You partially answered your own question. But you have not been around here long enoughto know why Sky gets more animosity directed toward them. It has been discussed over and over and over again but the Sky Faithful can't respond and then sweep it away like it was never discussed.Bwlch y Groes said:veganrob said:You're not going to find one single person here that will argue Contador is clean. Even his most ardent supporter, La Flo, will admit such.
I'm aware. But you can't possibly argue that The Clinic treats Contador's doping in the same way as Sky's doping. It quite clearly generates a different emotional reaction here. Look at all the threads on the main page about Sky and their current or former riders - I count 11 posted in since 20th July
Like I said, I understand why Sky are particularly hated, but the reason for that isn't exclusively because of doping. And focusing so intently on the actions of one team just creates more and more of a mindset that non-Sky riders are a lesser evil, which does let them off the hook somewhat for potential cheating
veganrob said:You partially answered your own question. But you have not been around here long enoughto know why Sky gets more animosity directed toward them. It has been discussed over and over and over again but the Sky Faithful can't respond and then sweep it away like it was never discussed.Bwlch y Groes said:veganrob said:You're not going to find one single person here that will argue Contador is clean. Even his most ardent supporter, La Flo, will admit such.
I'm aware. But you can't possibly argue that The Clinic treats Contador's doping in the same way as Sky's doping. It quite clearly generates a different emotional reaction here. Look at all the threads on the main page about Sky and their current or former riders - I count 11 posted in since 20th July
Like I said, I understand why Sky are particularly hated, but the reason for that isn't exclusively because of doping. And focusing so intently on the actions of one team just creates more and more of a mindset that non-Sky riders are a lesser evil, which does let them off the hook somewhat for potential cheating
I'm not going to rehash it all. It hasn't done any good so far.
veganrob said:You partially answered your own question. But you have not been around here long enoughto know why Sky gets more animosity directed toward them. It has been discussed over and over and over again but the Sky Faithful can't respond and then sweep it away like it was never discussed.Bwlch y Groes said:veganrob said:You're not going to find one single person here that will argue Contador is clean. Even his most ardent supporter, La Flo, will admit such.
I'm aware. But you can't possibly argue that The Clinic treats Contador's doping in the same way as Sky's doping. It quite clearly generates a different emotional reaction here. Look at all the threads on the main page about Sky and their current or former riders - I count 11 posted in since 20th July
Like I said, I understand why Sky are particularly hated, but the reason for that isn't exclusively because of doping. And focusing so intently on the actions of one team just creates more and more of a mindset that non-Sky riders are a lesser evil, which does let them off the hook somewhat for potential cheating
I'm not going to rehash it all. It hasn't done any good so far.
Bwlch y Groes said:veganrob said:You're not going to find one single person here that will argue Contador is clean. Even his most ardent supporter, La Flo, will admit such.
I'm aware. But you can't possibly argue that The Clinic treats Contador's doping in the same way as Sky's doping. It quite clearly generates a different emotional reaction here. Look at all the threads on the main page about Sky and their current or former riders - I count 11 posted in since 20th July
Like I said, I understand why Sky are particularly hated, but the reason for that isn't exclusively because of doping. And focusing so intently on the actions of one team just creates more and more of a mindset that non-Sky riders are a lesser evil, which does let them off the hook somewhat for potential cheating
The Hitch said:lol you mean like when Geraint Thomas led the peloton up the Plateu de Beille in 2015 breaking Lance Armstrongs best time on the climb? Don't act like that was a steady progression from track cyclist to wannabe cobble rider to casually breaking Armstrongs time on a climb to winning the TDF and 2 mountain stages.Fergoose said:Brullnux said:It's fine everyone. Brailsford has cleared this up. It isn't a surprise, since Thomas' whole season has been planned around/towards the Tour. Going by the same logic, I'm expecting Guillame Martin, who will also plan his season around the Tour, to win next year.
