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2019 Alien Awards

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Re:

yaco said:
Annemiek Van Vleuten's ITT in the Giro Rosa was out of this world - Put 2 1/2 minutes into the next best placed.

I think its difficult to judge womens cycling from an Alien perspective...i mean the way van der Breggen just rode away from everyone at the WC's was ridiculous, she didn't even look as though she was trying (im sure she was of course, but still her strength in relation to everyone else was startling)

If we saw solo efforts like that in the mens race it would quite rightly be called outrageous...but in womens cycling it seems to me that the gap between the top 2 or 3 riders in the world, and the rest of the pro ranks, is just huge.

Wether that's Alien (ie as a result of doping) or not....i dont know.
 
Moscon
Froome at Giro
Dumoulin at Giro/Tour
Valverde

Oddly I'm not going to say Thomas. Was suspicious but then everybody is. Riding behind Sky Train would give anyone an extra 15 percent. QS also impressive but I don't think they had the budget for a team-wide program.
 
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I'm the last person on earth to think someone's clean. In the Froome example, though, I don't think it was as extraordinary (with all the trappings of that word) as people claim.

He got away from two tired contenders and a couple guys battling for the white jersey who had zero to gain by reeling him in. The two contenders waited too long, then didn't work together well and basically failed to benefit from the teamwork. The other two simply got towed. It was closer to a three person individual race and Froome won it, which wouldn't be that surprising in context especially considering the delayed response.

Bad tactics, bad situation and tired legs all gave Froome a route to victory.
 
Re:

Bolder said:
Moscon
Froome at Giro
Dumoulin at Giro/Tour
Valverde

Oddly I'm not going to say Thomas. Was suspicious but then everybody is. Riding behind Sky Train would give anyone an extra 15 percent. QS also impressive but I don't think they had the budget for a team-wide program.

Wow someone actually mentioned Valverde ! Thomas was by far the most convincing GT winner and backed off in the final TT. Not bad for a rider that never looked like doing that before. Once it seemed he wasn't going to fall off it had an air of inevitability about it. Thomas actually managed to look less fragile than Yates or Froome and I think from a long way out he knew he was going to win..........maybe not elite Alien performances but certainly eye opening.
 
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

Except in Valverde's case the peloton thought he was a sprinter when he turned pro.
 
Re: Re:

movingtarget said:
Bolder said:
Moscon
Froome at Giro
Dumoulin at Giro/Tour
Valverde

Oddly I'm not going to say Thomas. Was suspicious but then everybody is. Riding behind Sky Train would give anyone an extra 15 percent. QS also impressive but I don't think they had the budget for a team-wide program.

Wow someone actually mentioned Valverde ! Thomas was by far the most convincing GT winner and backed off in the final TT. Not bad for a rider that never looked like doing that before. Once it seemed he wasn't going to fall off it had an air of inevitability about it. Thomas actually managed to look less fragile than Yates or Froome and I think from a long way out he knew he was going to win..........maybe not elite Alien performances but certainly eye opening.
I strongly suspect that Thomas made sure that he only did enough to stay in control. He gave me the impression that he had another 30-60 seconds over Dumoulin left in the tank if he wanted to take it, but it was a good call not to if he did - it's best to mitigate risk where possible, both in terms of the race and the testers.
 
eleven said:
I'm the last person on earth to think someone's clean. In the Froome example, though, I don't think it was as extraordinary (with all the trappings of that word) as people claim.

He got away from two tired contenders and a couple guys battling for the white jersey who had zero to gain by reeling him in. The two contenders waited too long, then didn't work together well and basically failed to benefit from the teamwork. The other two simply got towed. It was closer to a three person individual race and Froome won it, which wouldn't be that surprising in context especially considering the delayed response.

Bad tactics, bad situation and tired legs all gave Froome a route to victory.
He rode the best climber in the race, and the guy entrenched in third completely out of the race over a couple of climbs, while showing only glimpses of previous form prior.

The whole Giro was ridden at such a ridiculous pace, Pinot damn near ended up hospitalised.

Sorry, George Bennett summed it up best, even if he didn't intend to stir up a controversy
 
42x16ss said:
eleven said:
I'm the last person on earth to think someone's clean. In the Froome example, though, I don't think it was as extraordinary (with all the trappings of that word) as people claim.

