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2019 Alien Awards

I think that generally, it was a pretty non-alien year. Less perked my eyes than usual. But the standouts certainly stood out.

I give my three alien gongs to:

1. Quickstep's entire season. Needing a new sponsor, their spring campaign was extraordinary and it barely slowed all year. Record number of wins for a team with an obviously dirty history.....
2. Thomas's win in the TDF. That he became basically the strongest climber in the world.....sorry, no.
3. Froome's Giro winning breakaway. The internet broke for a bit and then we all forgot, but whatever the debate about making time on descents, it was the sequel to Landis '06 - one of the all time great alien performances.
 
Obviously anything to do with Valverde.
Quickstep's ridiculous turn of wins.
The whole nuclear Giro.
Tommy D was already suspicious- this year was no exception.

Apart from that it hasn't been too bad- nothing like the silly Gilbert Flanders win last year.
 
Re:

rick james said:
Anything Anglo Saxon
big_1473997902_image.jpg
 
Not even close, Froome wins that one and it won't be taken away from him when the whole scam gets exposed, 5, 10 years from now.

1. Best Alien Artist: Christopher Froome at Il Giro. The mother of all jokes. I believe that we saw the real Froome, until something happened and he and Sky got emboldened. Then the back from the dead "holocoust", to quote the Valverde thread.
Nuclear Giro, as it was posted, sums it up,

2. Best Alien Series: Gewiss-Ballan had a worthy successor in '18: Quickstep. Too much to be believable. Wayyyy too much.

3. Best Alien Supporting Performance: Geraint Thomas. Win a Tour on the fly, welcome to the world of Sky! I thought that Kwiat was going to win La Vuelta at some point. Sky, the gift that keeps giving. But as long as you have the money, you are safe.

4. Best Alien Director: Sir Dave. Get a bust go away like he did makes him the Spielberg of cycling. One of his riders even looks like ET :D .

5. Alien Lifelong Achievement Award: him.
 
Best alien performance of the year goes to Froome for the Giro when he pulled a Landis.

Quickstep gets the runner up award for the entire season which includes Gilbert's returning to racing about 2 months after breaking his kneecap and winning a race. That was pushing it for believably. (Even Valverde waiting until the next season before returning to racing.)
 
Re:

Armchair cyclist said:
Has everyone forgotten Gonzalo Najar in the Vuelta a San Juan, or is this thread only for casting unfounded accusations at your chosen hate figures?

Confirmed alien (plus team mate!)
http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/vue...alo-najar-reportedly-tests-positive-for-cera/
The results of this year's Vuelta Ciclista a la Provincia de San Juan could be rewritten after overall winner from Argentina Gonzalo Najar reportedly tested positive for the second-generation blood booster CERA.
...
According to Ciclismo Internacional, Gastón Javier, who played a key part in Najar's win at the Vuelta a San Juan, also tested positive for testosterone.

Unconfirmed alien, I think, is the thread topic.
 
Tonton said:
Not even close, Froome wins that one and it won't be taken away from him when the whole scam gets exposed, 5, 10 years from now.

1. Best Alien Artist: Christopher Froome at Il Giro. The mother of all jokes. I believe that we saw the real Froome, until something happened and he and Sky got emboldened. Then the back from the dead "holocoust", to quote the Valverde thread.
Nuclear Giro, as it was posted, sums it up,

2. Best Alien Series: Gewiss-Ballan had a worthy successor in '18: Quickstep. Too much to be believable. Wayyyy too much.

3. Best Alien Supporting Performance: Geraint Thomas. Win a Tour on the fly, welcome to the world of Sky! I thought that Kwiat was going to win La Vuelta at some point. Sky, the gift that keeps giving. But as long as you have the money, you are safe.

4. Best Alien Director: Sir Dave. Get a bust go away like he did makes him the Spielberg of cycling. One of his riders even looks like ET :D .

5. Alien Lifelong Achievement Award: him.
Real froome? i sincerely considered a real froome a gruppetto rider always safely finishing in the pack with sprinters and rolleurs. ;) meanwhile he had constantly been in top 15 in the giro gc throughout the whole race. something doesnt add up.
 
Obviously S Yates dominating 5 weeks worth of GTs with 1 overall win and 4 stage wins. Including 3 stage wins in one race. And another 3 WT stage wins thrown in for good measure. I think only 1 of these wins was in what you could describe as a sprint and only 1 was where he wasn't a threat to win the overall. I don't know if there is another recent example of a non-sprinter winning so often at the top level ? Valverde has come close
 
Re:

Eyeballs Out said:
Obviously S Yates dominating 5 weeks worth of GTs with 1 overall win and 4 stage wins. Including 3 stage wins in one race. And another 3 WT stage wins thrown in for good measure. I think only 1 of these wins was in what you could describe as a sprint and only 1 was where he wasn't a threat to win the overall. I don't know if there is another recent example of a non-sprinter winning so often at the top level ? Valverde has come close
Steve Cummings :D
I can also recall Lance (especially 2004), Nibali (2014), Gilbert (2011) having similar or more success at PT/WT level. But I guess that underlines your point. ;)
 
Froome's Zoncolon win is the one that grates in my head. 13 stages of hanging on then BOOM! Then drops 90 seconds on the next stage.
By the time of "The Great Escape" on stage 19, Yates had blown up and Pinot & Dumoulin were pooped.
 
Re: Re:

Squire said:
Eyeballs Out said:
Obviously S Yates dominating 5 weeks worth of GTs with 1 overall win and 4 stage wins. Including 3 stage wins in one race. And another 3 WT stage wins thrown in for good measure. I think only 1 of these wins was in what you could describe as a sprint and only 1 was where he wasn't a threat to win the overall. I don't know if there is another recent example of a non-sprinter winning so often at the top level ? Valverde has come close
Steve Cummings :D
I can also recall Lance (especially 2004), Nibali (2014), Gilbert (2011) having similar or more success at PT/WT level. But I guess that underlines your point. ;)
All very good shouts - Gilbert 2011 was the one I thought of right after I posted and that does definitely trump Yates 2018
 

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