Teams & Riders Froome Talk Only

[LaFlorecita]

https://twitter.com/chrisfroome/status/418064664732647424

Chris FroomeVerified account
‏@chrisfroome
Trying out my new 2014 @TeamSky @rapharacing kit. This skin suit takes #marginalgains to the next level pic.twitter.com/UlnSTDgVtv

I am still wondering whether that's really him making fun of marginal gains.

 

[sniper]

https://twitter.com/chrisfroome/status/418064664732647424

Chris FroomeVerified account
‏@chrisfroome
Trying out my new 2014 @TeamSky @rapharacing kit. This skin suit takes #marginalgains to the next level pic.twitter.com/UlnSTDgVtv

he looks pretty marginal on that photo.

 

[the sceptic]

thats another 20 watts right there.

 

[del1962]

https://twitter.com/chrisfroome/status/418064664732647424

Chris FroomeVerified account
‏@chrisfroome
Trying out my new 2014 @TeamSky @rapharacing kit. This skin suit takes #marginalgains to the next level pic.twitter.com/UlnSTDgVtv

Well you lot wanted more transparancy, now you have got it, looks awful imo

 

[PunchingRouleur]

Froome is great and very successful troll.
Keeps the clinic going.
Already exciting for his mutant performances in 2014, just hope he will not take clinic down again.

 

[LaFlorecita]

Well you lot wanted more transparancy, now you have got it, looks awful imo

I think everyone except Cound thinks it looks awful.

 

[will10]

Don't get me wrong, we know the guy's training hard, but I can't believe he's that lean on December 31.

 

[Benotti69]

Don't get me wrong, we know the guy's training hard, but I can't believe he's that lean on December 31.

He didn't race in Japan

 

[Maxiton]

Froome in fishnet? I neither want to see it nor imagine it. Disgusting, but what else is new.

 

[Benotti69]

As pointed out on Twitter Froome's TT appears to be as E.T. as Indurains.

Kieran Keane ‏@kieroliver 36s
1992 in the famous "E.T." time trial Indurian put 4min into LeMond & GC riders over 65km. Froome did equivalent - 2min in 33k ... wow!

Forget the climbs stg11 Froome put +2mins into all GC riders in 33k!! Froome avg54.2kph others <51.5kph not bad for skinny guy

 

[thehog]

As pointed out on Twitter Froome's TT appears to be as E.T. as Indurains.

I discount all variables and use the baseline that Froome can ride tempo with 5 minute bursts at maximum power

Man that's insanity. What can you say?

Tailwinds?

 

[the sceptic]

He did the same in the commonwealth games ITT wearing sandals.

 

[mewmewmew13]

Not sure where to put this but it seemed good here…
Froome should take note…
does Froome have a spleen??

"She was a talented club runner but suffers from a rare hereditary disease called spherocytosis, an anaemic condition which can damage red blood cells. She needed to have her spleen removed in May 2010, which then allowed the oxygen-carrying red blood cells to grow normally."

http://www.iaaf.org/news/feature/valeria-straneo-iaaf-world-championships-mara

 

[Catwhoorg]

I believe he does. (certainly am not aware of any surgery like that)

Geraint Thomas does not, he lost it after an accident.

 

[The Hitch]

Not sure where to put this but it seemed good here…
Froome should take note…
does Froome have a spleen??

"She was a talented club runner but suffers from a rare hereditary disease called spherocytosis, an anemic condition which can damage red blood cells. She needed to have her spleen removed in May 2010, which then allowed the oxygen-carrying red blood cells to grow normally."

http://www.iaaf.org/news/feature/valeria-straneo-iaaf-world-championships-mara

Froomes disease was less serious. Once discovered he had the option to cure himself of it whenever he wanted with tablets ( he either chose not to, kept deliberately getting reinfected, or, lied)

And it didn't actually damage red blood cells, that is something sky said that apparently isn't true ( at least I remember even froomes own defenders saying sky were wrong on that.)
So removing his spleen is not a procedure that would have any effect on him.

 

[MartinGT]

Whilst on the turbo last couple of evenings I have watched some of the 2009 Tour of Britain.

