Recent content by Sigmund

As innderstand his confession he says he realized he could not cut it as a pro, but instead of retiring and going back to amateur riding in Norway he decided to try dope.

Nope that is not true. Hi said that he hoped other Norwegian riders don't and didn't make the same choice as he did. He stated that he started doping to keep up and be competitive. Nowhere does he say that he was "forced" to do this or otherwise forfeiting a dream. He stated that he hoped to...

No, that is a misrepresetation of what he said. He said that he did not peronally witness anyone shooting up, but he quite clearly states that the doping was organised by the team. In other words, not claiming to be deaf or blind, just that he didnt shoot up together with any other rider.

There was a study in Norway checking out how effective EPO was. Rumor has it that some of the people participating in the study promptly retired afterwords, as they realized they had no chance In heir sport if competitors were on the juice.

You're right, I guess we both should have gone to bed. But thanks for righting my wrongs;)

I would say a bit of both. 4 years is a long time. Though I agree it probably hasn't fallen much.

Which would make sense as durations of 4-5 min is where a high vo2max is most needed as you are operating on or slightly above it. When going for longer you can go faster Even if your vo2 Max falls if you can operate gloser to it for longer. For example you might start out with 40 min at say...

As a cyclist I can say it is a huge difference. Cycling is painfull, but mostly internally generated. Yes, you re in pain everywhere, but as barring a crash it is a no impact sport I can easily imagin ethe damage to your muscles in the legs would be entirely different from marathon running.

I think most riders are very carefull to state anything about diuretics, and "strange" drugs because of all the stories about people inadvertently getting such substances in their body. I imagine those athletes who are clean are terrified of returning a positive test for something they cannot...

We have always been told that Knutsen could have been competitive in the grand tours but was never given a real chance. Since I was a bit young back then, and not very interested in cycling I have always been unsure of whether that was nationalistic hyperbole or honest truths. I just brought...

Not entirely comparable, but a little interesting anyways. It has been said repeatedly that never before has a pursuit rider gone on to become a GC rider. One earlier example may be Knut Knutsen. He won the IP in Munich in 1972, then went on to be the best TTer in the world (at least as voted...

When you say that this years TdF is the fastest ever, I am assuming you base this on average speeds for the whole shebang? If so, that is pointless, and obviously not what anyone is claiming when they say they were slower this year. Slower this year means slower up the long climbs, hence...

How exactly is it that you think the world moves forward? Everything is out there from the beginning, no improvements are ever made? Because, obviously, if it isn't done immediately it must be because it has no effect, otherwise someone would have done it before? This response reminds of the...

He was national champion in Norway first time in 2006, on a very tough course.

You do realize of course that the fact remains that his climbing speeds did not surpass anything that is physiologically plausible. In other words, his power output for the time trial would also be physiologically plausible, unless it is your opnion that he sandbagged the climbing and could have...