Teams & Riders Froome Talk Only

[Oude Geuze]

Re:

Whilst Froome might be technically correct and within his rights, in that his current salbutomol usage is nobody else's business, surely he must see a certain arrogance in his reply to a journalists very fair question yesterday.

Given the cloud that remains over his continued participation in the sport, the least that he could have done was answer the question honestly and transparently. Some things never change with Team Sky, however. Prudhomme will be clinging onto the hope that the decision on his salbutomol case is made prior to the tour. I wouldn't bank on it at this stage.

I think he's answered quite a few salbutamol questions this past 8 months or so. It's weird asking him about it every day, I mean, its not like somethings changed. I'm also amazed at people wondering wether or not he still uses salbutamol or gets outraged seing him use it in competition. It's not like asthma is a communicable disease that will pass like the flu, he will be taking some form of medication the rest of his life probably. Journalists are basically goading him to anger just for effect and headlines at this point, which is their perogative, but its still stupid unless there are more facts to discuss.

 

[red_flanders]

He's probably at his wit's end about the subject, frustrated and most likely very afraid of what's coming. Personally, I'm not sure how he sleeps at night.

I would imagine quite well. He's gotten wealthy doping his way to the top.

I think he's answered quite a few salbutamol questions this past 8 months or so. It's weird asking him about it every day, I mean, its not like somethings changed.

Quite right, it is a bit silly.

I'm also amazed at people wondering wether or not he still uses salbutamol or gets outraged seing him use it in competition. It's not like asthma is a communicable disease that will pass like the flu, he will be taking some form of medication the rest of his life probably. Journalists are basically goading him to anger just for effect and headlines at this point, which is their perogative, but its still stupid unless there are more facts to discuss.

I think many people don't believe for a minute that he has asthma.

 

[gillan1969]

Re:

He's probably at his wit's end about the subject, frustrated and most likely very afraid of what's coming. Personally, I'm not sure how he sleeps at night.

of course he's at his wits end...after all, after taking well below the allowed dosage via puffs he scored 2000...with that sort of crazy physiology another AAf could happen, literally, any day he's had some puffs......poor Froome, a salbutomol native

 

[GraftPunk]

Re: Re:

He's probably at his wit's end about the subject, frustrated and most likely very afraid of what's coming. Personally, I'm not sure how he sleeps at night.

He sleeps very well, under the protective gaze of his loving, and well fed Python.

I always pictured Michelle as more of a viper

 

[Merckx index]

Re: Re:

He sleeps very well, under the protective gaze of his loving, and well fed Python.

It’s not a python, it’s a puff adder. The problem is that it added wrong.

I found an article written by Raymond Kerckhoffs on Froome at the start of the Giro. This would have been a few days before his claim that Froome would be exonerated “within a few days.”. You have to have an account to access the article, but you can register free:

https://www.telegraaf.nl/sport/wielrennen/1995484/controverse-rond-froome

This is the important part, not just a rehash of the known facts of the case:

The Dutch doping expert Douwe de Boer is very clear: "Salbutamol is an innocent means". That immediately raises the question that many experts live in or that salbutamol should be on the doping list. First, WADA does not have any scientific report showing that the product is prestatiebevorderend

"Bevorderend” seems to mean “promotion”. I think the meaning here is that there is no evidence that salbutamol is performance enhancing, which of course is not true.

Second, scientists indicate that you need thousands of measurements for a correct threshold, which the WADA does not possess.

That's based on the theoretical article by Heuberger, et al., discussed up thread.

The UCI has confirmed to this newspaper that in recent years several riders have been acquitted by the national federations of a too high value of salbutamol. They could later prove their innocence. As these issues were not being publicised, they were able to investigate the cause of the ' positive ' test in peace. In The Froome affair, public opinion has already become an influential factor.

This is apparently the basis of Froome’s claim that other riders in his situation managed to defend their cases in private, and eventually got off. I’d like to know how many, because the available statistics indicate there must be very few, and of course we’d like to know what their urine levels of salbutamol were. Remember, Ulissi’s case was in 2015, and though the details of the decision were never published, nothing in his public statements indicated he was basing his case on the fact that other riders with levels like his got off. It would also be important to know whether any of these cases reached the Tribunal stage, or if they were cleared before then. Maybe they were cleared on a technicality, or maybe they were allowed to use a corrected value, even before that rule changed.

