GB Track Team

[Zam_Olyas]

Seems like only the good British athletes are cyclists.

They should stop playing footballl and concentrate on cycling.

 

[Catwhoorg]

How do you make a fast track?

One example way: Make it hot. People have been posting about the heat inside the velodrome both days.

Hot air = lower density.


I recall reading about several ways the track was 'fast' before the test event.

 

[Mellow Velo]

How do you make a fast track?

Combination of things. Steep banking, long straights, wood etc.

Best way to make it fast on the night: get a full house in and turn off the air con.
Apparently, it's sweltering in there.

 

[Catwhoorg]

Here is the PR fluff piece

The Velodrome has been designed with the aim of creating the world’s fastest cycling track by tailoring the track geometry and setting the temperature and environmental conditions within the venue to create record-breaking conditions


from:
http://www.london2012.com/media-cen...drome-unveiled-as-sir-chris-hoy-victoria.html

 

[barn yard]

there is definitely something new happening but it is not the track design or the air conditioner

anyone who thinks the design of the bankings makes a 3 second difference over a 4km pursuit is living in another galaxy

 

[Zam_Olyas]

Thank you.

 

[barn yard]

Pendleton wins the Keirin

 

[Zam_Olyas]

Pendleton wins the Keirin

The chinese woman was good..The aussie ****ed that up.

 

[barn yard]

'Chinese woman' might get this on a relegation, Pendleton came out of the lane twice...

 

[Mellow Velo]

Pendleton wins the Keirin

Disappointed with Meares. Went far too early and simply ran out of gas.

 

[Zam_Olyas]

'Chinese woman' might get this on a relegation, Pendleton came out of the lane twice...

The english woman will not be relegated this time.

 

[Fearless Greg Lemond]

That's what it takes to beat a team as good as Australia.

You must be right, the difference was only 3 seconds.

Those marginal gains.

'Chinese woman' might get this on a relegation, Pendleton came out of the lane twice...

Don't know the rules but that's right.

 

[barn yard]

Lucky, that commissaire is absolutely insane.

 

[Magnus]

there is definitely something new happening but it is not the track design or the air conditioner

anyone who thinks the design of the bankings makes a 3 second difference over a 4km pursuit is living in another galaxy

So you are saying that the Brits invented a new form of doping that no one else knows of, that can't be tested for and helps in both team sprint and pursuit enough to set new world records?

 

[Franklin]

So you are saying that the Brits invented a new form of doping that no one else knows of, that can't be tested for and helps in both team sprint and pursuit enough to set new world records?

Worked for Armstrong, Riis, Ulrich and others, so what's so unbelievable about undetectabe drugs?

 

[Magnus]

Worked for Armstrong, Riis, Ulrich and others, so what's so unbelievable about undetectabe drugs?

There's nothing unbelievable about a undetectable drug in itself. That is absolutely believable. What is not is that this drug is, so far unused, only used by the British and boosts performance in both team sprint and pursuit.

 

[Franklin]

There's nothing unbelievable about a undetectable drug in itself. That is absolutely believable. What is not is that this drug is, so far unused, only used by the British and boosts performance in both team sprint and pursuit.

Ah, so your point is that Armstrong, Ris and Ulrich were the only ones using it, otherwise they wouldn't be so much better than the rest?

 

[Fearless Greg Lemond]

There's nothing unbelievable about a undetectable drug in itself. That is absolutely believable. What is not is that this drug is, so far unused, only used by the British and boosts performance in both team sprint and pursuit.

TT? Mountains?

That drug is called dedication.

 

[Darryl Webster]

I've said it before but its been ignored, poo, poo,d ..gene therapy :
"One of the biggest fears of anti-doping authorities is the introduction of gene doping. Dr. Theodore Friedmann, head of the World Anti-Doping Agency's gene doping panel has been quoted to say, “It will happen, but we don't know when.” Unfortunately, it may have happened already.

In 2008, scientists discovered orally active agents that genetically switch on an endurance gene signature that was shown to increase running endurance by 44% in sedentary mice. The first target of these drugs is PPARδ, a transcriptional regulator, and the second is AMPK, a serine-threonine kinase. Both PPARδ and AMPK contribute to metabolic reprogramming and are respectively targeted by the drugs GW1516 and AICAR."

http://joepapp.blogspot.co.uk/2009/10/future-of-doping.html

This from 2008 : http://www.nature.com/scitable/topicpage/sports-gene-doping-and-wada-764

"A German coach and a Chinese lab have already been flagged for trying to obtain gene delivery treatments that boost erythropoietin (EPO) production. EPO leads to a surge in red blood cells that carry oxygen in the human body, and has become somewhat of an item among endurance sports athletes" http://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2010-02/gene-therapy-marks-next-frontier-sports-doping

I am not specifically saying its going on with GB/ Sky ..but I have no doubt whatsoever that its here in sport (s) already and it will/ is changing the landscape.
Detecting it will a nightmare.
One method explained to me involves taking stem cells from the athlete, selecting the cells to be cultured, culturing them and then injecting them back. Thus the competitors own DNA becomes the source of the "juicing".
The person that explained that was a lot, lot closer to the present elite sport than I will ever get.
Were they bull****ing me?.. I don't know.

