Teams & Riders Froome Talk Only

[melkemugg]

Re: Re:

The most boring tour de france ever, is finally over.

C'mon now. Froome's miracle TT wasn't exciting?

What miracle? The only that was that was miraculous about Froomes TT effort was him holding back.

 

[kwikki]

Re: Re:

Quite.

You'd only have found the Tour boring if you thought the Tour was only about the yellow jersey.

I'd agree that there wasn't much of a scrap for top step, but there was loads going on elsewhere.

Yes, there have been a couple of decent stages. Froome crashing was an awesome moment for example. But if you follow Tour De France, everything is about the yellow jersey, it is what fuels the interest in following the race in the first place. This years best thing was Pinot and Majkas battle for the mountain jersey a couple of days before Pinot left.

The truth is most Tours are a bit boring. The spectacular ones are rare.

Which is why the true connoisseur watches the Giro and the Vuelta

 

[BYOP88]

Re: Re:

Quite.

You'd only have found the Tour boring if you thought the Tour was only about the yellow jersey.

I'd agree that there wasn't much of a scrap for top step, but there was loads going on elsewhere.

Yes, there have been a couple of decent stages. Froome crashing was an awesome moment for example. But if you follow Tour De France, everything is about the yellow jersey, it is what fuels the interest in following the race in the first place. This years best thing was Pinot and Majkas battle for the mountain jersey a couple of days before Pinot left.

The truth is most Tours are a bit boring. The spectacular ones are rare.

Which is why the true connoisseur watches the Giro and the Vuelta

What he said.

 

[Lyon]

The most spectacular sight in this years tour was when Froome causally rode up to Poels halfway up the last climb of yesterday's stage. We now know he can be mutant on other peoples bikes as well.

 

[Irondan]

Re: Re:

Quite.

You'd only have found the Tour boring if you thought the Tour was only about the yellow jersey.

I'd agree that there wasn't much of a scrap for top step, but there was loads going on elsewhere.

Yes, there have been a couple of decent stages. Froome crashing was an awesome moment for example. But if you follow Tour De France, everything is about the yellow jersey, it is what fuels the interest in following the race in the first place. This years best thing was Pinot and Majkas battle for the mountain jersey a couple of days before Pinot left.

The truth is most Tours are a bit boring. The spectacular ones are rare.

Which is why the true connoisseur watches the Giro and the Vuelta

I'm disappointed whenever ANY Grand Tour is over, I think I'm addicted to the daily grind. To me they're all spectacular, some just more so than others.

 

[kwikki]

Maybe he's got motors in his hips and a battery stuffed up his @$$

As Brailsford would say " you didn't expect that, did you"

 

[kwikki]

Might explain the awkward riding style

 

[PremierAndrew]

Re:

He's a better rider than Eddy Merckx.



(According to Eddy Merckx)

No Merckx said Froome is a better GC rider, which is possibly true (Merckx these days would probably just be a better version of Sagan (Sagan + Valverde's climbing maybe), but true GC specialists like Froome and Contador would probably beat him in GTs)

 

[kwikki]

Ah, thanks. I heard it on the ITV highlights during an après beer semi-snooze.

Makes sense.

 

[Cannibal72]

Re: Re:

He's a better rider than Eddy Merckx.



(According to Eddy Merckx)

No Merckx said Froome is a better GC rider, which is possibly true (Merckx these days would probably just be a better version of Sagan (Sagan + Valverde's climbing maybe), but true GC specialists like Froome and Contador would probably beat him in GTs)

On today's routes, yeah.

Imagine Merckx with Skytrain in front of him.
(Actually, who would have been the beneficiary of the Skytrain if Nordhaug hadn't dropped out of the 2011 Vuelta? Still Wiggins, Thomas, or some big-money signing? Would Sky ever have had the money to build the train without Froome's 2012 climbing?)

 

[melkemugg]

Re:

Quite.

Froome crashing was an awesome moment

from a cycle fan......sometimes the quality of

a race...is more than seeing one's own fave win....

Mark L

The quality of a race is when its exciting. Its like watching a train going to the station to pick up the win they ordered.

 

[BYOP88]

Not a bad 6 years for Froome. Getting booted out of the 2010 Grio for cheating, to equaling LeMond's TdF wins.

