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2019 Alien Awards

Page 6 - Get up to date with the latest news, scores & standings from the Cycling News Community.
JosephK said:
Does the ITT stage at the TDF today qualify? I would say possibly, considering it was 14 seconds put into G, himself no stranger to miraculous dominance.

Just kicking the hornet's nest a little. :D

Got off the bike wasn't even panting

What an amazing performance....either way
 
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Cookster15 said:
Ripper said:
Cookster15 said:
As soon as I saw the result I thought of this thread and its title - we have a winner!

Beyond ridiculous. I note someone in the race article wrote that its because he's ex cyclocross :lol: . Problem with that theory is JA must have only taken up cyclocross this season because he has never ridden even remotely like that before. I think the French have been relatively benign in the doping stakes compared to others. This ended today.

This was worse than the Vino who destroyed the first ITT in the 2007 TdF then was popped the day after. A standout performance if ever there was one.
It was eyebrow raising, but not total alien, unless you consider all of JA's results alien (which you might!). Not saying he does not have alien happening, let's just see what massive climbs hold, that will tell a lot more than today's test. Tomorrow will be interesting.

Regarding the bolded part - hyperbole my friend. Not even close to Vino's TT. That was a massive clobbering over an EPO-infested field. Vino was (is?) a special category of insane. :)

Not sure about that. I recall 2007 pretty well. Firstly the EPO test came out in 2000 so by 2007 it was pre Passport transfusions not EPO. But doping or not we already knew Vino was strong prior to that day although the rumours that circulated about him before being popped the following day for detection of Allogeneic transfusion were probably less then now.

But today there was no warning of this performance - at least not based upon anything we have seen from JA before. Yes he's won TTs before but not against this level of competition and not when he already danced away from the best climbers in the race on stage 6.

I'm pretty confident you won't see JA collapse in the coming mountain stages - at least not the Pyrenees, maybe by the Alpes the physical and psychological pressure will bite, we will see.
Whoops, my turn for hyperbole and generational mix up. Yes, 2007 was all about blood transfusions and micro dosing lots of different sh*t. 2006-2007 Vino was still just insane compared to today though. Didn't Vino win something like 3 stages and the overall of the 2006 Vuelta?
 
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Pantani Attacks said:
Hopefully he doesn't pop and can sustain this level for years. Need someone to replace Valverde's ridiculousness


Except Valverde has never done that in a time trial and actually struggled with time trials for years before finally becoming good for a GC rider with them, yet still inconsistent.
 
It's up there with Froome's Ventoux, that's for sure. Ineos will be wondering how JA got hold of the special stuff. Alaphilippe has out-Hinaulted Thomas.

It's GFR for everyone today, but Alaphilippe to win by 38 minutes. Vive le Tour! Vive la Farce!

5368976.jpg
 
May 26, 2009
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AustCyclingFan said:
Got off the bike wasn't even panting
Hyperbole... after the rush he had to sit down like anyone else.

bettiniphoto_0406522_1_originali_670.jpg


Yes I am sure he dopes, but people are drawing conclusions about the adrenaline rush that are not realistic.
 
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Cookster15 said:
As soon as I saw the result I thought of this thread and its title - we have a winner!

Beyond ridiculous. I note someone in the race article wrote that its because he's ex cyclocross :lol: . Problem with that theory is JA must have only taken up cyclocross this season because he has never ridden even remotely like that before. I think the French have been relatively benign in the doping stakes compared to others. This ended today.

I still believe the French teams tend to be cleaner than for instance the Spanish and Belgian teams. Alaphilippe is French, but riding for a Belgian team. That makes a difference.
 
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Danskebjerge said:
Cookster15 said:
As soon as I saw the result I thought of this thread and its title - we have a winner!

Beyond ridiculous. I note someone in the race article wrote that its because he's ex cyclocross :lol: . Problem with that theory is JA must have only taken up cyclocross this season because he has never ridden even remotely like that before. I think the French have been relatively benign in the doping stakes compared to others. This ended today.

I still believe the French teams tend to be cleaner than for instance the Spanish and Belgian teams. Alaphilippe is French, but riding for a Belgian team. That makes a difference.

BINGO

but, hey! blame the game not the players :D
 
I get why Alaphilippe is getting all the attention but i want shout out the entire Lotto Visma team.

What i saw from them today was arguably even more alienlike than Ala. De Plus went full Wout Pouls and George Bennet looked like he could have won the stage today with Kruiswijk telling him to slow down constantly.

And let's not forget about Roglic and the early stage races or their success this tour prior to this stage.
 
Eh, Bennett is already a very good climber and has top tens at the Giro and Vuelta. He finished six minutes down yesterday. Not crazy for him to be pushing for a kilometre near the top and then pulling off and losing a minute. Buchmann is up there attacking and I can't see that their climbing ability is a lot different.

For De Plus, yeah it seems above his level but I guess he's just 23 so who knows if it's just a progression or what.

