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Mar 4, 2012
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We've known EBH as a climbing sprinter/classics sort of guy. In the spring, he was disappointing, causing many to say that he "does not have the engine" among other things. Apparently, he was plagued by stomach problems and the wrong coach...

Now, we see him doing massive work on some of the toughest climbs of the Tour. Does this seem legit to you? Has he ever shown this kind of potential?

I'll make use of this picture from another thread to illustrate:
AxqwpZVCQAACYd4.jpg
 
May 25, 2009
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Yes, he has shown this potential. Look at his strong results in long TTs, his stage win in the mountains last year, as well as his impressive domestique performance in the Dauphine that year.

I recall some strong climbing for High Road in the Giro, too.
 
Of all of Sky's Tour squad, I find EBH and Knees to be the least suspicious (well, Cav and Bernie don't count here). I haven't seen them do anything they shouldn't be doing (Knees in particular is underperforming, IMO).

EBH has been a massive talent ever since he showed up on the road, contrary to his leaders.
 
Mar 4, 2012
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hrotha said:
Of all of Sky's Tour squad, I find EBH and Knees to be the least suspicious (well, Cav and Bernie don't count here). I haven't seen them do anything they shouldn't be doing (Knees in particular is underperforming, IMO).

EBH has been a massive talent ever since he showed up on the road, contrary to his leaders.

I guess I sort of misjudged the type of rider he is. I was under the impression that, like Sagan, he would be dropped on the ultra-tough HC climbs.

Maybe he picked a wrong focus in the classics? What would he be able to do with a bit of a slim-down?
 
Cancellator said:
I guess I sort of misjudged the type of rider he is. I was under the impression that, like Sagan, he would be dropped on the ultra-tough HC climbs.

Maybe he picked a wrong focus in the classics? What would he be able to do with a bit of a slim-down?
That's always been the problem with EBH: no one's quite sure of what to do with him, and least of all EBH himself. He's not a guy who can climb with the best over several mountains if there's fireworks, but he should be capable of doing the sort of tempo riding he's been doing so far.

He obviously has problems over 230-240 km, so unless he improves on that it's hard to see him doing well in the monuments (all of which could theoretically suit him). I don't think he's GT material. One-week races would seem to be his niche, but then, he's so talented that something like that looks almost minor. And then there's his sprinting skills.

His versatility may be dooming him to mediocrity due to a lack of specialization in the long run.
 
Sep 9, 2011
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As I said in another thread in The Clinic, regarding the " Sky team-wide doping"- program accusations;

Edvald Boasson Hagen is the ONLY athlete, Norwegians included, I would put my head on the block for and say: "If he is doped; cut it off!"
 
Aug 6, 2009
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norwegian said:
As I said in another thread in The Clinic, regarding the " Sky team-wide doping"- program accusations;

Edvald Boasson Hagen is the ONLY athlete, Norwegians included, I would put my head on the block for and say: "If he is doped; cut it off!"

You know, there are riders, a fair number of them actually, that I'd be willing to bet the eating of a cyanide covered hat if they were clean. Given the history of the sport though, it just seems naive to make the opposite bet. The only person in the world who can know with anything near total certainty that a rider is clean is the rider himself.
 
Jun 15, 2010
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Cerberus said:
You know, there are riders, a fair number of them actually, that I'd be willing to bet the eating of a cyanide covered hat if they were clean. Given the history of the sport though, it just seems naive to make the opposite bet. The only person in the world who can know with anything near total certainty that a rider is clean is the rider himself.

I once asked Dave Brailsford.Which Sky rider has the most physical potential.He replied ,Edvald by a considerable margin.
 
Aug 6, 2009
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simo1733 said:
I once asked Dave Brailsford.Which Sky rider has the most physical potential.He replied ,Edvald by a considerable margin.
That might be true, but that doesn't make him clean. it certainly doesn't make him 100% certainly clean.
 
Jun 30, 2012
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Cerberus said:
That might be true, but that doesn't make him clean. it certainly doesn't make him 100% certainly clean.

it doesnt, we can never know for sure if a rider is clean or not.

but nothing edvald has done has pointed to him being on juice, NOTHING at all.
 
Aug 6, 2009
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stazzy said:
it doesnt, we can never know for sure if a rider is clean or not.

but nothing edvald has done has pointed to him being on juice, NOTHING at all.

Well he has won races... :D











But seriously, not saying he's definitively doped. I was reacting to Norwegians certainty that he couldn't possibly be. Though if you do want to trust a rider, you can do worse that someone who scored a 0 on UCIs leaked suspicion list.
 
At 18, EBH was tested by high road. Afterwards, Stapleton concluded that EBH was "the most talented rider" he had ever seen. He said that he would certainly be a future TDF winner. At this point, EBH was a shy, poor boy from a small farm in Rudsbygd. I know that he wasn't doped at this point. A friend of me (who was a continental rider before) lived and trained with him a lot and he certainly wasn't doing anything suspicious. He wasn't very worried by money either, as he was offered HUGE contracts at that point but decided to stay with Team Maxbo Bianchi for another year to ride with his friends.

As a u23 rider, EBH dominated most hilly stages. He was the world's most winning rider in 2007, winning a total of 15 races. Merely 2-3 of them were from sprints, most were from late attacks. In Ringerike GP for example, he won 4 out of 5 stages + the overall. All his stage wins were won solo. He was also top 15 in tour d'lavenir, despite losing 10 minutes in the crosswinds. In stage 9 he was the only rider from the peloton able to follow Bauke Mollema in the hills.

