Teams & Riders Froome Talk Only

[AcademyCC]

Nobody from the UK is ever going to go after SKY. Fact.

British cycling is booming - a lot of people are making good money. No appetite for a SKY doping scandal at all plus to be honest nobody really has a clue what is going on apart from seeing the most incredible team performance cycling has seen. Brutal Froome/team dominance.

SKY owned by News Corp which owns Sunday Times (who are the only publication who would take up the fight) that rules out David Walsh who has developed amenesia - and fair play to him in a way - he fought his battle. Going against SKY would be career suicide and its time for him to earn a few ££££. I don't blame him, id do the same thing. Kimmage had a go but he's writing for an Irish paper who want features on Irish sport - not potential doping at Team Sky. Who else would have a go? Answer - no one because the gravy train is in full tilt.

I don't even know what they are doing but I know what I am seeing is not real.

 

[Desperate_Moments]

Osymetric Chain Ring

Froome's literally unbelievable performance once again this year has lured me out of retirement. I'm sorry if this point has been discussed to death in my absence, but I have searched the forum and can't find anything on it. My curiosity was piqued yesterday by Paul Sherwen's commentary about Froome's use of the elliptical chain ring, describing the advantages it offers and saying it was "banned by the sponsors" and that no one else in the peloton but Froome was "allowed" to use it. If this is true (and I suspect it is), why does Chris get THIS special treatment? I know the Osymetric chain ring probably adds only yet another "marginal gain," but I was amused to see his relatively ineffective pedaling today on Geraint's conventional bike.

Thanks. Nice to see y'all again.

Susan

 

[bigcog]

Re: Osymetric Chain Ring

Froome's literally unbelievable performance once again this year has lured me out of retirement. I'm sorry if this point has been discussed to death in my absence, but I have searched the forum and can't find anything on it. My curiosity was piqued yesterday by Paul Sherwen's commentary about Froome's use of the elliptical chain ring, describing the advantages it offers and saying it was "banned by the sponsors" and that no one else in the peloton but Froome was "allowed" to use it. If this is true (and I suspect it is), why does Chris get THIS special treatment? I know the Osymetric chain ring probably adds only yet another "marginal gain," but I was amused to see his relatively ineffective pedaling today on Geraint's conventional bike.

Thanks. Nice to see y'all again.

Susan

Other riders have used Osymetirc chain rings in the past, it's just not very popular. It is not banned by anyone.

 

[Hugh Januss]

Re: Osymetric Chain Ring

Froome's literally unbelievable performance once again this year has lured me out of retirement. I'm sorry if this point has been discussed to death in my absence, but I have searched the forum and can't find anything on it. My curiosity was piqued yesterday by Paul Sherwen's commentary about Froome's use of the elliptical chain ring, describing the advantages it offers and saying it was "banned by the sponsors" and that no one else in the peloton but Froome was "allowed" to use it. If this is true (and I suspect it is), why does Chris get THIS special treatment? I know the Osymetric chain ring probably adds only yet another "marginal gain," but I was amused to see his relatively ineffective pedaling today on Geraint's conventional bike.

Thanks. Nice to see y'all again.

Susan

CLARIFICATION GUIDE OF THE UCI TECHNICAL REGULATION
5
ARTICLE 1.3.007
“Bicycles and their accessories shall be of a type that is sold for use by anyone
practising cycling as a sport.
As a result of production imperatives (time constraints), an exception may be
requested from the UCI for equipment that is a final product and that will be
marketed in the nine months after its first use in competition. The manufacturer must
however publish information on the equipment in question in advance and
announce the date of its market launch.
The use of equipment designed especially for the attainment of a particular
performance (record or other) shall be not authorised.”
The bicycle must be accessible to all participants. All the components of the bicycle
must be available commercially (i.e. available on the market or sold directly by the
manufacturer) at the latest nine months after their first use in competition. To
implement this nine-month period, the manufacturer must publicly announce that the
product in question is being used in competition and when it will be available for sale.
In all cases the product must be a finished product in the condition that it will be
marketed. The testing of a prototype in competition is prohibited.
Thus, it is not allowed to use equipment in competition that is not either available on
the market or previously communicated by the manufacturer (with a nine months
period for the marketing).
Prototypes and the use of equipment specially designed for a particular athlete,
event or performance are prohibited. "Specially designed" means a bicycle with a
technical added value when compared with other equipment.

