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Teams & Riders Chris Froome Discussion Thread.

Page 68 - Get up to date with the latest news, scores & standings from the Cycling News Community.

Is Froome over the hill?

  • Yes.

    Votes: 33 32.0%
  • No, the GC finished 40 minutes ago but Froomie is still climbing it

    Votes: 59 57.3%
  • No he is totally winning the Vuelta

    Votes: 23 22.3%

  • Total voters
    103
Jul 11, 2013
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Afrank said:
I'd say about 90-95% *** today. I look forward to Alpe d'Huez, it will be an epic 37 minutes flat ride. :cool: :D

I do hope though that he's not so selfish that he decides to go ahead and win every single mtf stage, otherwise it will get very boring and old very quickly.

Not even a chance. He showed today he doesn't always go rogue. With his lead insurmountable now, he'll soft pedal the whole way and take off again with 3 or 4 K, keeping it under control.
 
go crazy said:
So you're employing the same defense they Sky fans keep espousing. That their training techniques are superior to everyone elses. Right? I mean, apparently the rest of the riders in the world don't know how to train properly in order to be on the same "level" as Sky. You seem to forget that without Froome in this race, suddenly the GC is VERY close together

What I'm saying is, while Froome is clearly above where the others are at right now (though he's not that far above Quintana taking into account the lenght of his attacks), I believe there are quite a few riders (most notably Contador and Schleck) who used to perform at a similar if not higher level a few years ago.

Therefore I believe all this "alien" stuff and intense hatred that seems to be here is nonsense. I don't see what Froome is doing right now as being any different from what Contador did in 2007-2010 and Andy did in 2010. My belief is that if either of those were at their best they'd be right up there with Froome and we wouldn't be having this argument right now.

Is Froome the best right now? Yes.
Does it all seem fishy? Yes.
Is he the anomaly people pretend him to be? No.
Does he deserve all the hate? No.

Basically if I were to cheer for Contador (which I would was it not for this forum) or Quintana (which I do actually) I would be no more confident in their cleanliness than I am with Froome.

Yet neither of those are getting destroyed quite in the same way. Even at his peak (remember he climbed with the Chicken at 25 without doing anything of note in a GC before) Contador wasn't submitted to this kind of hatred.

So as long as people decide that Froome is the devil incarnate I will support him. Mostly because unlike Lance he appears to actually be a nice guy, which matters a lot more to me than if he happens to dope a bit more or less than other professional athletes (look at what's happening with the sprinters now).

That beings said I'm hoping Quintana can continue his development so we can have a duel between the two next year, and I won't really care who wins that.
 
Jun 20, 2009
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Afrank said:
I'd say about 90-95% *** today. I look forward to Alpe d'Huez, it will be an epic 37 minutes flat ride. :cool: :D

I do hope though that he's not so selfish that he decides to go ahead and win every single mtf stage, otherwise it will get very boring and old very quickly.

Nah, it was 100% full ***.

Spinning at unnatural revs and then sprinting out of the saddle away from Contador was just laughable.

Excellent work from a mutant ;)
 
go crazy said:
So you're employing the same defense they Sky fans keep espousing. That their training techniques are superior to everyone elses. Right? I mean, apparently the rest of the riders in the world don't know how to train properly in order to be on the same "level" as Sky. You seem to forget that without Froome in this race, suddenly the GC is VERY close together.

It's all perspective.

Sky are the team doing the most in the field of sports science. Others are following and will catch up. I think you're correct to say the rest of the riders don't know, just as I don't know how much the Sky riders know. The Sky guys are following a programme established by British Cycling that is years in the making.

This is Sky's 4th season. How many ex-riders of theirs fell into disgrace after leaving? If the riders knew it all, surely they'd take their 'alien' methods elsewhere? Or maybe we're right not to believe in UFOs.
 
Ramira said:
What I'm saying is, while Froome is clearly above where the others are at right now (though he's not that far above Quintana taking into account the lenght of his attacks), I believe there are quite a few riders (most notably Contador and Schleck) who used to perform at a similar if not higher level a few years ago.

Therefore I believe all this "alien" stuff and intense hatred that seems to be here is nonsense. I don't see what Froome is doing right now as being any different from what Contador did in 2007-2010 and Andy did in 2010. My belief is that if either of those were at their best they'd be right up there with Froome and we wouldn't be having this argument right now.