The point is more that G showed flashes of his ability as a domestique, staying with GC leaders on climbs even when peaking outside the TDF window. So an improvement when focussing on the TDF is a natural progression.
G's "flashes of brilliance" is an extreme euphemism for what were 2 massive transformations that performed by any none British rider would have all his fans howling with suspicion
Two big factors:Cookster15 said:Hype alert. I agree that Thomas transformation from track to Tour winning climber is mega suspect but your cherry picking of PdB times of Thomas and Armstrong does not help your argument either Hitch. Can you explain why when Thomas won on Alpe D'Huez his time up that mountain was nearly 4 minutes slower than Armstrong's best and this is despite Sky riding high tempo from bottom to top to nullify attacks? Can you at least admit the doping controls are having some effect? Over 1 km effect on the Alpe based on my example.
Thats a cool story.samhocking said:It's funny, I mean you could compare e.g. Contadors two years leading up to winning his first Tour de France and what races he did well in to Thomas & Wiggins 2 years as well, yet they really are very evenly matched in terms of the success rate in bigger races over those 2 years, so i'm not sure a professionals palamares means much in all cases anyway between a conventional continental pro's path to World tour or a track riders path to World tour and winning its biggest race? Not sure. Yes Contador will arguably have losts of differences before World Tour successses, but then it suggests they don't really carry though to meaning anything at World Tour level perhaps other than winning your first Tour much more quickly? Obviously the main difference is Contador came straight into World Tour and won first Tour in less than 5 years, Wiggins and Thomas in 10 years, but then Contador wasn't a domestique, so v.difficult to compare anyway.
Wiggins 2010 to 2012: Critérium du Dauphiné 1st, Vuelta a España 3rd, Paris–Nice 3rd, Tour de France 1st
Thomas 2016 - 2018: Paris–Nice 1st, Volta ao Algarve 1st, Tour of the Alps 1st, Tirreno–Adriatico 5th, Critérium du Dauphiné 1st, Tirreno–Adriatico 3rd, Tour de France 1st
Contador 2005 - 2007: Tour of the Basque Country 1st, Tour de Romandie 4th, Paris–Nice 1st, Vuelta a Castilla y León 1st, Tour de France 1st
batchuba said:Chaddy said:Why? are Spanish, French and Italian dopers more likable?
A little bit yeah..
For quite a while now, the majority of the sustained obvious perversions of the natural order of things, the comical arms "gaps" and the embarrassing miracle transformations have involved Anglophone riders.
Continentals tend to get on with the business of doping as much as they can, Anglophones tend to introduce entire globalised edifices of corruption, complete with pre-emptive information overloads, obfuscating schmalz offensives, and a mind-fogging appeals to patriotic sentiment - usually involving a constant background hum of quiet insinuations designed to invoke the image of plucky honest anglophone underdogs toiling honestly against the legions of cheating and colluding dagos and wops. An almost complete inversion of reality one might be familiar with from which ever ex-soviet dependency the Anglophone world's head-chopping proxy stormtroopers have burnt to the ground this week.
------------------------------------------------------------
In all spheres, Continental corruption is quaint compared to Anglophone corruption. Continentals tend to lie and cheat and steal. Anglophones tend to redefine what constitutes lying and cheating and stealing.
Or to put it another way - Continentals cheat the system and lie to others, Anglophones change the system and lie to themselves. Which brings a horrifyingly self righteous conviction to their approach to gangsterism which, in a cycling context, makes old school continental cheating seem endearingly honest, and almost naive, by comparison.
I'm not being exactly fair of course, it is hardly the case that non Anglophone doping set ups are all disorganised ,localised and lack such support structures and corruption networks - but speaking for myself, as to why I would find "Spanish, french and Italian dopers" at least less dislikable - it would be that difference in background to their cheating.
