Recent content by Mamil

Re: Re: Good points. The two major issues with Sky/Ineos have always been suspected doping and their significant financial advantage. I feel like the doping as an issue has taken a bit of a back seat - which isn't to say that it's gone away, but they've been riding in a more measured...

Re: Re: Please, please tell me this is sarcasm. Amazing as JA and Bernal were, Pinot was the rider of the race, on a number of levels, and we were robbed of the grandstand finish this Tour deserved both by his injury and the bad weather. I suspect Bernal would have beaten him, but it would...

Re: This is pretty much my position too. Last year I watched most of the flat stuff but gave the mountains only a cursory glance. This year has been great value throughout, and certainly has looked the most believable and open race since at least 2011. It's kind of weird, because Ineos are...

Nothing about the history or setup of QS, anything they were saying pre-race, the team they selected, or the way they raced the first week, suggest that they were planning for JA to have a tilt at yellow. There would have been an idea to give Mas some level of support for a crack at a top 10...

The idea of Alaphilippe being a doper in the general sense simply by fact of him being an elite pro-cyclist who wins a lot I'm more than willing to go along with. But the thought that he's doped particularly for the Tour GC, or that he's somewhat found a way to enhance himself specifically for...

It looks more to me that the climbs have been quite slow and disorganised, with no one team being able to control things or force the pace, so that the very few guys who actually are in form have been able to skip away, and have a couple of good kicks in their legs, in ways that simply haven't...

Re: I can go along with most of this except on Martin. He has 4 GT top 10s, despite a propensity for crashing. I grant that he's not a pure GC rider, but he's certainly been capable of hanging with the best for a long time in years past. This year he's nowhere near that level. I'm certainly...

It's been striking me as somewhat odd just how many GC riders are seemingly out of form in this year's Tour. Porte, Quintana, Martin, Aru, Adam Yates, Bardet, Uran, Kelderman and Mas have all looked well short of their best. Thomas and Bernal both have known reasons, or at least public excuses...

This is the key point for me too. With all the talent and natural ability in the world, which I'm ready to accept VDP has in spades, going from riding races that are generally little over an hour to those in a different discipline that can be up to 6+ hours, and being amongst the very strongest...

I've watched very little cyclo-cross - obviously van der Poel is exceptionally good at it, but how much of that particular ability should we expect to translate to the road? For a clearly elite athlete, in particular one with an impeccable family cycling pedigree, how much specific road training...

I think it's always a warning flag whenever a team has multiple riders all in absolute top form at the same time. No question Alaphilippe, Stybar and Viviani are all talented riders and Quick-Step always produce strong teams with good domestique support in Spring, but still it's a little suspect...

Re: I don't understand this post. I'm not trying to make the case here for Freeman's true mental state, nor attempting to seek it out. I already know what I think, and I've no interest in convincing anyone else of this or that position on the subject. My last couple of posts are simply...

More assumptions. I used to be employed in the health sector, working frequently with people with mental health conditions. I'm well aware of the myriad ways in which such conditions can impact upon people and their behaviour. I stereotype nothing. Maybe Freeman did have the conditions and...

As usual you assume too much, dear Fergie. I place no stock in the DCMS committee or any other sports-based/focused regulatory review body. I form my own opinions, be they on Sky or anything else. I don't need any official determination to vindicate them. The DCMS inquiry did some decent work...

I certainly didn't. There is rarely any rigour in these nationally-based enquiries. Well there's often not much in the international ones either, so you can hardly expect any different when a nation is self-policing and there's pride and $$$ at stake.