 

[Semper Fidelis]

Re: Osymetric Chain Ring

Froome's literally unbelievable performance once again this year has lured me out of retirement. I'm sorry if this point has been discussed to death in my absence, but I have searched the forum and can't find anything on it. My curiosity was piqued yesterday by Paul Sherwen's commentary about Froome's use of the elliptical chain ring, describing the advantages it offers and saying it was "banned by the sponsors" and that no one else in the peloton but Froome was "allowed" to use it. If this is true (and I suspect it is), why does Chris get THIS special treatment? I know the Osymetric chain ring probably adds only yet another "marginal gain," but I was amused to see his relatively ineffective pedaling today on Geraint's conventional bike.

Thanks. Nice to see y'all again.

Susan

CLARIFICATION GUIDE OF THE UCI TECHNICAL REGULATION
5
ARTICLE 1.3.007
“Bicycles and their accessories shall be of a type that is sold for use by anyone
practising cycling as a sport.
As a result of production imperatives (time constraints), an exception may be
requested from the UCI for equipment that is a final product and that will be
marketed in the nine months after its first use in competition. The manufacturer must
however publish information on the equipment in question in advance and
announce the date of its market launch.
The use of equipment designed especially for the attainment of a particular
performance (record or other) shall be not authorised.”
The bicycle must be accessible to all participants. All the components of the bicycle
must be available commercially (i.e. available on the market or sold directly by the
manufacturer) at the latest nine months after their first use in competition. To
implement this nine-month period, the manufacturer must publicly announce that the
product in question is being used in competition and when it will be available for sale.
In all cases the product must be a finished product in the condition that it will be
marketed. The testing of a prototype in competition is prohibited.
Thus, it is not allowed to use equipment in competition that is not either available on
the market or previously communicated by the manufacturer (with a nine months
period for the marketing).
Prototypes and the use of equipment specially designed for a particular athlete,
event or performance are prohibited. "Specially designed" means a bicycle with a
technical added value when compared with other equipment.

Ola glad to see you post again.

Chain ring making a difference for vroooms?

 

[Lajeretta4Ever]

Proof positive that those chainrings give him that "little extra" on the climbs. I need no more convincing. He climbed liked LeMond after an offseason of eating icecream on that final climb. I'm putting on my old BioPace rings in preparation for 2morrows club ride.

 

[kwikki]

He's a better rider than Eddy Merckx.



(According to Eddy Merckx)

 

[BYOP88]

Re:

He's a better rider than Eddy Merckx.



(According to Eddy Merckx)

Didn't Merckx say that about my fellow countryman too?

 

[kwikki]

No idea, don't recall that, but I hated Armstrong so wouldn't have paid attention.

Merckx said it today after Bernard Thevanet likened Froome to Merckx.

 

[msjett]

So lets see how Froome goes today.....This might be the only chance for anyone to get any time...But I don't hold out hope, I am sure Sky will have marginal gains magic to fix Froome's ailments from the crash and he will attack and take more time on all the others....

But seriously I don't know how commentators can sit there and talk like nothing is going on, the performance and demeanor of both Froome and Team gets more Postal/Armstrong like.... But I guess they are not paid to question the outrageous performances.....

 

[Lajeretta4Ever]

So lets see how Froome goes today.....This might be the only chance for anyone to get any time...But I don't hold out hope, I am sure Sky will have marginal gains magic to fix Froome's ailments from the crash and he will attack and take more time on all the others....

But seriously I don't know how commentators can sit there and talk like nothing is going on, the performance and demeanor of both Froome and Team gets more Postal/Armstrong like.... But I guess they are not paid to question the outrageous performances.....