 

[justifieddoubter]

Re:

Not a bad 6 years for Froome. Getting booted out of the 2010 Grio for cheating, to equaling LeMond's TdF wins.

perhaps the single best sentence summarizing Froome's dubious rise to prominence

 

[pastronef]

Re:

Not a bad 6 years for Froome. Getting booted out of the 2010 Grio for cheating, to equaling LeMond's TdF wins.

Nibali could try to win the Tour again in a few years. he was just booted last year at the Vuelta live on tv.

 

[42x16ss]

Re: Re:

Not a bad 6 years for Froome. Getting booted out of the 2010 Grio for cheating, to equaling LeMond's TdF wins.

Nibali could try to win the Tour again in a few years. he was just booted last year at the Vuelta live on tv.

At least Nibali had the courtesy to win all three Grand Tours first...

 

[argel]

Anyone who seriously believes there's no incentive for an investigative journalist to go after SKY in Britain is beyond mental. As I've said many times, Murdoch is arguably one of the most hated men in Britain. His media empire only stretches so far, and there are serious rivals in both broadcast (BT, BBC) and print (Mail, Mirror, Guardian) as well as independents (Huffington Post) who have every incentive and would benefit directly from an expose. Even the political class would love to see News Corp undermined in any way possible.

When you talk about cycling as a niche sport and say 'people don't care about it' you have a point, but not the one you think. No media outlet (except sky) would do anything to protect cycling's reputation if it thought they could make even the smallest amount of capital by being the ones to crack Team Sky. They've seen Lance, they know Walsh and Kimmage came out of that with a triumphant validation of their persistence in the face of a well resourced and well connected protagonist. Again, it's against all logic that none of these outlets would want to hurt SKY, Murdoch and News Corp. It would undermine all of their sport business, which is a huge part of their company. I don't think you can underestimate how big - if they are - a doping or systemic attempt to cheat ANY sport directly would hurt SKY's brand.

 

[Benotti69]

Re:

Anyone who seriously believes there's no incentive for an investigative journalist to go after SKY in Britain is beyond mental. As I've said many times, Murdoch is arguably one of the most hated men in Britain. His media empire only stretches so far, and there are serious rivals in both broadcast (BT, BBC) and print (Mail, Mirror, Guardian) as well as independents (Huffington Post) who have every incentive and would benefit directly from an expose. Even the political class would love to see News Corp undermined in any way possible.

When you talk about cycling as a niche sport and say 'people don't care about it' you have a point, but not the one you think. No media outlet (except sky) would do anything to protect cycling's reputation if it thought they could make even the smallest amount of capital by being the ones to crack Team Sky. They've seen Lance, they know Walsh and Kimmage came out of that with a triumphant validation of their persistence in the face of a well resourced and well connected protagonist. Again, it's against all logic that none of these outlets would want to hurt SKY, Murdoch and News Corp. It would undermine all of their sport business, which is a huge part of their company. I don't think you can underestimate how big - if they are - a doping or systemic attempt to cheat ANY sport directly would hurt SKY's brand.

In the sporting world Froome is a small fish. In the sporting world Lance was a small fish. For Walsh and Kimmage it was personal. For Kimmage this was the sport he loved. For Walsh it was because Armstrong claimed Walsh was going after him for a deceased son. Kimmage still calls the doping out. But his paper is not going to fund an in depth long investigation to go after an athlete who must dont really care about and when asked are they clean or not, would probably answer, not.

Also, whistleblowers dont get rich blowing the whistle and the little money they make does not compensate for the hardship they endure.

If someone wanted to make their name busting dopers there are much bigger sports to go after. The general public, bar UK Sky fans already think the sport is full of doping.

 

[PremierAndrew]

Re: Re:

If someone wanted to make their name busting dopers there are much bigger sports to go after. The general public, bar UK Sky fans already think the sport is full of doping.

Everyone knows the sport is full of doping. But it's easy to sell the 'Athlete X has never tested positive' to the general public

 

[Benotti69]

Re: Re:

If someone wanted to make their name busting dopers there are much bigger sports to go after. The general public, bar UK Sky fans already think the sport is full of doping.

Everyone knows the sport is full of doping. But it's easy to sell the 'Athlete X has never tested positive' to the general public

No it aint. Sky got booed coming over the final climb yesterday.