Froome is there at Barloworld alongside Thomas. Not once is he spoke about apart from his name mentioned when in a group. They dont even mention him joining the new Sky team unlike his team mate Thomas.

Funny how the tide turns so quickly eh?

 

[The Hitch]

That's exactly the type of thing that a cycling fan sees, that Brailsford's target crowd of people. who never watched cycling before, does not, that allows him to say **** like - not attacking is evidence of being clean.

 

[Ferminal]

Whilst on the turbo last couple of evenings I have watched some of the 2009 Tour of Britain.

Froome is there at Barloworld alongside Thomas. Not once is he spoke about apart from his name mentioned when in a group. They dont even mention him joining the new Sky team unlike his team mate Thomas.

Funny how the tide turns so quickly eh?

Who were the commentators?

 

[nomapnocompass]

I was watching my 2008 Tour de France DVD recently as well. Froome was being dropped all over the road on Alpe d'Huex and other climbs.

 

[movingtarget]

I was watching my 2008 Tour de France DVD recently as well. Froome was being dropped all over the road on Alpe d'Huex and other climbs.

6 years is a huge amount of time in sport. Wiggins early Tours were even worse I suppose.

 

[nomapnocompass]

Yes, but Wiggins track success showed he had talent there. His ascendancy is at least believable.

 

[Dazed and Confused]

Yes, but Wiggins track success showed he had talent there. His ascendancy is at least believable.

Froome didn't show a strong talent until approximately 9 months after Sky decided to hire a notorious doping doctor called Leinders.

Froome's tranformation began with the Vuelta '11, about the time he was looking for a new pro contract.

Now he is the best TT'er and climber in the world when considering GC contenders.

 

[The Hitch]

Yes, but Wiggins track success showed he had talent there. His ascendancy is at least believable.

Eddy Merckx riding as fast as Wiggins did in the tts and climbs of the Tour last year having won every race he took part in for 5 months, would not have been believable. A guy who a few years earlier had said the tdf isn't for him and that he didn't expect to ever return, doing it, no way in hell.

 

[Ferminal]

I was watching my 2008 Tour de France DVD recently as well. Froome was being dropped all over the road on Alpe d'Huex and other climbs.

What do you mean!? He made the group of 30 that day, not bad for a kid barely out of his teens who was straight out of a Kenyan village with no idea how to ride a bike. Anyone who knows cycling knew from that moment on he would become the #1 GT rider (with a bit of help from a swimming coach).

 

[Wallace and Gromit]

Eddy Merckx riding as fast as Wiggins did in the tts and climbs of the Tour last year having won every race he took part in for 5 months, would not have been believable.

Comparing TT speeds 40 years apart is a nonsense given that in Merckx's day they rode on normal bikes in standard cycling kit whereas nowadays they do TTs on low profile bikes in aero skinsuits and aero helmets.

Comparing climbing speeds is more meaningful, though I don't think Wiggo was actually particularly fast uphill in 2013.

Talking of climbing speeds, I was watching a documentary about the Tour over Christmas and there was extensive footage of The Badger and his contemporaries climbing. What was really striking was that the cadences employed were visibly lower than are employed now, which I assume is because of the narrower range of gears that were available back then. (i.e. they climbed on big gears because given the requirement to have a 53*12 or similar as the top gear, technology simply didn't allow big enough changes between cog sizes for modern climbing gears to be accommodated.) Or maybe training wisdom was that it made sense to climb on a big gear, so that's what folk did.

I assume riders use lower gears and higher cadences now in some mountain stages because the number crunchers tell them it's more efficient, so is there a benefit for modern riders in terms of climbing speeds, all other things equal?

Obviously, such an advantage, if it existed, would be quite small, so it wouldn't explain EPO era speeds, but could it be big enough (along with better bearings and lighter frames/wheels) to mean that a 41 minute ascent of the Alpe now is the same power output wise as a 42 minute ascent back in the 80s?

Even if the gearing theory is invalid, I'd be surprised if modern bikes aren't sufficiently lighter and stiffer compared to 80s steeds to yield a percent or two reduction in speed for the same power to weight ratio from the rider.