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Mellow Velo said:I'm not sure what to think about Cali as Tour prep, but I'd guess Rabo will be one of the top teams to attend.
Mambo95 said:Maybe it's because he's decided, like many others, that riding the Giro isn't the best preparation for the Tour.
Not everything in cycling is about doping.
Bala Verde said:A sponsorship decision? Rabo is invested in California, through their agricultural (and other) lending products.
Psalmon said:The only reason I can see this in the Clinic is maybe because Menchov won the Vuelta after Heras was DQ'ed for doping after the race. He also achieved the Tour "postdium" after Kohl was DQ'ed. So the only "doping strategy" for Menchov to consider would be he thinks he can do well enough to get 4th or so and hope everyone ahead of him is busted so he achieves yet another postdium.
That's a crazy notion I know, and why I strongly second your point that this is not a Clinic issue. Although doping remains embedded with cycling and one of the sport's biggest problems, I agree that every shaving of cycling news need not be viewed through a PED prism.
It's more than worthwhile to discuss doping, but "Menchov skipping Giro to focus on the Tour" in the Clinic? That's worse than trolling because it paints the most fundamental news story (team presentation and rider schedule announcement) with a purely cynical brush. At that point, I find it hard to
understand why someone would follow the sport (certainly enough to post in a cycling forum) or how it adds value to the rest of us who do.
craig1985 said:I just don't think it is possible to win the Giro-Tour anymore. Unless they are jacked to the moon like Pantani was.
Angliru said:Not that anyone else was "jacked" at the '98 Tour.
Pantani had several situations that went strongly in his favor. Ullrich's bonk in the cold and rain that gave Pantani his eventual lead. The mass exodus of riders caught up in the Festina scandal and the subsequent domino effect with another team bowing out early. The field of competitors left wasn't especially the most challenging overall either unless my memory is not what it used to be.