Cadel Evans: Yay or Nay on EPO

[Cookster15]

I don't think I've heard about headwind on Alpe d'Huez before, what do you base that on, Cookster15?

I read about that when it happened. I’ll try to find a link.

 

[SHAD0W93]

Anyhow it was also too much for Menchov who also attempted to cross to Sastre and didn’t have Cadel’s disadvantages.

I agree with some of your other points and this is his change of mindset post worlds win.

Evans also didn’t ride the Giro and Menchov had crashed as well and more recently.

 

[cnort]

I read about that when it happened. I’ll try to find a link.

I think it may come from a finish line quote from Evans - it's in the Cyclingnews report for the stage (https://www.cyclingnews.com/races/tour-de-france-2008/stage-17/results/):

Evans lost 2'15 minutes on Sastre in L'Alpe d'Huez, finishing seventh. But the Australian played it cool, hoping to make up the gap again in the race's last time trial: "To be honest, I think it was not a time loss," he said in the finish. He started chasing Sastre and leading out the group by himself when the Spaniard's gap grew over two minutes. "There was no support, they all sat on. It was a headwind and the headwind probably worked in my advantage yesterday, but today they could obviously sit on the wheel and recover."

The bikeraceinfo website helpfully says the conditions were "a 10 km/hr breeze from the southeast", if you have any idea how to interpret that.

 

[Netserk]

I think it may come from a finish line quote from Evans - it's in the Cyclingnews report for the stage (https://www.cyclingnews.com/races/tour-de-france-2008/stage-17/results/):

Evans lost 2'15 minutes on Sastre in L'Alpe d'Huez, finishing seventh. But the Australian played it cool, hoping to make up the gap again in the race's last time trial: "To be honest, I think it was not a time loss," he said in the finish. He started chasing Sastre and leading out the group by himself when the Spaniard's gap grew over two minutes. "There was no support, they all sat on. It was a headwind and the headwind probably worked in my advantage yesterday, but today they could obviously sit on the wheel and recover."

The bikeraceinfo website helpfully says the conditions were "a 10 km/hr breeze from the southeast", if you have any idea how to interpret that.

Thanks!

While there may have been a headwind on some short sections, it doesn't sound like a headwind for the overall direction of the climb.

 

[Red Rick]

Thanks!

While there may have been a headwind on some short sections, it doesn't sound like a headwind for the overall direction of the climb.

Significant wind also doesn't really fit with the climbing time, which seems pretty par for the 2008 course.

 

[Cookster15]

I think it may come from a finish line quote from Evans - it's in the Cyclingnews report for the stage (https://www.cyclingnews.com/races/tour-de-france-2008/stage-17/results/):

Evans lost 2'15 minutes on Sastre in L'Alpe d'Huez, finishing seventh. But the Australian played it cool, hoping to make up the gap again in the race's last time trial: "To be honest, I think it was not a time loss," he said in the finish. He started chasing Sastre and leading out the group by himself when the Spaniard's gap grew over two minutes. "There was no support, they all sat on. It was a headwind and the headwind probably worked in my advantage yesterday, but today they could obviously sit on the wheel and recover."

The bikeraceinfo website helpfully says the conditions were "a 10 km/hr breeze from the southeast", if you have any idea how to interpret that.

Cheers. I knew I heard it somewhere and I filed it away in 2008 but couldn't find the evidence to back that up. As Netserk points out the Alpe zig zags in an overall northeast direction. So overall more headwind but on some sections it would be a tailwind. And 10km/h isn't a strong breeze.

 

[Netserk]

So overall more headwind but on some sections it would be a tailwind. And 10km/h isn't a strong breeze.

Overall more tailwind than headwind (slightly), if it came directly from south-east.

 

[cnort]

Cheers. I knew I heard it somewhere and I filed it away in 2008 but couldn't find the evidence to back that up. As Netserk points out the Alpe zig zags in an overall northeast direction. So overall more headwind but on some sections it would be a tailwind. And 10km/h isn't a strong breeze.

In fairness, the weather info is probably based on a regional forecast and the wind in the hills can run counter depending on the geography. I couldn't find much else to back up Evans' statement, though.

 

[gregrowlerson]

Back then Evans was a more climb half head wind (glass half empty) person.

 

[JJFS8958]

easy answer for me. was with the top guys during the late 2000's and won the tour at 2011, so yay on epo. im mean he reminded me a bit on Ulrich, good time trial diesel in the mountains, these mixe gives me always a feeling of a "clean" rider. But get it straigth, i dont expect that a top 20 gc rider was really clean at this time, not even today but this is another topic. i read somwhere here that the 2011 Alpe d'Huez time was slow compared to 2001, but the 2011 Stage was raced harder with the contador attack at the telegraph as the controlled blue USP train 2001, and even when the stage 2011 was a shorter one.
Ok im biased because for me no tour winner was clean since i watching the tour, maybe influenced because i started watching cycling in the mid 90's, and as a young and naive child i belived they were clean and lost every trust in clean cycling in the mid 00' when a lot about epo came out and i was old enough to understand it.
BTW sorry for the bad english, im not an native english speaker and out of practice.