When he became a pro in 2008 he started of by being 5th in his first ever race, the prologue of Tour of California. Barely a few months later he won the ITT in Criterium International, ahead of riders like Tony Martin and David Zabriskie. He took a total of 8 victories in his first year as a pro.

In 2009 he started of by winning Gent-Wevelgem. In Giro d'Italia he won stage 7. He was 2nd on stage 6 and stage 8. In stage 8 he actually followed an attack by Leipheimer up a 1st category mountain and bridged up to a group including Pellizotti, Diluca etc. Look at this top 11 and tell me again that EBH "suddenly" learned to climb at Sky:

1 Kanstantsin Siutsou (Blr) Team Columbia - Highroad
2 Edvald Boasson Hagen (Nor) Team Columbia - Highroad 0.21
3 Danilo Di Luca (Ita) LPR Brakes - Farnese Vini
4 Michael Rogers (Aus) Team Columbia - Highroad
5 Franco Pellizotti (Ita) Liquigas
6 Stefano Garzelli (Ita) Acqua & Sapone - Caffe Mokambo
7 Damiano Cunego (Ita) Lampre - N.G.C.
8 Jackson Rodriguez (Ven) Serramenti PVC Diquigiovanni-Androni Giocattoli
9 Marzio Bruseghin (Ita) Lampre - N.G.C.
10 Thomas Rohregger (Aut) Team Milram
11 Joaquin Rodriguez (Spa) Caisse d'Epargne

How many sprinters can you see in that group? So as you can see, EBH was a good climber already at 21 y.o, even though he was 77 kg's. He also showed that his recovery was great, as he finished 3rd on the last ITT of the Giro.

At Sky he started of by winning two stages in tour of oman, including a hilly ITT ahead of Cancellara. Then he was injured for a long time, but came back to win a hilly stage of the Dauphine solo. He attacked up a 1st category mountain, caught the break, attacked from the break and won with a big gap. This was the only hilly stage Sky won in 2010. Later in the year he was climbing with the very best in GP Quebec and GP Montreal. In Montreal he was countering attacks by Samuel Sanchez uphill. Unfortunately he fell in the last corner.

In 2011 he dropped 3 kg's (from 76 to 73 kgs) and had results such as 2nd on the MTF in Oman (behind Gesink) and 6th on the first MTF in Dauphine:

1 Jurgen Van Den Broeck (Bel) Omega Pharma-Lotto 3:36:42
2 Joaquin Rodriguez Oliver (Spa) Katusha Team 0:00:06
3 Cadel Evans (Aus) BMC Racing Team 0:00:07
4 Alexandre Vinokourov (Kaz) Pro Team Astana
5 Nicolas Roche (Irl) AG2R La Mondiale
6 Edvald Boasson Hagen (Nor) Sky Procycling
7 Thibaut Pinot (Fra) FDJ 0:00:13
8 Rob Ruijgh (Ned) Vacansoleil-DCM Pro Cycling Team
9 Thomas Voeckler (Fra) Team Europcar 0:00:15
10 Janez Brajkovic (Slo) Team RadioShack
11 Bradley Wiggins (GBr) Sky Procycling

Fast forward, he's now pulling the peloton in the first 40 km's of mountain stages. Is that really that surprising? That a guy who was predicted to win GT's can be a decent domestique in the mountains?

My point is that EBH has barely improved as a climber at all. Definitely no more improvement than one would expect from a 25 year old. And again, he was not at Tenerife...
 
Mar 4, 2012
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maltiv said:

Thanks for the well thought-out post. He definitely has an interesting story - and I can see how most consider him clean. I wonder what he thinks about his current role at Sky and his future.

This also could reinforce the idea of an "inner circle" at Sky (basically, the Tenerife training camp guys) that have the stuff, while the others don't.
 
Jun 30, 2012
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maltiv said:
At 18, EBH was tested by high road. Afterwards, Stapleton concluded that EBH was "the most talented rider" he had ever seen. He said that he would certainly be a future TDF winner. At this point, EBH was a shy, poor boy from a small farm in Rudsbygd.

haha have u seen his interviews

never seen anyone speak like he does, never. always seems so frail and scared of something, or calm and shy. cant put my head around what. speaks so slow norwegian aswell that sometimes you wonder if that is his mothertongue(obviously is). in the peloton hes a beast though, changes completely.
 
hrotha said:
Of all of Sky's Tour squad, I find EBH and Knees to be the least suspicious (well, Cav and Bernie don't count here). I haven't seen them do anything they shouldn't be doing (Knees in particular is underperforming, IMO).

EBH has been a massive talent ever since he showed up on the road, contrary to his leaders.

Agreed.

..
 
Mar 13, 2009
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took l'Avenir by storm with those 3 wins.

But to assume he is clean, lets give this over to BigBoat "hehehe".

Delusion the guy is clean, look at his visage. Ask Victor Conte. The guy is on loads of hypertophy strength androgens and prolly oxygen vector techniques.

And if we wanna go all "Norwegians are as pure as English speakers" on us, I give you Nordic Skiing. Perhaps, with weightlifting, track and field, and cycling, as the dirtiest sports, and norf american pro team leagues...

Higgs Boasson, kicks @ss at CERN, but =/= clean.

particularly physics on wheels
 

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