 

[Magnus]

Ah, so your point is that Armstrong, Ris and Ulrich were the only ones using it, otherwise they wouldn't be so much better than the rest?

Nope, that's not my point. I'm not trying to make a point about what happened in the naughties. I suppose you are and I'm sure there are lots of threads in the clinic for that. This isn't one of them.

My point is that when you get world records in disciplines as different as team sprint and team pursuit on the same velodrome and under similar external circumstances then it's likely that the velodrome and other external circumstances has something to do with this.

Maybe all of the British team is doped to the gills. Maybe not. But either way it seems unlikely that everything can be explained by the use of doping. Trying to do so is, in my opinion, as daft as thinking cycling has ever been or ever will become a completely clean sport.

 

[Catwhoorg]

The Canadian and US Women both set new OR's before team GB took to the track.

 

[Franklin]

Maybe all of the British team is doped to the gills. Maybe not. But either way it seems unlikely that everything can be explained by the use of doping. Trying to do so is, in my opinion, as daft as thinking cycling has ever been or ever will become a completely clean sport.

Why don't you say that in the first place!

I agree it's not just doping (assuming it is). The interesting thing is they are beating times from a certainly more dirty era. So certainly technology plays a big part.

That said, the domination of UK cycling is a bit surprising, given that the French, Australia and Germany certainly have a history here and should at least put up some resistance. It's not exactly track riding boondogs the UK is trouncing.

For the record, so far I haven't seen any dodgy facts about the track team(the shehanigans with the crash were not sportsmanlike, but not against the rules), unless we go full monty and brand DB as a cheat already. I find that way to early (but I certainly am all for keeping the heat under this mystery!).

 

[Cookster15]

I've said it before but its been ignored, poo, poo,d ..gene therapy :
"One of the biggest fears of anti-doping authorities is the introduction of gene doping. Dr. Theodore Friedmann, head of the World Anti-Doping Agency's gene doping panel has been quoted to say, “It will happen, but we don't know when.” Unfortunately, it may have happened already.

But if Gene doping boosts EPO wouldn't that ring alarm bells in the Blood Passport? Authorities need to focus on improving the Blood Passport system as this way you detect the effects of doping not the doping itself which is more difficult to detect when different methods are found then used.

 

[canyonball]

The Canadian and US Women both set new OR's before team GB took to the track.

So did most of the other teams before. It's the first time it's an olympic event after all

 

[JimmyFingers]

There is no state-sponsored doping in Britain

While there have been, and will be British athletes that test positive for prohibited substances it is not endemic or systematic.

The track team, like it or not, race clean, I fully believe that. The list of the team's achievements are long and stretch back to 1996. There has been a clear improving arc of performance ever since, on the back of a lot of funding.

I think deep down many of you want this performance to be dirty, but even there I think there is an inkling that maybe, just maybe this 'marginal gains' mantra might be the cause: an attention to detail, from tech to diet to sleep to psychology to training, the goes beyond anything the other teams are doing.

That maybe David Brailsford is a genius and these are all exceptional athletes, and not some doping overlord and his evil minions.

If you watch the recent documentaries on Wiggins or Pendleton, or listen to Geraint Thomas and Mark Cavendish talk, and you still label them dopers I think you are very poor judges of character.

While I have been assured the clinic is worthwhile and actually stands for something, in my time reading it (and I have since the Criterium de Dauphine this year, after I was alerted to accusations against Sky on another forum) I just see it as mainly a platform for sneering at successes and more and more that sneering has been directed at my country and countrymen, resulting in borderline racist remarks at times.

Just because other great cycling nations have built that greatness through the needle of a syringe, it doesn't dictate we are doing the same. That isn't a truth, it isn't a fact, it is an assumption, an innuendo, and there are always other possibilities. I just hope some of you that are so convinced of our cheating might just acknowledge that fact.

Anyway here I draw my line in the sand. There is little point continuing to come here and saying things because people believe what they want to believe. I believe a different thing to many of you and while I am open to other possibilities I think the discussion here is barely rational and basically pointless. And when the levels of ignorance are displayed like they are in the 'I've never support a British team' thread it devolves into farce. Why the hell you think I should want any of you to support a British rider or team is beyond me. We're quite happy supporting our sportsmen ourselves.

One last thing: for all you questioning our performances on the track, ever consider home team advantage?

Anyway I am going to my damndest to stay away from here, I really do think it is an unpleasant and unhealthy place.