Fabio Aru 6.5w/kg

[hrotha]

More to the point, Boswell's reaction was too funny to not post it at the slightest provocation.

 

[staubsauger]

Wasn't Firsanov even faster allegedly, but got blocked by the Tinkoff team car?

 

[SafeBet]

Genuine question: is Aru following Cunego's path?
To me he's always looked like the typical big time doper, but I'm starting to wonder if he got off the juice for some reason.

Opinions?

 

[Simurgh]

Re:

Genuine question: is Aru following Cunego's path?
To me he's always looked like the typical big time doper, but I'm starting to wonder if he got off the juice for some reason.

Opinions?

Funny you give Cunego as an example, because I thought about him and his career trajectory too, when I wrote in the Aru thread. Astana has in my opinion always been one of the shadier team in that department (to put it mildly), and so Aru and especially Landa looked in my eyes to be glowing in that 2015 Giro. So yeah, Aru's downfall could very well be caused by limiting himself to good ol' pan y agua.

 

[TourOfSardinia]

tend to agree

 

[Oufeh]

Re:

Genuine question: is Aru following Cunego's path?
To me he's always looked like the typical big time doper, but I'm starting to wonder if he got off the juice for some reason.

Opinions?

Ask Greg Henderson

 

[DanielSong39]

Has Aru gone from 6.5w/kg to 5.5w/kg?

Dude looked like he was going to be the next big thing. His career trajectory looked pretty similar to Vincenzo Nibali up until 2015 or so.

 

[pastronef]

Re:

Genuine question: is Aru following Cunego's path?
To me he's always looked like the typical big time doper, but I'm starting to wonder if he got off the juice for some reason.

Opinions?

Aru is following Brajkovic, Anton and Jurgen VDB paths

 

[DanielSong39]

Cunego had a great career even after he ceased to be a GC threat in Grand Tours, Aru would do very well to match Cunego's accomplishments.

 

[May0maniac]

Re: Re:

Genuine question: is Aru following Cunego's path?
To me he's always looked like the typical big time doper, but I'm starting to wonder if he got off the juice for some reason.

Opinions?

Aru is following Brajkovic, Anton and Jurgen VDB paths

Jani was never a real gt contender and his decline pretty much started when he stopped riding for Bruyneel and the Postal scandal started, once The Hog was persona non grata his decline started.
I don't know what's wrong with Aru, you'd thing that UAE with a ton of fresh oil money would have more protection that Astana, durning the last few years he got some heat from the French press and some fellow riders, so maybe that was one of the main reasons to sign with a team that doesn't have that kind of rep and is willing to pay you a ton of money.
The question is, why would he start riding clean at UAE? Because he already got a life changing payday and it's no longer worth taking risks? I don't know about that.
Are UAE not a dirty team? Maybe Saronni told everyone to tune it down after the Lampre doping trial, but the team still signed the Saunier Duval dream team Gianetti and Matxin, why would a clean team sign those guys?
Lampre has always had a bad rep, so maybe they just messed up his preparation? Well, he mainly worked with Tiralongo and a veteran like him who knows Aru really well and has been by his side since he turned pro should know about the kind of "preparation" that he had at Astana and how he trained, so replicating that shouldn't be too hard.
Maybe the wanted to change a few things and made a few mistakes, but in the end it looks like a rather complex case, I don't thing that he just started sucking because he stopped doping.

 

[Vino attacks everyone]

Iregardless of doping. Any athlete may some time experience an off year (Contador 13 anyone?). Recurring illness maybe and overtraining can be a serious issue taking months to recover from. If he’s still this bad next year however, one should become more sceptical as to
Whether he’ll ever be what he was a couple of years ago

 

[staubsauger]

When was the last time Lampre successfully prepared a grand tour contender? Raimondas Rumsas! Although he got caught for EPO at the 2003 Giro d'Italia. So it was hardly successful.

After that it was the former Saeco crew (Simoni, Cunego & Martinelli) that got it right at the 2005 Giro d'Italia and Scarponi used to prepare himself individually in 2011 I think.

So it's not only about Aru. As harsh as I've been on him. The Lampre team better should've folder 2 years ago.

