Contador's doping on Verbier debunked?

[yakko!]

So all that talk about Contador having to have cheated on Verbier has "apparently" been disproven:

http://www.velonation.com/News/ID/2248/Contador-on-Verbier-recalculated.aspx

I'm just wondering that, if this is the case, why did it take so long for someone to come out with it?

Italian Doctor Roberto Corsetti said: “Is it useful to continue to want to see what is possible presented as unnatural in light of considerations and data, which, as you see, are questionable and debatable if not clearly incorrect?”

And questions why everyone is throwing guilt at Bert. Does anyone here know enough about those numbers to say one way or another?

 

[BikeCentric]

Look, the bottom line here is that VAM calculations are highly inaccurate and it's pretty silly to throw around any kind of accusations based on VAM (and I've maintained this from the beginning BTW). Unless we know the actual power numbers from a calibrated power meter there is just no point in even discussing this.

 

[red_flanders]

VAM doesn't prove anything either way. It certainly can be suggestive, but it's not like crushing the entire field isn't suggestive in and of itself.

He's a great rider, obviously amazingly talented. He also crushed the field nearly as badly as Armstrong used to and beat Cancellara in an ITT.

I sure wouldn't bet that he's clean. Then again, there are few riders at the top of the GT ranks I'd bet on as being clean.

 

[Epicycle]

I know enough about Corsetti to know that him and Vayer have taken very different paths. Just remember who is making these calculations on both sides. Ferrari injected his viewpoint earlier also.

 

[BikeCentric]

I sure wouldn't bet that he's clean. Then again, there are few riders at the top of the GT ranks I'd bet on as being clean.

This I agree with; and again VAM is just not a good source to use as far as attempting to accuse someone of doping or as evidence of them being clean.

 

[Galic Ho]

That was a good explanation by Corsetti. Threads earlier in the year had a number of people taking a dig and saying their five cents worth. I asked why VAM was valid. You cannot compare two separate cilmbs in separate years using guesswork and an averaging equation (that is what VAM boils down to). One cannot compare apples and oranges. Few at the time acknowledged if Contador was out of this world, so too were Schleck and the next 3 riders after him, Wiggins, Nibali and Franck Schleck. Consistency and accuracy need to be maintained so the public receives relevant and reliable information. This seems to be much closer than Vayers data.

 

[blackcat]

VAM doesn't prove anything either way. It certainly can be suggestive, but it's not like crushing the entire field isn't suggestive in and of itself.

He's a great rider, obviously amazingly talented. He also crushed the field nearly as badly as Armstrong used to and beat Cancellara in an ITT.

I sure wouldn't bet that he's clean. Then again, there are few riders at the top of the GT ranks I'd bet on as being clean.

trees from the forest folks. Red Flanders has it dialed.

was it in 99, Jamie Burrow, still holds the record ascent for Plateau de Beille, ridden in u23 l'Izard, and he bear the u23 World tt champ, Hushovd, in the chrono in that event too.

64 kg guys, even with lowest drag coefficients, doing record ascents, and beating Cancellara in the chrono.

Ofcourse, Contador is a brilliant rider, and he did start out as a chrono rider. And looking at him, his drag profile will be less than Zabriskie, so he is made for chronos not just climbs. But to do both in the one Tour...

 

[Alpe d'Huez]

Interesting read, but we talked about VAM until we were blue in the face, and I find myself agreeing with Red and Bike here.

Curious to hear Ross and Jonathan from SOS comment.

Also, keep in mind that as much as anything Lemond asked of Berti: "What is your VO2Max?", a fairly simple question, and AC refused to answer. That drove a lot of people around here's suspicion.

 

[blackcat]

Interesting read, but we talked about VAM until we were blue in the face, and I find myself agreeing with Red and Bike here.

Curious to hear Ross and Jonathan from SOS comment.

Also, keep in mind that as much as anything Lemond asked of Berti: "What is your VO2Max?", a fairly simple question, and AC refused to answer. That drove a lot of people around here's suspicion.

but the VO2 has been debunked as the be all indicator. It is AN indicator, but not the be all.

Lemond gotta give up that VO2 fixation, otherwise we may as well enter the lab to decide the winner.

I know Alpe was not positing that argument, merely pistolero being coy.

But those in the know, do not even need to ask a question to appreciate what goes on for the GC. Not just pistolero. The reason why these questions are asked, is for a different audience. The audience who assumes since there are drug tests, Lance and pistolero must be clean, because they are tested.

 

[Alpe d'Huez]

Correct.

.

 

[DavidVilla7]

I would bet El Pistolero is clean, and pharmstrong isn't.

VO2 max, what is VO2 max?

 

[wattage]

This article is just rubbish. Cancellara must have been putting out something like 460-470 at Annecys TT, and Contador just smoked him. Even if Contador is bit more aero than Fabian, he still must have been putting out ridiculous watts, definitely way more than 400 watts.

And in that article they claim that Contador weighs 64kg. Contador says he weighs 62kg, but actually he might even be lighter than that (pro's like to play games with their weight)

 

[Publicus]

This article is just rubbish. Cancellara must have been putting out something like 460-470 at Annecys TT, and Contador just smoked him. Even if Contador is bit more aero than Fabian, he still must have been putting out ridiculous watts, definitely way more than 400 watts.

And in that article they claim that Contador weighs 64kg. Contador says he weighs 62kg, but actually he might even be lighter than that (pro's like to play games with their weight)

The article is rubbish because . . . you ASSUME what Spartcus' wattage was at Annecy and Contador SMOKED him . . . by all of 3 seconds. AC was ahead by over 30 seconds at the top of the Category 3 climb and lost a ton of time over the back half of the course. He HELD on to win. He didn't smoke him, he just beat him. Barely.