In any case, if this is all that Kerckhoffs has to base his prediction of acquittal on, I wouldn't take it very seriously. Not unless one of those previously exonerated cases was based on something that could apply to Froome.

 

[LaFlorecita]

Douwe de Boer, he also defended Contador I believe. Funnily enough my mom worked with him in a lab during her studies.

And Telegraaf is gutter press, I wouldn't trust a word that Kerckhoffs writes.

 

[ontheroad]

Due to be the guest on Eurosport at the end of the day. Will be interesting to see the line of questioning.

 

[therealthing]

Pathetic. Before today I said he still had a slim chance of winning. Not anymore.

 

[Pantani Attacks]

Glad to see the real Chris Froome again, we missed you from the glorious sideways cycling Barloworld days

 

[RedheadDane]

Re:

Pathetic. Before today I said he still had a slim chance of winning. Not anymore.

Otoh, the issue of "What happens if Froome wins the Giro, and then gets a back-dated ban?" seems to have nicely solved itself...

Glad to see the real Chris Froome again, we missed you from the glorious sideways cycling Barloworld days

Should the officials for the ITT be worried?

 

[ontheroad]

As expected from Jonathon Edwards on Eurosport, no question's about the AAF. Talking about pulling out of the Giro and prepping now for the TDF as though the AAF doesn't even exist. Classic jingoism at it's best, just ignoring the elephant in the room.

 

[GraftPunk]

Re:

As expected from Jonathon Edwards on Eurosport, no question's about the AAF. Talking about pulling out of the Giro and prepping now for the TDF as though the AAF doesn't even exist. Classic jingoism at it's best, just ignoring the elephant in the room.

"Nothing to see here, just move along"

 

[Cycle Chic]

Re: Re:

As expected from Jonathon Edwards on Eurosport, no question's about the AAF. Talking about pulling out of the Giro and prepping now for the TDF as though the AAF doesn't even exist. Classic jingoism at it's best, just ignoring the elephant in the room.

"Nothing to see here, just move along"

a very telling interview I thought - Froomes voice was trembling throughout the interview. He was nervous and not the person we have seen and heard for the past few years. No confidence.

 

[MartinGT]

Re: Re:

As expected from Jonathon Edwards on Eurosport, no question's about the AAF. Talking about pulling out of the Giro and prepping now for the TDF as though the AAF doesn't even exist. Classic jingoism at it's best, just ignoring the elephant in the room.

"Nothing to see here, just move along"

a very telling interview I thought - Froomes voice was trembling throughout the interview. He was nervous and not the person we have seen and heard for the past few years. No confidence.

He needs some classes on walking the walk by Brailsfraud. How to talk and walk like an MP
I

 

[CTQ]

Re: Re:

As expected from Jonathon Edwards on Eurosport, no question's about the AAF. Talking about pulling out of the Giro and prepping now for the TDF as though the AAF doesn't even exist. Classic jingoism at it's best, just ignoring the elephant in the room.

"Nothing to see here, just move along"

a very telling interview I thought - Froomes voice was trembling throughout the interview. He was nervous and not the person we have seen and heard for the past few years. No confidence.

maybe you missed the fact that the interview was just after the stage, he was on the bike for cool down .Do you speak normaly after a big effort
https://twitter.com/Eurosport_UK/status/996800006739972098

 

[poupou]

So he is the first rider to be paid by GIRO for his TDF preparation!
What are the thoughts of Vegni?

 

[thehog]

Re: Re:

As expected from Jonathon Edwards on Eurosport, no question's about the AAF. Talking about pulling out of the Giro and prepping now for the TDF as though the AAF doesn't even exist. Classic jingoism at it's best, just ignoring the elephant in the room.

"Nothing to see here, just move along"

a very telling interview I thought - Froomes voice was trembling throughout the interview. He was nervous and not the person we have seen and heard for the past few years. No confidence.

He needs some classes on walking the walk by Brailsfraud. How to talk and walk like an MP
I

He needs to get Lanse’s “7” out on DVD, watch him beat off the journalists. We need a “you’re not even worth the chair you’re sitting on”. C’Mon Froomey!!

 

[thehog]

Re:

Now that the Giro is looking lost for Froome, you would think Mike Morgan will be using every trick in the book to delay proceedings so any decision comes out post- (rather than pre-) Tour.

Froome’s concern and Sky is they are actually been tested and he can’t do much about it anymore nor complain as spent so many years ask for extra testing on Tenerife. What a loser.

