You are blinded by irrational hatred
Sez the guy who like to bash Pinot as a pastime
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You are blinded by irrational hatred
Reminds quite a lot of Gilbert. Was a shadow of his former self at BMC etc, then rejoined Quickstep and started doing extraordinary things like winning RVV from 60+kms out.
Yeah...and given that this is a Clinic thread, and therefore centred around doping, what are you suggesting? That he stopped doping in 2017, didn't bother for 4 years, found himself unable to get a proper contract, considered retiring...and all because he decided to stop the doping that had brought him such succes???
Likely???
More likely than him suffering a debilitating long-term illness?
of all the "questionable" performances, Cav's return i think is genuinely down to recovery from Epstein=Barr and Depression, an amazing leadout train and a weak field of competition. He is still poor in the mountains and always had very good finishing speed in sprints all the way back.
He is competing against the same people as he was in Tour of Turkey.
That gives you an idea of the level of competition he is facing. He has absolutely lucked out this Tour...even his attendance was dependent on Bennett's withdrawal.
Make the most of it. It will not happen again.
This is what I don't get. He was somehow on some amazing program from 2008-2016 that for 8 years had remained undetected and suddenly thought, nah, let's knock that on the head and went clean. Then after a miserable 2017, didn't revert back to the program. Then after further, miserable seasons in 2018, 2019 and 2020 still decided not to go back to his murky ways, but in 2021, at that point, decides to get back on the juice?!
Garbage.
Matthews is doing his exact same thing of winning every single garbage consolation sprint, thoughI am way more suspicious of Matthews and Colbrelli at the moment.
Yeah...but Colbrelli seems to be climbing pretty well for a fatass sprinter.
Reminds me of the early 90s
It's pretty extradionary that Cavendish has not been in any trouble with the time limit despite probably not training specifically for the Tour and not riding more than 11 stages in a single race since the 2016 Tour.
Itll be all the drugs and the motor that he used with such success up to 2016 then suddenly and inexplicably abandoned for a few years.
Three letters: DQSYeah...and given that this is a Clinic thread, and therefore centred around doping, what are you suggesting? That he stopped doping in 2017, didn't bother for 4 years, found himself unable to get a proper contract, considered retiring...and all because he decided to stop the doping that had brought him such succes???
Likely???
More likely than him suffering a debilitating long-term illness?
True. He is wiping the floor with Colbrelli in the points competition.He's not doing a Colbrelli.
It shouldn’t have been, maybe that he won 4 but not that he won stages. He finished on the podium 3 times and was getting stronger each race.....and turkey came as a HUGE shock after cav had been so bad....
Mark L
I don't know why you need to posit that he was ever clean. He could have been on a less efficient program, and then gone backwards mentally as the arms race went on and he got worse and worse compared to his rivals. Then he gets back on some top level fuel, at a team that's winning the arms race (at least for certain kinds of races/riders/efforts). That makes him potentially much faster, but also gives him the motivation needed to fully exploit that potential. But yes, it's even possible that not having access to race-winning fuel also made him cut down on the dope, because why bother. Being on a top-notch program is a hassle.Yeah...and given that this is a Clinic thread, and therefore centred around doping, what are you suggesting? That he stopped doping in 2017, didn't bother for 4 years, found himself unable to get a proper contract, considered retiring...and all because he decided to stop the doping that had brought him such succes???
Likely???
More likely than him suffering a debilitating long-term illness?
I don't know why you need to posit that he was ever clean.