That they are not backed by the same Anglophone ultra-capitalist information machine which has contrived to re-orientate the morals of a generation to such a degree that it is now considered immoral to not to advocate the killing of millions and annihilation of nations because they don't show sufficient zeal in selling off all their natural resources to Israeli "dual citizens". That they are not the faces of cyclings manifestation of the expansionist Anglophone monoculture expropriating localised criminality worldwide, and hoarding them under a giant shiny lie. They are, rather, simply dopers.
Which, for me, makes the non-Anglophone dopers, at the very least, less irritating.
----------------------------------
I am of course a proven champagne communist and semi-troll, so you probably shouldn't listen to scum like me.
However, I presume some would provide a much less hyperbolic and all-encompassing version of that rationale to explain any unique vehemence they direct specifically at the latest generation of blatant Anglophone dopers.
In short: that modern Anglophone doping somehow contrives to feel even more dishonest and distasteful, and be even more worrying in its potential for permanent distortion of the sport, than old school continental doping.
Cookster15 said:The Hitch said:lol you mean like when Geraint Thomas led the peloton up the Plateu de Beille in 2015 breaking Lance Armstrongs best time on the climb? Don't act like that was a steady progression from track cyclist to wannabe cobble rider to casually breaking Armstrongs time on a climb to winning the TDF and 2 mountain stages.Fergoose said:Brullnux said:It's fine everyone. Brailsford has cleared this up. It isn't a surprise, since Thomas' whole season has been planned around/towards the Tour. Going by the same logic, I'm expecting Guillame Martin, who will also plan his season around the Tour, to win next year.
The point is more that G showed flashes of his ability as a domestique, staying with GC leaders on climbs even when peaking outside the TDF window. So an improvement when focussing on the TDF is a natural progression.
G's "flashes of brilliance" is an extreme euphemism for what were 2 massive transformations that performed by any none British rider would have all his fans howling with suspicion
Hype alert. I agree that Thomas transformation from track to Tour winning climber is mega suspect but your cherry picking of PdB times of Thomas and Armstrong does not help your argument either Hitch. Can you explain why when Thomas won on Alpe D'Huez his time up that mountain was nearly 4 minutes slower than Armstrong's best and this is despite Sky riding high tempo from bottom to top to nullify attacks? Can you at least admit the doping controls are having some effect? Over 1 km effect on the Alpe based on my example.
thomas has never been an average rider. back in 2011 he was about to crack top 20 in the tour gc. onwards, he delivered very decent perfomances in the mountains in 2015-2017. thomas is certainly doping, but equaling him to armstrong in this area, hell no. just have a look at lance at the beginning of 2000's. he alongside with ullrich, rumsas and others were simply 3-4 kilos heavier than thomas, froome and dimoulin at this point, which didn't hinder them from riding alpe d'huez sub 39 minutes. that was a completely different era as far as efectiveness of doping is concerned.The Hitch said:Cookster15 said:The Hitch said:lol you mean like when Geraint Thomas led the peloton up the Plateu de Beille in 2015 breaking Lance Armstrongs best time on the climb? Don't act like that was a steady progression from track cyclist to wannabe cobble rider to casually breaking Armstrongs time on a climb to winning the TDF and 2 mountain stages.Fergoose said:Brullnux said:It's fine everyone. Brailsford has cleared this up. It isn't a surprise, since Thomas' whole season has been planned around/towards the Tour. Going by the same logic, I'm expecting Guillame Martin, who will also plan his season around the Tour, to win next year.
The point is more that G showed flashes of his ability as a domestique, staying with GC leaders on climbs even when peaking outside the TDF window. So an improvement when focussing on the TDF is a natural progression.
G's "flashes of brilliance" is an extreme euphemism for what were 2 massive transformations that performed by any none British rider would have all his fans howling with suspicion
Hype alert. I agree that Thomas transformation from track to Tour winning climber is mega suspect but your cherry picking of PdB times of Thomas and Armstrong does not help your argument either Hitch. Can you explain why when Thomas won on Alpe D'Huez his time up that mountain was nearly 4 minutes slower than Armstrong's best and this is despite Sky riding high tempo from bottom to top to nullify attacks? Can you at least admit the doping controls are having some effect? Over 1 km effect on the Alpe based on my example.