What Sky have done is sell it to new fans, the 'mamils' in the UK.

 

[Benotti69]

Ross Tucker nails the 'whisteblower' thing.

Ross Tucker ‏@Scienceofsport 11m11 minutes ago
1) So I meet a guy who is DEEP embedded in elite sport, has coached at the very top. 100% trustworthy in my opinion. Has stories that would

2) make sports governing bodies' heads explodes. Knows where bodies are buried, & who killed 'em. I ask what it would take for him to reveal

3) it all. First response - you only lose be revealing because authorities won't back it anyway, so the positive outcome you seek is fiction

4) Second point - the risk of revealing is massive. Not just loss of future opportunity,but real danger. So risk vs reward? No way you speak

5) He goes so far as to reveal that he has left a few copies of incriminating documents in various places for instructions for what should

6) be done if anything happens to him. That's the level of 'fear' we're talking here. So when people glibly say "there's be whistleblowers"

7) they don't appreciate the magnitude of what it takes to come out & talk - you risk everything, for a tiny possibility of uncertain change

8) Until someone creates the incentive for people to talk, it won't happen. Lance did, by pissing off so many. Walsh enabled it by searching

9) for those, inspired by something personal. Question now, is who is doing that? That's why the fawning media coverage is so frustrating

10) In the USA, there's total apathy to cycling. In UK, it's controlled & 'fan-based' (they're writing the "hug" equivalent of journalism)

11) So who is going to uncover the truth? Nobody is looking, and those who know are not exactly happy to be exposed to all that risk.

12) When I see a journo write puff pieces,or say how he hugged another when his athlete won, I despair because how is that person fulfilling

13) a responsibility to the public? All they're doing is writing unpaid for advertorials. The authorities are of course no more trustworthy

14) All of this is why I very enthusiastically support https://www.sportsleaks.com I hope it helps shift the balance & expose more

 

[kwikki]

Well....I don't doubt what Ross Tucker says, but there is always the possibility of anonymous leaks to the press/authorities.

There aren't any of these that reach the public domain. I think it is far more likely that the reason there aren't any is because all of those with inside knowledge are actually quite content with the way things are going.

 

[Benotti69]

Re:

Well....I don't doubt what Ross Tucker says, but there is always the possibility of anonymous leaks to the press/authorities.

There aren't any of these that reach the public domain. I think it is far more likely that the reason there aren't any is because all of those with inside knowledge are actually quite content with the way things are going.

If it was possible to leak something anonymously and get it acted upon, well sport would be clean!

 

[kwikki]

Yes, but those in the sport are making money from the sport. No incentive to rock the boat.

 

[BYOP88]

Re:

Anyone who seriously believes there's no incentive for an investigative journalist to go after SKY in Britain is beyond mental. As I've said many times, Murdoch is arguably one of the most hated men in Britain. His media empire only stretches so far, and there are serious rivals in both broadcast (BT, BBC) and print (Mail, Mirror, Guardian) as well as independents (Huffington Post) who have every incentive and would benefit directly from an expose. Even the political class would love to see News Corp undermined in any way possible.

When you talk about cycling as a niche sport and say 'people don't care about it' you have a point, but not the one you think. No media outlet (except sky) would do anything to protect cycling's reputation if it thought they could make even the smallest amount of capital by being the ones to crack Team Sky. They've seen Lance, they know Walsh and Kimmage came out of that with a triumphant validation of their persistence in the face of a well resourced and well connected protagonist. Again, it's against all logic that none of these outlets would want to hurt SKY, Murdoch and News Corp. It would undermine all of their sport business, which is a huge part of their company. I don't think you can underestimate how big - if they are - a doping or systemic attempt to cheat ANY sport directly would hurt SKY's brand.

You do know that cycling is basically a minor sport at best. Some media rival of Murdoch isn't going to waste manpower and money on cycling when others have already proven that cycling is like all the other sports, a cesspool of PED's, shady and dodgy happenings etc etc. It hasn't changed since Murdoch got involved in the sport and it hasn't changed since Cookson rode in to town, as the band Talking Heads sung in their song, Once In A lifetime:

Same as it ever was...
Same as it ever was...
Same as it ever was...
Same as it ever was...

 

[Benotti69]

So why would there be a leak anonymously or not! Jeez.