Is Froome the best right now? Yes.
Does it all seem fishy? Yes.
Is he the anomaly people pretend him to be? No.
Does he deserve all the hate? No.

Basically if I were to cheer for Contador (which I would was it not for this forum) or Quintana (which I do actually) I would be no more confident in their cleanliness than I am with Froome.

Yet neither of those are getting destroyed quite in the same way. Even at his peak (remember he climbed with the Chicken at 25 without doing anything of note in a GC before) Contador wasn't submitted to this kind of hatred.

So as long as people decide that Froome is the devil incarnate I will support him. Mostly because unlike Lance he appears to actually be a nice guy, which matters a lot more to me than if he happens to dope a bit more or less than other professional athletes (look at what's happening with the sprinters now).

That beings said I'm hoping Quintana can continue his development so we can have a duel between the two next year, and I won't really care who wins that.

Ramira, if you think Alberto didn't do anything of note in a gc before sprinting with chicken at 24 years old (not 25) you're just clueless.
 
Jun 20, 2009
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Hi Ramira, I've helped you out by correcting your post :)

Ramira said:
I really don't understand why people seem to insist that what Froome is doing is more monstrous than what any of his competitors did (edit, I just realised that no one here is saying Contador, Valverde etc are clean - all dopers at some stage). Yes he's head and shoulders above the rest, but that's because they're nowhere near their best performance (because they are not doping as much or as effectively as Froome).

Now I know everyone is referring to the last 15k, which were ridiculously quick yes (only Lance has been quicker in the Tour), but they started the climb at a very leisurely pace (after averaging 50km/hr for 220km), not to mention there was a massive headwind (which, of course, means a mutant last 15km is even less credible).

Basically Froome is riding at the level of 2009 (and probably 2010) top riders when they were doping at an unrestrained level. I think anyone looking at Contador and Schleck now can see they're not riding at that level because they are doping a little less this year. So I believe Froome is not superhuman, just doped more than anyone else. I believe others are no longer at the level they were leaving a gap for him.

In conclusion I believe that it's very much the easy way out to say what he's doing isn't normal because of how he's defeating the competition, without any consideration of their level. And honestly I think it comes from Sky hate. After all, I used to explain away the anti-Lance folks as "haters" too and look how that worked out for me :eek:

Honestly I started this tour hoping Froome wouldn't win, but this complete and utter hatchet job being done on him is making me support him more and more because, u'know he's like a rooly noice guy n stuff :eek:.
 
Mar 31, 2010
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ILovecycling said:
Facepalm2_zpsb03eeb2a.jpg

quoted for truth
 
Mar 31, 2010
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Ramira said:
I really don't understand why people seem to insist that what Froome is doing is more monstrous than what any of his competitors did. Yes he's head and shoulders above the rest, but that's because they're nowhere near their best performance not because he is supernatural.

Now I know everyone is referring to the last 15k, which were quite quick yes, but they started the climb at a very leisurely pace, not to mention there was a massive headwind.

You should look at the full acent time, which was 59 minutes. If you look at the link below that means he was slower than both Schlecks, Contador, Armstrong and even Kreuziger were in 2009. And barely faster than Pellizotti, Nibali and Wiggins were this year.

http://climbing-records.blogspot.ro/

Basically Froome is riding at the level of 2009 (and probably 2010) top riders. I think anyone looking at Contador and Schleck now can see they're not riding at that level. So I believe Froome is not superhuman I believe others are no longer at the level they were leaving a gap for him.

No why it is that Froome is at the top of his ability while Contador and others aren't could have many explanations, and I don't feel this is the right forum for it.

In conclusion I believe that it's very much the easy way out to say what he's doing isn't normal because of how he's defeating the competition, without any consideration of their level. And honestly I think it comes from Sky hate.

Honestly I started this tour hoping Froome wouldn't win, but this complete and utter hatchet job being done on him is making me support him more and more.

the whole climb was massive tailwind until after the forrest. when wind was mostly head. froome did 558 watt over entire climb, which is 100 watt less than ax3 domaines and because thety started slowly he has extra left. but sitll he never anywhere came close to his ax3 domaines wattages, which tells me enough.
 
Mar 31, 2010
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go crazy said:
So you're employing the same defense they Sky fans keep espousing. That their training techniques are superior to everyone elses. Right? I mean, apparently the rest of the riders in the world don't know how to train properly in order to be on the same "level" as Sky. You seem to forget that without Froome in this race, suddenly the GC is VERY close together.