Generally, the team seems in just amazing form though. Better than expected, for sure.
 
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luckyboy said:
Eh, Bennett is already a very good climber and has top tens at the Giro and Vuelta. He finished six minutes down yesterday. Not crazy for him to be pushing for a kilometre near the top and then pulling off and losing a minute. Buchmann is up there attacking and I can't see that their climbing ability is a lot different.

For De Plus, yeah it seems above his level but I guess he's just 23 so who knows if it's just a progression or what.

Generally, the team seems in just amazing form though. Better than expected, for sure.

Bennett is lucky to have been around long enough for people to begin to forget that he has not always been that good
 
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luckyboy said:
He seems to have a pretty normal progression through his career, doesn't he? He seemed to not get many chances apart from US stage races and then showed more in 2014, 2015. I can't say I have paid a ton of attention through his career though.

But you do remember that he did not start a GT because of low cortisol?

And prior to his GT breakthrough he had worse stage racing palmares than *checks notes* Bookwalter, for example.
 
I don't regard Alaphilippe's tt as alien. A bit eyebrow raising, maybe. But the parcours really suited him, and a lot of the climbers did well.

But the team per se has been ridiculous since 2017, especially through the classics. Real 00's stuff. Actually it's kind of nice to see it in the tour, because it's putting a spanner in the works of the usual suspects.

As for Lotto-Jumbo: their level of domination is very suss. Like Quickstep, they have an illustrious history too.
 
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The Hegelian said:
I don't regard Alaphilippe's tt as alien. A bit eyebrow raising, maybe. But the parcours really suited him, and a lot of the climbers did well.

But the team per se has been ridiculous since 2017, especially through the classics. Real 00's stuff. Actually it's kind of nice to see it in the tour, because it's putting a spanner in the works of the usual suspects.

As for Lotto-Jumbo: their level of domination is very suss. Like Quickstep, they have an illustrious history too.
It's all the ketone drinks!!!!!
 
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Ripper said:
The Hegelian said:
I don't regard Alaphilippe's tt as alien. A bit eyebrow raising, maybe. But the parcours really suited him, and a lot of the climbers did well.

But the team per se has been ridiculous since 2017, especially through the classics. Real 00's stuff. Actually it's kind of nice to see it in the tour, because it's putting a spanner in the works of the usual suspects.

As for Lotto-Jumbo: their level of domination is very suss. Like Quickstep, they have an illustrious history too.
It's all the ketone drinks!!!!!

It's funny because on here we know it's not only about ketones but in the media it was those 2 teams QS and Lotto being linked to ketones.
 
Re: Re:

scapewalker said:
Ripper said:
The Hegelian said:
I don't regard Alaphilippe's tt as alien. A bit eyebrow raising, maybe. But the parcours really suited him, and a lot of the climbers did well.

But the team per se has been ridiculous since 2017, especially through the classics. Real 00's stuff. Actually it's kind of nice to see it in the tour, because it's putting a spanner in the works of the usual suspects.

As for Lotto-Jumbo: their level of domination is very suss. Like Quickstep, they have an illustrious history too.
It's all the ketone drinks!!!!!

It's funny because on here we know it's not only about ketones but in the media it was those 2 teams QS and Lotto being linked to ketones.
Oh the ketone thing cracks me up. Sky were being focused on about that last year.

All this said, it would be hilarious if all the teams were doing (more or less) the same stuff and the use of ketones was the only difference over the past few years, and now that it's being used by pretty much any team that can afford it and want to, the playing field suddenly is levelling up.
 
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Re: Re:

Ripper said:
scapewalker said:
Ripper said:
The Hegelian said:
I don't regard Alaphilippe's tt as alien. A bit eyebrow raising, maybe. But the parcours really suited him, and a lot of the climbers did well.

But the team per se has been ridiculous since 2017, especially through the classics. Real 00's stuff. Actually it's kind of nice to see it in the tour, because it's putting a spanner in the works of the usual suspects.

As for Lotto-Jumbo: their level of domination is very suss. Like Quickstep, they have an illustrious history too.
It's all the ketone drinks!!!!!

It's funny because on here we know it's not only about ketones but in the media it was those 2 teams QS and Lotto being linked to ketones.
Oh the ketone thing cracks me up. Sky were being focused on about that last year.

All this said, it would be hilarious if all the teams were doing (more or less) the same stuff and the use of ketones was the only difference over the past few years, and now that it's being used by pretty much any team that can afford it and want to, the playing field suddenly is levelling up.

This is definitely not about ketones. E.g. Jumbo - Visma improved a lot and most probably it is connected with the fact that they are more skinny than they were. Most probably T3 and T4 which are even not prohibited and usage by the team was discussed. The other part of the game would be aicar (as already mentioned in respect of TdF) and cardarine.

E.g. the advantage would be knowledge how to properly use the substances (e.g. EPO in past).
 

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