

My goodness, Contador was flying up those hills today!

O yeah, middle and east europeans were also not bad - Spilak, Kwiatkowski, ...

[Geoff]

Ummm, what about Big Tony?!

[ultyguy]

KW- agreed. You can lose your edge, but talent is talent...unless it isn't, or never was.

[jipperd]

I was thinking watching the classics and the tour basque. Would Tony Martin be a serious candidate for the classics, i mean he has the power, toughness and capabilities like Cancelara doesn't he?