You need to spend some time on youtube and look at some past Tour de France stages to realize how ridiculous it use to be during the heyday of EPO. I was watching some mountain stage in 1995 where Indurain rides away on a mountain without ever getting out of the saddle leaving other EPO fueled climbers (Pantanii, Rominger, etc ...) gasping.

 

[pastronef]

Re: Re:

Agree on what happens to whistleblowers. But I also believe this isn't early 00's anymore, phones (recordings) and social media are everywhere. Sky are meant to be disliked due to the way they portray themselves and Murdoch is definitely disliked. Why not combination of investigative journalist and whistleblower or 2

Eddy Boasson-Hagen

EBH? what has he got to gain or to lose?

and what should he say?

has he been sacked from Sky? has he won 0 races with them and complained? has he been not paid very well?

 

[The Hegelian]

Anyone saying Froome showed weakness today is pretty wide of the mark. He had a decent fall - clear damage to shoulder, back and knee. Then he rode up a savage climb on someone else's bike lol Against the best in the world going full tilt and kept pace.

Having tried it myself a few times on decent climbs healthy just for fun - riding someone else's bike in those conditions is like riding on the moon.

His performance was his most freakish yet. He was waiting for the support car then just said '**** it' - rode to front and kept pace lol.

Ill be honest I'm a SKY fan but this is getting pretty out of hand.

I reckon it's Froome's least freakish tour. Haven't seen anything ***, except for the run and the descent.

The team on the other hand......

 

[The Hitch]

Re: Re:

LOL, I'm surprised not to see a bunch of Clinic Practitioners on their way to Mount Blac to scrap up samples of Frome's blood from the tarmac.
Anybody see Race Radio?

They're probably scared it's radioactive lol

Anyway I reckon he will give France their first TDF victory for years and become instantly more liked in France. All part of Sky's devious plan.

Do you guys ever write anything remotely connected to the discussion or is it all just trolling?

 

[Poursuivant]

Re:

First time poster on these forums despite reading cylingnews for the last ten years or so. But after this years tour I felt compelled simply because I just want to scream at the television.

Without going too deep, I’m an American who has watched cycling since 2008 (this also includes pirated Belgian streams of other major races during the year). I admit I was naive to the LA era, and embarrassingly will say that I was a LA supporter up until the ban “no positive test! how do we explain that??” After all, watching 4 hulking Baseball players smashing home runs in the late 90s early 2000s, they never tested for anything, why would this be any different.

But after watching Sky’s dominance of the tour all these years, it’s becoming hard to watch. I’m obviously not alone in this; I am after all posting in the Clinic. But every July my friends who know me ask how the Tour is going (I’m their goto source for updates) and this year simply shook my head and say “I just don’t know what to think anymore”. There’s a certain creeping feeling of finality or despair when it comes to watching the tour now.

Now I don’t think I’m particularly special, but I work in broadcast media (business news) which I switched to after working for about 5 years in advertising. I just didn’t have the stomach for it. The conclusion I arrived at after those 5 years was that advertising boils down to dressing a brand or concept up in such a way to persuade your audience to believe that this brand or concept will fulfill their needs better than a competitor. So I feel when the topic turns towards the PR machine of Sky I feel I have a little bit of a contribution towards that part of the discussion.

Sky controls the message and the narrative, and they control it far better than Armstrong and Bruyneel ever did. Their protected rider is an unassuming, quiet, and awkward Kenyan/Brit who with each passing day seems to looks less and less beatable. Their resources appear to be vast, and they are in an opportune period to do this ("you'd have to be crazy to dope this close to the Armstrong era fallout!"). Do I think that Brailsford is operating at Goebbels level propaganda? No, but they are controlling the message by appealing to the stone and proof by assertion arguments that don’t actually answer any questions, but when you don’t rock any boats you don’t have people coming out of the woodwork to take you down.