 

[wirral]

Re: Re:

As expected from Jonathon Edwards on Eurosport, no question's about the AAF. Talking about pulling out of the Giro and prepping now for the TDF as though the AAF doesn't even exist. Classic jingoism at it's best, just ignoring the elephant in the room.

"Nothing to see here, just move along"

a very telling interview I thought - Froomes voice was trembling throughout the interview. He was nervous and not the person we have seen and heard for the past few years. No confidence.

He needs some classes on walking the walk by Brailsfraud. How to talk and walk like an MP
I

He needs to get Lanse’s “7” out on DVD, watch him beat off the journalists. We need a “you’re not even worth the chair you’re sitting on”. C’Mon Froomey!!

 

[TourOfSardinia]

Re: Re:

As expected from Jonathon Edwards on Eurosport, no question's about the AAF. Talking about pulling out of the Giro and prepping now for the TDF as though the AAF doesn't even exist. Classic jingoism at it's best, just ignoring the elephant in the room.

"Nothing to see here, just move along"

a very telling interview I thought - Froomes voice was trembling throughout the interview. He was nervous and not the person we have seen and heard for the past few years. No confidence.

He needs some classes on walking the walk by Brailsfraud. How to talk and walk like an MP
I

He needs to get Lanse’s “7” out on DVD, watch him beat off the journalists. We need a “you’re not even worth the chair you’re sitting on”. C’Mon Froomey!!

That would have to be Michele - he is no sociopath just a little boy.

 

[Netserk]

Re:

So he is the first rider to be paid by GIRO for his TDF preparation!
What are the thoughts of Vegni?

Just like Lance in '09.

 

[fmk_RoI]

Re:

So he is the first rider to be paid by GIRO for his TDF preparation!
What are the thoughts of Vegni?

No. Binda. 1930.

In 1924 the teams had actually gone on strike over their demands for appearance fees.

 

[Tonton]

Re:

There’s a lot of speculation of whether Froome will abandon if he continues riding poorly, so he can prepare for the Tour. But if, as is likely, the decision in his case comes before the Tour, and if, as also is likely, it’s a proactive ban, he won’t be able to ride the Tour. So it seems to me that logic would dictate he ride the Giro all the way through; it could very well be his last race for a while. Even if, less likely, he got a retroactive ban, it would probably include the Tour. Of course in that event the Giro wouldn’t matter, but he wouldn’t know that now.

The race schedule also doesn’t favor bailing soon. There won’t be another mountain stage till the end of this (second) week, he’s certainly not going to give up before then. If he does poorly on Saturday and Sunday, it’s conceivable he could be so far out of it he figures he can’t win. I think that’s a real possibility after this last stage. But if he doesn’t lose any or too much more time (we still don’t know, he himself may not know, how much his performance so far has been the result of the crashes), then he’d certainly want to stay through the rest day and see how much time he can make up on the climbers on the ITT.

At that point, there wouldn’t be much advantage, from the point of view of preparing for the Tour (which again, is likely not to happen, anyway), for not continuing. There are three very tough-looking stages at the end of the last week where a lot of time could be lost by any of his rivals on a bad day.

Wow! Exactly my thought. I think that you nailed it. The ban is coming before the TdF. For many reasons, including the fact that the public will be worked up. Bardet, two podiums has a lot of fans and they will not accept Froome, and probably forget AG2R shady history. July fans are not very knowledgeable about the topics that we discuss, team presentation will or would be more of a storm than what Contador got. And road-side crowds: after being cheated by Armstrong, Sky, it seems, with a French contender, they will be restless. ASO doesn't want any of that. ASO will leverage for a decision to be made before the TdF. For many French people, Armstrong almost killed Le Tour. Froome can't be there. This could be ugly.

To me, Froome came light, got back to Earth and he's staying in Il Giro as a PR move, "i'm on the decline, but a fighter," and he will keep losing time. At some point, he will abandon due to crash injuries, et caetera. Excuses.

That makes his come-back, if it happens, a big deal, with big money for him, a Rocky story and making him a victim for his fans still out there, like Ali...

WTF in French.

 

[thehog]

Fingers crossed for some zig zagging today

 

[meat puppet]

So he took a bag or two. Too bad / hilarious / disgusting. But this is just postponing the inevitable realisation that without gear he is literally nothing.

The thing that should not be as Metallica put it.