King Boonen said:
Froome started in a cycling backwater with little to no support whereas Bertie and Nibs started in cycling powerhouses in a period when doping was the norm.
Exactly my point. Someone who could destroy the best riders in the world at 26 (2011 Vuelta) should have been destroying amateurs in the cycling backwater of South Africa, where noone had support, not just Froome.
On Barloworld, where he pretty much had free reign, that 94ml/min/kg should have been destroying the motorbikes, not hanging onto them.
He was at the UCI world cycling centre, too, keep in mind. They don't pay for that, it's a UCI initiative to globalise the sport. So please do not tell me he didn't have training, nutrition, fitting and recovery advice from early on in his career. UCI might be pathetic but the cycling centre do VO2max tests and the like, so I refuse to believe that's all just smoke and mirrors.
King Boonen said:
People seem to want a new scapegoat, Froome is a great target because he seems to be a *** like LA and has made a huge step up, to allow them to ignore riders they like or at least not discuss it. To assume he is doing anything different to guys whose teams, managers and themselves have been ingrained in doping for several decades just seems wrong.
I ain't people, and bear him far less - heck no ill will for his personality. I am not looking for a scapegoat, and don't have a rider I like that I want to hide by attacking Froome.
Noone said anything about Froome doing something different. Just the effect is greater, and probably because he's getting a bigger boost. There's plenty of doping products in SA - the marathoners are proof enough of that, and they don't even pay for it.
Imagine a clean rider, with an incredible engine. Imagine what they do from a young age, with their natural recovery (via natural HgH and testosterone levels and continuing physical development). Imagine what they say when they do a good race. When they have nothing to hide.
Froome is not what I imagine when I imagine that god of physiological perfection.
Instead I get a bunch of excuses that never quite hang together correctly, with a domineering girlfriend who won't let him finish sentences.