doolols said:
Really? They're obvious, are they? There have been so many performances from Sky this year which have not been abnormal, but those tend to get overlooked. The only thing the clinic fixates on is the performances for which they have planned and trained for months. If it's that simple i.e. dope, and you can dominate certain races, why don't other teams do this? How come other riders get caught doping, and yet Sky can dominate, despite other well-funded and well-connected teams in the peloton?
Still waiting for Pat to lever a positive from the British team to discredit Cookson. He must be pulling his hair out.
Froome planned and trained for months for Oman? Critérium International? Romandie?
I could believe you if you said Tirreno (much was made of that in the pre-season), but that's the only one he didn't win. Dauphiné? Well, that's an essential part of Tour prep, being strong there is often a byproduct of the training for the Tour. It used to mean you were peaking too early before Sky unlocked the secret of omnipeaking.
To paraphrase you, if it's so simple that you can ride clean and dominate certain races in the hypercontrolled form previously only seen from the shadiest of the shady teams... then surely any team could theoretically do it? So why are Sky the only ones? Because the péloton isn't clean, is it - we're still seeing positives, and often from people who manage transformations similar to those seen - repeatedly - at Sky - so surely if they're clean, Sky have unlocked some hitherto unknown training method or device that enables them to make enormous and sudden strides and to maintain peaks for the kinds of lengths of time that haven't been seen in decades. In which case there's always the possibility that they are doing something unusual but not illegal, hence they tell us of their commitment to cleanliness and transparency, but show us nothing, as they don't want to see their advantages go up in smoke.
That might mean doping (for example, when Johann Mühlegg - still the best analogue for Froome I can find in terms of performance relative to field, jump in performance and dominance despite technique since he tripped over his own feet partway through his gold medal performances - tested positive, it was for darbopoietin, which at the time was so new it hadn't been banned yet) or it might mean another behind-closed-doors training mechanism that doesn't involve performance enhancing substances or transfusions but may be considered controversial. But what has gone on at Sky is most definitely 'not normal'.