Gazprom-Rusvelo

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I don't follow results so closely as to know what the Rusvelo guys are capable of, but from I've read and heard on these threads is that they've sandbagged a bit the past couple of stages and targeted this stage. That's understandable, if you are targeting a particular stage that caters to your strengths. It happens all the time in cycling. I think everyone that knows anything about cycling and stage racing in particular, will know that you have guys that will target certain stages, particularly if their ambitions of a GC are dashed by a bad day or two where they lose several minutes. Maybe a combination of the Rusvelo boys being a little more fresh from taking it 'easier' than the top 10-15 guys who went at it in yesterdays stage in particular, had an effect. I mean, if someone dominates a tour right from the start, and doesn't have a single bad day, or a day where they lose time to any of their rivals, we would be fairly suspicious of them, wouldn't we?
 
What's the guess then? Saturday night BB? Full octane through the spring with easy riding the first 14 stages? Motorized bike?

I shouldn't make a guess based on only a result and a 3 second twitter video (which looks like it is in fast forward mode), but I'm going to say the team got some new bikes this season.
 
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More Strides than Rides said:
What's the guess then? Saturday night BB? Full octane through the spring with easy riding the first 14 stages? Motorized bike?

I shouldn't make a guess based on only a result and a 3 second twitter video (which looks like it is in fast forward mode), but I'm going to say the team got some new bikes this season.


Translation: "I don't want to say it's motorized doping, buuuuut...it's motorized doping." Amirite?
 
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luckyboy said:
I assume that the backroom staff is the same as a few years ago, yes? Haven't seen anything different since the rebranding anyway.


GM is still Khamidulin; DSs are Ivanov, Kuschynski, Ekimov, any more?

East German Salzwedel was GM but left in 2014 to go back to British Cycling. Van Kessel left for Wiggle last year. Is Henk Vogels still there?

Their doctor Liakhov was banned after the 2013 positives from what I remember? Don't know if he is back or what. They have a doctor called Alexey Yashin now anyway.

He doesn't work there anymore, he was commentating on Australian TV last night when they took the stage and singing there praises
 
That has to me motorized. This guy isn't anywhere near the level necessary to pull something like these even at full *** level...

Plus at the intermediate time check he was behind almost everybody and although it was earlier than recommended something really weird happened.
 
Apr 7, 2015
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Gloin22 said:
https://twitter.com/Airre_/status/734479751365152768

:D :D :D :D :D
Nothing to see here. Just a rider inspired by a motorbike passing by. Happens all the time. Have you guys ever ridden a bike? Some days you just wake up and decide to be awesome. Tailwinds are for loosers.
 
1. The palmares defence is pretty damn weak. Nothing either of them have done before are suggestive of a potential to blitz a high quality Giro field in a short mountain tt where everyone in contention is in good form and going full gas. I mean snag a road stage somewhere, sure. But blitz a mountain tt when the GC is far from settled? Big difference between being a good climber and having potential, to actually doing that.

2. The Rusophobe critique is a bit of a red herring. I think there plainly is a lot of Rusophobia in these times (and westernphobia in Russia). And sure, there's doping everywhere you look, so why single out the Russians....But - that was as full *** as it gets. Full *** always attracts attention. There's always plenty on offer in any given Giro, this was our first proper dish, and it was tasty. Tasty full *** is tasty full ***, no matter what colours, creed, race, religion or nation.
 
no matter how full *** this was,im pretty sure Gazprom have ties to Putin,so i will put my conspiracy hat on and say that the team has cover from doping authorities - probably not "win GT" package (now available for only 19,999,999 euros on uci.ch) but smaller "win a GT stage" package with possible upgrade in the future...how long before we see a russian GT winner?
 
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The Hegelian said:
1. The palmares defence is pretty damn weak. Nothing either of them have done before are suggestive of a potential to blitz a high quality Giro field in a short mountain tt where everyone in contention is in good form and going full gas. I mean snag a road stage somewhere, sure. But blitz a mountain tt when the GC is far from settled? Big difference between being a good climber and having potential, to actually doing that.