 

[hfer07]

Re:

Genuine question: is Aru following Cunego's path?
To me he's always looked like the typical big time doper, but I'm starting to wonder if he got off the juice for some reason.

Opinions?

I dare to say once he left ASTANA, his results dropped dramatically while with his new team, he always seems to be either ill, or lacking shape, struggling, etc.

 

[May0maniac]

Re:

When was the last time Lampre successfully prepared a grand tour contender? Raimondas Rumsas! Although he got caught for EPO at the 2003 Giro d'Italia. So it was hardly successful.

After that it was the former Saeco crew (Simoni, Cunego & Martinelli) that got it right at the 2005 Giro d'Italia and Scarponi used to prepare himself individually in 2011 I think.

So it's not only about Aru. As harsh as I've been on him. The Lampre team better should've folder 2 years ago.

It's not only about a grand tour contender, how many stars did the team create/how many great riders were developed by them?
Only Ballan comes to my mind, everyone else was already a bigger name when he signed with them (many got worse after signing with Lampre) or only became a big deal after they signed with another team.

 

[roundabout]

Bennati had his breakthrough with Lampre, although one can argue that it was coming and Ulissi has done pretty well (but I would say that he is a tier below star level).

 

[May0maniac]

Re:

Bennati had his breakthrough with Lampre, although one can argue that it was coming and Ulissi has done pretty well (but I would say that he is a tier below star level).

Yeah, I forgot about Bennati.
Ulissi is a good rider, but he still has the same weaknesses that he always had, rather poor bike handler and descender and not great at staying near the front, so he always looses his position and has to waste energy to catch up, that's one of the reasons why he can't handle the distance in races like AGR, LBL and Lombardia.
Still, for a team that has existed so long that's not exactly a long list, they kinda suck at developing young riders.
Aru has mainly worked with Tira, so I don't think we can blame them for his preparation and all the stuff that comes with it.

 

[Benotti69]

Watching Aru blaming the bike was pathetic. Reminds me of Visentini, spoilt.

 

[SafeBet]

So Aru is about to retire. He's 31 years old.
Once touted as the next big thing in Italian cycling, he went from GT contender to randomly not being able to follow the peloton on rolling stages.

I truly hope one day we'll know the full story on his career.

 

[Mayomaniac]

So Aru is about to retire. He's 31 years old.
Once touted as the next big thing in Italian cycling, he went from GT contender to randomly not being able to follow the peloton on rolling stages.

I truly hope one day we'll know the full story on his career.

Aru isn't the first and probably not the last guy who looked like a worldbeater under Locatelli (remember Riabushenko as an u23 rider?). The fact that he started late orobably means that he had still a bit more left in the tank and then Astana tried to get as much out of him as possible (they really like to overrace riders once they know that they are leaving). Then Saronni and getting coached by your friend happened and by the time the Saunier Duval duo had replaced all the old Lampre staff members his health problems happened...

 

[Pinot's goat]

So Aru is about to retire. He's 31 years old.
Once touted as the next big thing in Italian cycling, he went from GT contender to randomly not being able to follow the peloton on rolling stages.

I truly hope one day we'll know the full story on his career.

We already know: https://www.cyclingnews.com/news/fabio-aru-when-the-iliac-artery-problem-was-diagnosed-i-cried/

 

[Big Doopie]

according to some pros his initial successes were never legit.

appears that the iliac artery thing may have been a cover.

astana doesn't look so good either. then again, when did they? unapologetic vino in charge.

 

[Ripper]

according to some pros his initial successes were never legit.

appears that the iliac artery thing may have been a cover.

astana doesn't look so good either. then again, when did they? unapologetic vino in charge.

Which pros?

 

[Big Doopie]

Which pros?

greg Henderson.

And as soon as he left Astana he was a shadow of himself.

 

[Ripper]

greg Henderson.

And as soon as he left Astana he was a shadow of himself.

Interesting, I had never heard that about Henderson.

Obvious as obvious with respect to Astana.

 

[SafeBet]

Interesting, I had never heard that about Henderson.

Not under his given name, I guess.