 

[Anonymous]

I would bet El Pistolero is clean, and pharmstrong isn't.

VO2 max, what is VO2 max?

Yeah he is clean as a “HOG” in slop.

VO2 max? I have no clue either.

 

[Big Doopie]

but the VO2 has been debunked as the be all indicator. It is AN indicator, but not the be all.

Lemond gotta give up that VO2 fixation, otherwise we may as well enter the lab to decide the winner.

lemond has never said anything other than what you said: it is AN indicator.

and lemond has called for power meters to be put on bikes so that we can know exactly -- and that too can be AN indicator.

lemond has always talked about looking at EVERYTHING involved so as to make a judgment.

but it does follow that a jump in wattage of 20-25% would logically need to register a substantial uptick in VO2.

thus lemond CAN argue that powering up a major climb averaging over 500 watts (as armstrong has done) would require a VO2 near or above 100.

considering lemond has the highest ever recorded VO2 at 92.5, you could say that his argument holds some water.

 

[maltiv]

lemond has never said anything other than what you said: it is AN indicator.

and lemond has called for power meters to be put on bikes so that we can know exactly -- and that too can be AN indicator.

lemond has always talked about looking at EVERYTHING involved so as to make a judgment.

but it does follow that a jump in wattage of 20-25% would logically need to register a substantial uptick in VO2.

thus lemond CAN argue that powering up a major climb averaging over 500 watts (as armstrong has done) would require a VO2 near or above 100.

considering lemond has the highest ever recorded VO2 at 92.5, you could say that his argument holds some water.

Actually Bjørn Dæhlie, a norwegian skier, has the highest ever recorded VO2 at 96. This was in off season tough, and it is estimated that he would have around 100 at his peak.

 

[workingclasshero]

Actually Bjørn Dæhlie, a norwegian skier, has the highest ever recorded VO2 at 96. This was in off season tough, and it is estimated that he would have around 100 at his peak.

bet he's now kicking himself over this being revealed, seeing as this can be considered a strong indicator that he was doped. especially as since then very many of his toughest opponents have been caught

file that along with his early retirement just around the time when the test for r-epo was ready

also, word on the street is he was spotted along with vegard ulvang at a seminar in italy where the topic supposedly was how to dope (now this is very unofficial)

 

[wattage]

The article is rubbish because . . . you ASSUME what Spartcus' wattage was at Annecy and Contador SMOKED him . . . by all of 3 seconds. AC was ahead by over 30 seconds at the top of the Category 3 climb and lost a ton of time over the back half of the course. He HELD on to win. He didn't smoke him, he just beat him. Barely.

Well okay, there's no power file for Spartacus. But there is a power file for Gustav Erik Larsson from TOC 2009 and he has threshold power of 470 watts. And Fabian did beat him easily at Worlds.

So even though it was third week at the Tour, it should be pretty doable for Fabian to hold 460 watts for an hour. At least.

 

[laura.weislo]

So all that talk about Contador having to have cheated on Verbier has "apparently" been disproven:

http://www.velonation.com/News/ID/2248/Contador-on-Verbier-recalculated.aspx

I'm just wondering that, if this is the case, why did it take so long for someone to come out with it?

Old news - Cyclingnews already covered that here.

 

[red_flanders]

lemond has never said anything other than what you said: it is AN indicator.

and lemond has called for power meters to be put on bikes so that we can know exactly -- and that too can be AN indicator.

lemond has always talked about looking at EVERYTHING involved so as to make a judgment.

I'm glad you point this out, it's an important part of his stance that a lot of people seem not to get from his statements. Whether that's because of how he makes his case or their hearing what they want to I don't know, but I'm glad you're pointing it out.

 

[Polish]

lemond has never said anything other than what you said: it is AN indicator.
.

Greg hinted/accused Alberto of doping in a major French Newspaper.
No proof, mind you, just "An Indication"

Alberto should SUE Greg's keester big time!

 

[Publicus]

Well okay, there's no power file for Spartacus. But there is a power file for Gustav Erik Larsson from TOC 2009 and he has threshold power of 470 watts. And Fabian did beat him easily at Worlds.

So even though it was third week at the Tour, it should be pretty doable for Fabian to hold 460 watts for an hour. At least.

Let's just stay focused on Annecy since that was the original point. Fabian weighs what 80 kg? And AC,as you noted is, what 62kg? To move mass A up a category 3 climb is going to be significantly harder than moving mass B up that same climb. But moving mass A down that same slope is going to be significantly easier, especially if A produces superior power wattage. So, as I noted, AC went UP the mountain faster, Spartacus went DOWN the mountain much faster than AC. He basically ran out of real estate.

Funny enough the same thing happened at the prologue. AC was ahead at the top of the course and Fabian scorched the second half to pull out the victory.

 

[Psalmon]

The VO2 Max argument does not hold water in mountain climbing either. Although Ed Viesturs (only US climber to have summited all 14 8km peaks without 02) has a stratospheric VO2 Max, Reinhold Messner's (arguably the greatest mountaineer ever, first to do all 14 8km peaks and without bottled O2, first this way up Everest too, did it twice before anyone, once solo!), his VO2 Max is in the 40s, more common.

For a different reason I think having the whole peloton equipped with power meters and real time telemetry could be cool. It would be crazy to see what these acceleration numbers were, who was rising, who was dying, the effect of sitting on vs driving the pace. Some interesting viewing stuff there.

Of course, the sign in at the start of each stage would become the weigh in, which may be awkward.

 

[Bristol Park Cycling]

Do we think LeMond should have been more careful before he used his position as a Tour winner to accuse a top rider of doping, during a Tour?

 

[karlboss]

Why would Vo2 max matter at all mountaineering? Maybe a low Vo2 max helps as air gets thinner there is still enough for your body to use as it never uses much anyway.