Recent content by simoni

I think it would come under that catch-all rule about "other methods or substances with an intention to improve performance" or whatever the wording it.

They could be riding really slowly of course.

Not sure that this makes him any more likely to be blood doping than he was anyway. He's on a Belgian team, fairly sure big Pat could find a "friend" to look after the bags if really needed...

Aren't we just listing good riders who weren't one-dimensional pure climbers or pure sprinters? Pantani at one end, Cavendish at the other - the likes of Merckx, Lemond, Armstrong, Hinault (and now Pogacar) somewhere in the middle.

Of all the things to look for as a sign of doping a subjective assessment of how tired someone looks is one of the worst! FWIW, I try to keep drugs and such out of it when watching cycling and just enjoy the racing, life's too short, but I am struggling with this.

We are venturing into some fairly interesting economic theory here, prisoners dilemma. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prisoner%27s_dilemma It will be extremely difficult to get this to work in practise because no one trusts anyone else and will assume that if you play the game "fairly" someone...

Ok, that's fair. But nothing at all to explain why he veered to the left and less still to indicate who, if anyone, was at fault.

On what basis? That video shows a rider falling off, nothing more, nothing less.

I get that the organisers want a spectacular start to the race but they are possibly going a bit too far. I wonder if we need to go back to a prologue to settle the GC down a bit and then a bit more thought to the safety of the route to try and reduce some of this (and that obviously isn't to...

Your loss I think. France is a wonderful country. Like anywhere else it has its share of less desirable people. Maybe Alaphillippe is one to your impression but there are very very many who are not.

The mavic tyres I got with my 2016 Ksyriums were not really very hard wearing, particularly the rear which wore through susprisingly quickly. Currently using Schwalbe Ones which have been very good - puncture resistant so far (after circa 3000km in all weathers) and no reason to suspect they...

I'd be a bit reticent to read too much into times over such a short climb. All it takes is a couple of seconds hesitation whilst they all look at each other and you probably turn a 2:45 into a 2:50. Not to mention the wind etc. as usual.

Banesto lined things out to a degree but not to the extent we see now. Slightly different times in that indurain generally drove it home himself in the first time trial and then just marked rivals himself in the mountains as he was that strong. He was winning by 4-5 minutes some years so the...

Other than piecing together bits of various riders interviews, which may or may not be true (theres arguments why they could either over or understate their fitness in interviews) has it been definitively established that things are quicker? I see terms like "gaping chasm" but do we have...

Van Aert isn't the first rider to apparently be able to do everything at once but he's probably the most successful, certainly in the modern era. I can't believe that doping has changed fundamentally since the highs of sky, if he's on. anything it'll be much the same, so we're left with the...