He got away from two tired contenders and a couple guys battling for the white jersey who had zero to gain by reeling him in. The two contenders waited too long, then didn't work together well and basically failed to benefit from the teamwork. The other two simply got towed. It was closer to a three person individual race and Froome won it, which wouldn't be that surprising in context especially considering the delayed response.

Bad tactics, bad situation and tired legs all gave Froome a route to victory.
He rode the best climber in the race, and the guy entrenched in third completely out of the race over a couple of climbs, while showing only glimpses of previous form prior.

The whole Giro was ridden at such a ridiculous pace, Pinot damn near ended up hospitalised.

Sorry, George Bennett summed it up best, even if he didn't intend to stir up a controversy

Froome was recovering from two falls and it wasn't until his win on the Zoncolan that he looked like he really was improving. He and his team picked the best stage to exploit a tiring group of contenders and the chase group never really rode together very well. Dumoulin looked very tired at the end of the Giro and I was surprised he backed up so well in the Tour while Froome even though I thought wouldn't win the Tour, he is very used to doing two good GTs per year and his third place wasn't a big surprise. The Giro was more a war of attrition with Yates and Pinot caving in, Chaves also getting sick. More of an old style grand tour and good to watch.
 
Re:

Pantani_lives said:
The three biggest scandals of 2018:

1. Froome getting away with a positive test. Excuse me, I meant adverse analytical finding. WADA's pseudo-scientific report.
2. Wiggins getting away with using corticosteroids.
3. UKAD dropping the investigation against Team Sky.

I can sense a theme developing here....
 
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42x16ss said:
eleven said:
I'm the last person on earth to think someone's clean. In the Froome example, though, I don't think it was as extraordinary (with all the trappings of that word) as people claim.

He got away from two tired contenders and a couple guys battling for the white jersey who had zero to gain by reeling him in. The two contenders waited too long, then didn't work together well and basically failed to benefit from the teamwork. The other two simply got towed. It was closer to a three person individual race and Froome won it, which wouldn't be that surprising in context especially considering the delayed response.

Bad tactics, bad situation and tired legs all gave Froome a route to victory.
He rode the best climber in the race, and the guy entrenched in third completely out of the race over a couple of climbs, while showing only glimpses of previous form prior.

The whole Giro was ridden at such a ridiculous pace, Pinot damn near ended up hospitalised.

Sorry, George Bennett summed it up best, even if he didn't intend to stir up a controversy

He's the best GT rider of his generation. Why is it surprising that he rode a guy off his wheel once he fully recovered?
 
eleven said:
42x16ss said:
eleven said:
I'm the last person on earth to think someone's clean. In the Froome example, though, I don't think it was as extraordinary (with all the trappings of that word) as people claim.

He got away from two tired contenders and a couple guys battling for the white jersey who had zero to gain by reeling him in. The two contenders waited too long, then didn't work together well and basically failed to benefit from the teamwork. The other two simply got towed. It was closer to a three person individual race and Froome won it, which wouldn't be that surprising in context especially considering the delayed response.

Bad tactics, bad situation and tired legs all gave Froome a route to victory.
He rode the best climber in the race, and the guy entrenched in third completely out of the race over a couple of climbs, while showing only glimpses of previous form prior.

The whole Giro was ridden at such a ridiculous pace, Pinot damn near ended up hospitalised.

Sorry, George Bennett summed it up best, even if he didn't intend to stir up a controversy

He's the best GT rider of his generation. Why is it surprising that he rode a guy off his wheel once he fully recovered?

Well, that's what earned him a lifetime achievement award here in the in the first place. :D
 
Thing that makes Froome's Zoncolan performance stand out as alien category is the way he raced in the days leading up to it. We have seen repeatedly that when below his best, he tends to yo-yo. In all the GC stages before the Zonc he was not good enough to even do that and was sometimes even dropped outright by second rate top-10 contenders. Nothing showed that he was improving a least bit. The two days directly preceding Zoncolan stage, were not GC days, but nevertheless tough unrelenting racing over undulating terrain - anything but an easy recovery on wheels.