It's all perspective.

quintana, by riding almost whole climb alone did pretty close to samme wattage as froome, I hera no one about him and with good reason btw.
 
Ramira said:
What I'm saying is, while Froome is clearly above where the others are at right now (though he's not that far above Quintana taking into account the lenght of his attacks), I believe there are quite a few riders (most notably Contador and Schleck) who used to perform at a similar if not higher level a few years ago.

Therefore I believe all this "alien" stuff and intense hatred that seems to be here is nonsense. I don't see what Froome is doing right now as being any different from what Contador did in 2007-2010 and Andy did in 2010. My belief is that if either of those were at their best they'd be right up there with Froome and we wouldn't be having this argument right now.

Is Froome the best right now? Yes.
Does it all seem fishy? Yes.
Is he the anomaly people pretend him to be? No.
Does he deserve all the hate? No.

Basically if I were to cheer for Contador (which I would was it not for this forum) or Quintana (which I do actually) I would be no more confident in their cleanliness than I am with Froome.

Yet neither of those are getting destroyed quite in the same way. Even at his peak (remember he climbed with the Chicken at 25 without doing anything of note in a GC before) Contador wasn't submitted to this kind of hatred.

So as long as people decide that Froome is the devil incarnate I will support him. Mostly because unlike Lance he appears to actually be a nice guy, which matters a lot more to me than if he happens to dope a bit more or less than other professional athletes (look at what's happening with the sprinters now).

That beings said I'm hoping Quintana can continue his development so we can have a duel between the two next year, and I won't really care who wins that.

Bolded part one - for another forum, but you need to remind yourself what they might have been doing 2007-2010, what made them better?

Part 2 - correct, and by miles.

Part 3 - depends on where you were looking. Loads of folks had issues with Bertie.

BTW, the Transfroomer is miles better than everyone else in this race. Miles

A more open chat about the Transfroomer is better placed in the clinic.
 
Oct 25, 2012
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Ryo Hazuki said:
quintana, by riding almost whole climb alone did pretty close to samme wattage as froome, I hera no one about him and with good reason btw.

Same conclusion about wattage is true for Contador, previously banned for doping.
 
Boeing said:
Did anyone notice his change in cadence when he decided to drop Quintana? I don't think there was a shift. He just took a gear and damn near torqued the cassette off the hub body. Looked like the roadrunner feet blazing dropping Wile e coyote

He was just toying at a cadence like 80 rpm then boom 130. Did the front wheel come off the ground? Jk

Wow

Pretty amazing and it looks even stranger because of Froome's style on the bike. Almost cartoon like.
 
Jun 19, 2012
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i think we all kind of knew it anyway but yesterdays performance on MV was as good as it gets , he basically left contador and quintana standing and we now have a rider on a completely different level to anybody else out there .

you can rave all you like about nibali and quintana but all they are gonna get is whatever scraps froome chooses to throw at them .

i think we are highly likely to see froome rule for a very very long time and on the evidence we have seen so far win this race multiple times and become a legend of the sport .
 
Aug 3, 2009
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shades1 said:
i think we are highly likely to see froome rule for a very very long time and on the evidence we have seen so far win this race multiple times and become a legend of the sport .

I don't think so. He is so thin right now that I don't think it will be sustainable over the long term. Additionally once le tour is won, he will have a lot more to lose if any of the accusations were detected.
 
Aug 16, 2011
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go crazy said:
Not even a chance. He showed today he doesn't always go rogue. With his lead insurmountable now, he'll soft pedal the whole way and take off again with 3 or 4 K, keeping it under control.

I'm not sure he'll be able to help himself. Froome does seem to like to show off at times. :D
 
Jun 16, 2009
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fraser from germany said:
Does anyone know why chris froome used the "old" Dura Ace 7970 Di2 for Mt. Ventoux instead of the new 9070 Di2?

Is it easier to hook up an electric motor to the 7970??

I kid, I kid...figured with all the clinic talk, I could throw in a little electric motor accusation against Froome Dawg.
 
Maybe because he used a lighter rear wheel wich only takes 10 speed cassetts (the same Wiggo used last year on the TdF steep climbs)? Porte used the 7090 Di2 as well. Mhh...
I'm a stupid techno-geek. :D