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Teams & Riders Chris Froome Discussion Thread.

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Is Froome over the hill?

  • Yes.

    Votes: 26 34.7%
  • No, the GC finished 40 minutes ago but Froomie is still climbing it

    Votes: 42 56.0%
  • No he is totally winning the Vuelta

    Votes: 18 24.0%

  • Total voters
    75
Honestly this is one of the least considerate implications levelled against a TdF winner after injury. You must be an outsider, not an athlete on a top level and never experienced a "crash" that destroyed on leg. Seriously; no amount of "clinic" aids can restore structural damage to this level and he's continued like most pros would: to continue getting paid. He's not recovering from road rash.
Oh, how Bipartisan brains are these days: because one thing is true (a horrible crash that creates permanent damage) then it cannot possibly be another. More than one thing can be true at a time, but folks (not just you at all) become aghast and horrified that something other than the issue your’e defending could ALSO be true or a logical consideration. That’s not really very costly here in this venue, but it’s made it such a challenge to have thoughtful conversations (at least in the U.S.) about any topic than contains some complexity or conflict.

what I was thinking about was that any Premier GC rider these days—but withFroome it was really noticeable—they have to achieve full skeletor physique to get to the optimum power-weight ratio to be competitive. Let’s say that was just accomplished through an extremely restrictive diet. Trying to be on that dietary regime while also trying to regain bone mass would not seem to go together and perhaps work against a best possible recovery. But the latter is conjecture of course. Which I certainly don’t have to be an elite-level athlete to make in this forum!
 
Doctors are known to say things like this to encourage the patient.
Lance Armstrong's cancer doctor told him he had something like a 60% chance of survival, but kept to himself he really believed it was more like 20%.
Froome's doctor dealt with routine broken bones didn't they? I don't think they had a specific expertise regarding world class cyclists so were really in no position to tell him he would return to his previous form.
Even if he's a mere 5% off his best this is huge at WT level, but not for day-to-day life.
 
I don't feel good with a skinny pro cyclist being called overweight and fat. I know how you mean it, but I still don't like it. None of those guys is anything close to that.
He said he had done a lot of weight and core work during the winter and said he is 3kg over his weight still now.

To lose that between now and the tour you are going to lose muscle not fat.

I mean come on and then asking for Ineos to pay for the rehab come off it. Why not ISN? Along with the fat contract he's getting paid.
 
Listen, as an outsider who only got seriously into cycling recently, it’s pretty clear there was some major clinic action going on for a while and it promptly shut down after the crash. Guys don’t go from multiple TDF winner in their prime to 100th place no name over a year out from a crash. His form now resembles his pre-dominance form plus 10 years of age.

He’s going to stick around for a couple years for the money then ease his way out, probably also sticking around the scene for the same reason. I don’t have a negative opinion of him at all for the record, just stating what I think is obvious.
This guy knows
 
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He said he had done a lot of weight and core work during the winter and said he is 3kg over his weight still now.

To lose that between now and the tour you are going to lose muscle not fat.

I mean come on and then asking for Ineos to pay for the rehab come off it. Why not ISN? Along with the fat contract he's getting paid.
He has two months and can certainly lose fat, and maybe some upper body muscle too. Six pounds in two months is not that big of a deal.
 
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Oh, how Bipartisan brains are these days: because one thing is true (a horrible crash that creates permanent damage) then it cannot possibly be another. More than one thing can be true at a time, but folks (not just you at all) become aghast and horrified that something other than the issue your’e defending could ALSO be true or a logical consideration. That’s not really very costly here in this venue, but it’s made it such a challenge to have thoughtful conversations (at least in the U.S.) about any topic than contains some complexity or conflict.

what I was thinking about was that any Premier GC rider these days—but withFroome it was really noticeable—they have to achieve full skeletor physique to get to the optimum power-weight ratio to be competitive. Let’s say that was just accomplished through an extremely restrictive diet. Trying to be on that dietary regime while also trying to regain bone mass would not seem to go together and perhaps work against a best possible recovery. But the latter is conjecture of course. Which I certainly don’t have to be an elite-level athlete to make in this forum!



Whaaaat? The base implication that I responded to was the suggestion (not yours, I think; but a subsequent poster) that the only reason Froome was not responding was because he was not on some sort of major Sky program. No Bipartisan or quasi-political attitudes or squisishness involved, trust me and I embrace little of that sh*t. I harbor few illusions that any, and I mean any of the riders that I find reliably successful don't flirt with the lines of whats UCI legal.

Your logical and common sense suggestion about recovery and excessive weight control as a conflicting regime is correct and wouldn't work. The implied relation to that (by others) and any unsubstantiated prior gassing regime as also necessary to success is a soup that ends up generating no conclusive point. Labelling a rider's history in the same conversation as a history dependent on that regime is not fair; we don't know that. Again: I don't trust any rider to be completely pristine but backdating their entire competitive history after a serious injury as indication of their current lack of success is also weak sh*t.

If he was Museeuw; he'd take the legal prescribed treatments to heal the seriously impacted bones, ligaments, etc. After passing the legal point of no longer testing positive for residual banned legal recovery aids; the rider's racing will be a recovery effort at best and possibly for years as the mechanics of posture and cadence could be different. If you continue taking the "prescriptions" then; you may win Paris Robaix. Froome isn't winning anything and probably won't; unless he ignores the pressure to perform and achieves the possible new mechanics that make him happy and successful. He'll need to walk away from his salary to do that IMO.
 
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Puh, 6 km/h off of Bissegger's average atm. Honestly - the TTs are the most shocking part. If it would just be a weight issue, he should at least have the power output on the flat parts in place (and I know that the TT today is not really flat but still).
I'm a big fan of froome, but i agree with that, 3 min in 16 km it's very shocking. There's something wrong with his body, the bones and muscles probably, he is worse than in uae tour, very strange what is happening. Froome's body should get better after 3 months of rehab in california, but he is getting worse.
 
He said he had done a lot of weight and core work during the winter and said he is 3kg over his weight still now.

To lose that between now and the tour you are going to lose muscle not fat.

I mean come on and then asking for Ineos to pay for the rehab come off it. Why not ISN? Along with the fat contract he's getting paid.
If he's much heavier than before, it's because he's full of s***. So he just needs a good laxative ;)
 
It's getting ugly now, i.e. the sharks are circling & his salary will quickly become a pretty big issue (for example what's his worth versus Michael Woods in sporting terms? Not much these days).

I've never seen a sportsman in my life who earns way more than his teammates (& the rest of the sport he partakes in), performs like one of the worst & gets a free pass.

It's a loose loose PR situation from Froome & the money just isn't worth it.
 
It's getting ugly now, i.e. the sharks are circling & his salary will quickly become a pretty big issue (for example what's his worth versus Michael Woods in sporting terms? Not much these days).

I've never seen a sportsman in my life who earns way more than his teammates (& the rest of the sport he partakes in), performs like one of the worst & gets a free pass.

It's a loose loose PR situation from Froome & the money just isn't worth it.
Gareth Bales last season or so with Madrid. Hazard probably as well. Actually football probably has a lot of examples.
 

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