Then come Zoncolan, he was suddenly dropping everybody, including Yates who was absolutely flying at that point of the race. Not that easy to choose between this and Landis vol.2. For an honourable third goes Thomas winning (in dominating fashion) the Tour after spending his entire career proving he is not a 3-week rider.

1. Froome coming up with Landis vol.2
2. Froome on Zoncolan
3. Thomas winning the Tour

Honorable mention to Quickstep for teamwide performance, although no single rider of theirs stood out enough to get a separate mention in this thread.
 
Der Top Dawg Alien - Froome Since last July. Winner of 3 consecutive GTs and 4 consecutive podium- Last seen Hinault in 1983
Finestre Performance pulling back 3 mins in single stage- Last Seen Landis 2006. Riders are known to win GTs comfortably by 2 mins over 21 stages.
Der Little Alien - Dumoulin - 2nd in 2 consecutive GTs- Not done since Pantani
Il Mutants - Simon Yates - Weightless mountain performance but failed ultimately. - Not classified as Alien due to failure
Thomas - Track cyclist and cobble specialist wining on Alpe D'huez(Mecca of climbers) - Dissed by LA for a slow timing of ~41 min- Not classified as Alien due to slow timing
Jacked Up Humans - Quickstep - Singular good performances
Le Bread & Water Human - Pinot - Good performance followed by bad performance next day- Too many failures for above classification
 
the delgados said:
I'm too lazy to search for his results, but Wout van Aert was a real eye opener during the classics.
I could be wrong, but I think it was his first foray into the world tour peloton, and he was dusting seasoned riders like they were standing still.

He and van der Poel are extreme outliers as cross riders. It could be seen for miles away that they would be able to slot right into the thick of things on the road too.

By the way: God I hate the use of the words "alien" and "nuclear" all the damn time on this freakshow of a subforum. Why can't you just talk like normal people? Why would aliens be better at riding a bike than people for whom the bikes are designed? And why on earth would exposition to nuclear radiation help improve one's abilities on a bike? I don't see the current peloton littered with 32-year-old Ukrainians.

Obviously the most alien-like rider in the history is Haimar Zubeldia because you could never be quite sure he existed. Perhaps Louis Meintjes is the new alien.

And why is this the 2019 awards? How on earth are we to know who will be performing most extra-terrestrially (whatever that may entice) next year?
 
By the way: God I hate the use of the words "alien" and "nuclear" all the damn time on this freakshow of a subforum. Why can't you just talk like normal people? Why would aliens be better at riding a bike than people for whom the bikes are designed? And why on earth would exposition to nuclear radiation help improve one's abilities on a bike? I don't see the current peloton littered with 32-year-old Ukrainians.

Maybe it's just down to not being familiar with the idioms of the English language? "Out of this world" means amazing, hence extraterrestrial, used a lot in the 90s when pros were intimating a performance was unnaturally amazing, e.g. doped. Thus an alien performance.

Nuclear in context just means explosive or unbounded power. In 50s B movies, when someone is irradiated with nuclear radiation they literally glow, which also has been adapted in the doping context, e.g. "he took so much testosterone he was still glowing when he got tested."
 
hulkgogan said:
By the way: God I hate the use of the words "alien" and "nuclear" all the damn time on this freakshow of a subforum. Why can't you just talk like normal people? Why would aliens be better at riding a bike than people for whom the bikes are designed? And why on earth would exposition to nuclear radiation help improve one's abilities on a bike? I don't see the current peloton littered with 32-year-old Ukrainians.

Maybe it's just down to not being familiar with the idioms of the English language? "Out of this world" means amazing, hence extraterrestrial, used a lot in the 90s when pros were intimating a performance was unnaturally amazing, e.g. doped. Thus an alien performance.

Nuclear in context just means explosive or unbounded power. In 50s B movies, when someone is irradiated with nuclear radiation they literally glow, which also has been adapted in the doping context, e.g. "he took so much testosterone he was still glowing when he got tested."

Another annoying metaphor, thanks for adding to my list.

I am familiar with the English language, I just for some reason find these idioms or metaphors or euphemisms or whatever you'd call them incredibly irritating.

Maybe it doesn't help that they completely unjustifiedly so often are thrown at each and every rider who is able to push one more watt than his nearest competitor in a given race or than he presumably previously had been able to push.
 

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