2. The Rusophobe critique is a bit of a red herring. I think there plainly is a lot of Rusophobia in these times (and westernphobia in Russia). And sure, there's doping everywhere you look, so why single out the Russians....But - that was as full *** as it gets. Full *** always attracts attention. There's always plenty on offer in any given Giro, this was our first proper dish, and it was tasty. Tasty full *** is tasty full ***, no matter what colours, creed, race, religion or nation.
Your first point is pretty weak. How many oppotunities do you think a guy just turned 24, riding on a pro-conti team in his first GT, has had before to suggest he can win a stage at this level? In the races he's done in the last couple of years he's placed well and has put in a handful of very decent performances.

Secondly, all the main contenders may have been in decent form and going full gas; but they were also exhausted after the 'hardest stage of the year' the day before. One which Foliforov took easy and lost over 20 minutes. A short TT in those conditions wasn't a level playing field - it was easier to do well for a rider targetting it, than a normal road stage when everyone is fresh and fighting.
 
Oct 6, 2009
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Meh. This was no more obvious than Froome. Actually, less so. Why let Sky have all the fun? He who brings in the cash shall get to play the UCI/RCS game.
 
Mar 31, 2010
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hrotha said:
This is dodgy as hell. All those other teams probably dope too, but there's such a thing as overdoing it.

Bringing up Firsanov's Vuelta a Madrid result is pretty hilarious, considering how ridiculous that was at the time. :D
what was ridiculous at vuelta madrid win? he won from a huge break where movistar miscalculated or quintana would've won
 
May 26, 2010
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Ryo Hazuki said:
hrotha said:
This is dodgy as hell. All those other teams probably dope too, but there's such a thing as overdoing it.

Bringing up Firsanov's Vuelta a Madrid result is pretty hilarious, considering how ridiculous that was at the time. :D
what was ridiculous at vuelta madrid win? he won from a huge break where movistar miscalculated or quintana would've won

Everyone was juiced to max at La Vuelta!!!
 
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The Hegelian said:
1. The palmares defence is pretty damn weak. Nothing either of them have done before are suggestive of a potential to blitz a high quality Giro field in a short mountain tt where everyone in contention is in good form and going full gas. I mean snag a road stage somewhere, sure. But blitz a mountain tt when the GC is far from settled? Big difference between being a good climber and having potential, to actually doing that.
The palmarès argument was not that this was not a surprise result, but that people were saying these guys had no palmarès which is patently false. Firsanov has a solid palmarès. Is it mostly dubious and almost all since turning 30? Yes. Is it a strong enough palmarès to say a top 5 in a Giro MTT is a possibility? YMMV. I thought not, but I thought he'd be the team's most visible rider, or do an anonymous 10th-15th on GC. Some people thought enough to mention him as somebody who could do a good ride yesterday, although whether they expected one as good as he actually produced is another question of course. And Foliforov, as pointed out, is on a team which has had few invites and has been good in pretty much every climbing-centric day of racing he's actually had the opportunity to do. Again, is it strong enough to say winning a Giro MTT is something we could anticipate without being surprised? Probably not. But it's also false to say that he had never shown anything to say it's a possibility - just that I don't think any of us expected it to be a possibility NOW. If he had a couple more years development, maybe. As a neo-pro also, we haven't really been able to get a handle on his level. He's not somebody who's just emerged out of nowhere like Zakarin did from 2013 to 2014, nor is he somebody who has been at the WT level long enough that we've kind of got an idea of his level before he suddenly kicks it into another gear like Santambrogio or Froome. He has good junior and espoir results, so it's more likely something has been up all along with Foliforov than that he's suddenly emerged.
 
Mar 31, 2010
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firsanov has been good from young age on. he was one of the best in triptique monts et chateaux against rabo tt3 in 2005. he also won giro toscana that year. I wouldn't trust him but it would seme far fetches to me he's using now that 99% is clean and he's still having results.
 
Mar 14, 2016
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A rider/team exceeds expectations in one single stage, and someone opens a thread in The Clinic. So predictable.