Armstrong’s downfall also had the backing of the U.S. Government, which the resources of a country whose GDP is nearly 10x that of Britain and more than any other country like Russia, Italy, France, Spain etc. The cost of that investigation was not cheap, both by the agencies involved and the legal fees that followed.

It’s remarkable that no one is really asking questions in public about Sky and Froome, but at the same time it seems rather obvious why. Everybody has a lot to lose if the Froome story isn't real. In the years to come? Someone might slip up or rub someone the wrong way, but until then I think we as cycling fans are perfectly within our rights to be skeptical about all of the questions that Brailsford deflects or spins about Froome, after all Froome never really seems to defend himself -- it always seems like that's Brailsford job.

Which of his ascents this year have made you so angry? Where has his w/kg been anywhere near Pantani/Lance levels?

 

[The Hitch]

Well the descent should make people angry.

He got 5% of his total time advantage in this tour from 1 descent, yet sky's entire PR machine has been mobilised to pretend that Froome has always ridden half Armstrongs speed up mountains and has won all 3 tours by simply being valentino rossi on a bicycle.

 

[Rollthedice]

The strategy was to win this Tour as credible as possible. Brailsfraud said you can't calculate VAM on the descent and they focused on riding tempo on the mountains, Froome ready just in case anybody attacks at over 6 watts/kg Sky train pace. The difference was to be made in the ITT, nobody questions Froome's ability in this field though his first astonishing breakthrough in Vuelta 2011 was the TT. So basically Froome didn't need an AX3 or PSM though we might've seen something similar if Ventoux wasn't shortened and of course he wouldn't crash.

 

[thehog]

Re:

angry.

He got 5% of his total time advantage in this tour from 1 descent, yet sky's entire PR machine has been mobilised to pretend that Froome has always ridden half Armstrongs speed up mountains and has won all 3 tours by simply being valentino rossi on a bicycle.

5%....seconds......................

da dawg's gonna be fuming......saying he can only manage half lance's speed..

Mark L

Froome said he'd be chasing stage wins if it wasn't for his strong team, lol!

Speaking of Lance, he must be shaking his head at all of this, the Sky fan base is even stupider then his at the time.

 

[Benotti69]

Re: Re:

angry.

He got 5% of his total time advantage in this tour from 1 descent, yet sky's entire PR machine has been mobilised to pretend that Froome has always ridden half Armstrongs speed up mountains and has won all 3 tours by simply being valentino rossi on a bicycle.

5%....seconds......................

da dawg's gonna be fuming......saying he can only manage half lance's speed..

Mark L

Froome said he'd be chasing stage wins if it wasn't for his strong team, lol!

Speaking of Lance, he must be shaking his head at all of this, the Sky fan base is even stupider then his at the time.

The Armstrong fanbase had no internet in early days to check much. But Sky fans have no excuse. One guy on twitter demanding proof that Leinders was a dirty doping doctor, as there is no proof as no sky rider tested positive in 6 years :lol:

 

[deeno1975]

Stage neutralised for "Froomey", boring as f##k

 

[BigMac]

Re: Re:

angry.

He got 5% of his total time advantage in this tour from 1 descent, yet sky's entire PR machine has been mobilised to pretend that Froome has always ridden half Armstrongs speed up mountains and has won all 3 tours by simply being valentino rossi on a bicycle.

5%....seconds......................

da dawg's gonna be fuming......saying he can only manage half lance's speed..

Mark L

Froome said he'd be chasing stage wins if it wasn't for his strong team, lol!

Speaking of Lance, he must be shaking his head at all of this, the Sky fan base is even stupider then his at the time.

And you wonder why Sky fans come troll this place.

Pretty mild response from them, comparing.

 

[melkemugg]

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

 

[DirtyWorks]

Re:

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

Outside the top-3, the GC was reorganized over the last two days and times are very close outside the top-3.

C'mon now. Froome's miracle TT wasn't exciting? Riding people off his wheel before total chaos broke out wasn't exciting? Watching the Sky train shred the field wasn't exciting? Oh, wait.

 

[kwikki]

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.

 

[melkemugg]

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.