Maybe it takes Thomas longer to do ale d huez than Armstrong because Thomas even when doping to the point of being a 6 on the uci suspicion scale (meaning heavily suspicious,) was still a below average rider. Maybe it takes Thomas a lot more drugs to go half as fast as Armstrong who was the best of the best of the best during the he doping era, one in a million..
But anyway your argument has a massive hole in it I'm surprised you can't see. If pantani rides one mountain slow does that make him clean? Errr no. Ppl can ride a climb slower for any any billion reasons. When they ride it super fast in professional cycling, there is one common reason - unless you believe in fairy tales of - being a "lad" and just wanting it is more powerful than 30years of doping evolution.
Riding climbs slow is an argument for cleanliness? Then 99% of dopers ever caught should have their cases overturned since all but a few of them were never as fast as Thomas.
dacooley said:thomas has never been an average rider. back in 2011 he was about to crack top 20 in the tour gc. onwards, he delivered very decent perfomances in the mountains in 2015-2017. thomas is certainly doping, but equaling him to armstrong in this area, hell no. just have a look at lance at the beginning of 2000's. he alongside with ullrich, rumsas and others were simply 3-4 kilos heavier than thomas, froome and dimoulin at this point, which didn't hinder them from riding alpe d'huez sub 39 minutes. that was a completely different era as far as efectiveness of doping is concerned.The Hitch said:Cookster15 said:The Hitch said:lol you mean like when Geraint Thomas led the peloton up the Plateu de Beille in 2015 breaking Lance Armstrongs best time on the climb? Don't act like that was a steady progression from track cyclist to wannabe cobble rider to casually breaking Armstrongs time on a climb to winning the TDF and 2 mountain stages.Fergoose said:The point is more that G showed flashes of his ability as a domestique, staying with GC leaders on climbs even when peaking outside the TDF window. So an improvement when focussing on the TDF is a natural progression.
G's "flashes of brilliance" is an extreme euphemism for what were 2 massive transformations that performed by any none British rider would have all his fans howling with suspicion
Hype alert. I agree that Thomas transformation from track to Tour winning climber is mega suspect but your cherry picking of PdB times of Thomas and Armstrong does not help your argument either Hitch. Can you explain why when Thomas won on Alpe D'Huez his time up that mountain was nearly 4 minutes slower than Armstrong's best and this is despite Sky riding high tempo from bottom to top to nullify attacks? Can you at least admit the doping controls are having some effect? Over 1 km effect on the Alpe based on my example.
Maybe it takes Thomas longer to do ale d huez than Armstrong because Thomas even when doping to the point of being a 6 on the uci suspicion scale (meaning heavily suspicious,) was still a below average rider. Maybe it takes Thomas a lot more drugs to go half as fast as Armstrong who was the best of the best of the best during the he doping era, one in a million..
But anyway your argument has a massive hole in it I'm surprised you can't see. If pantani rides one mountain slow does that make him clean? Errr no. Ppl can ride a climb slower for any any billion reasons. When they ride it super fast in professional cycling, there is one common reason - unless you believe in fairy tales of - being a "lad" and just wanting it is more powerful than 30years of doping evolution.
Riding climbs slow is an argument for cleanliness? Then 99% of dopers ever caught should have their cases overturned since all but a few of them were never as fast as Thomas.
fair enough, what place an overweight northen classics spealists should finish at to prove having some gc prospects?The Hitch said:Huh? Thomas finished outside the top 30 of the 2011 TDF, 1 hour behind the winner. So maybe you meant "almost top 30"?
for heaven's sake don't confuse me with multiple sky-believers claiming "no bans - no proof" and so on. see above where I was saying thomas is clearly doping.Its like how Froome said finishing 32nd on 1 TDF stage in 2008 was proof he could win the Tour.
The standards of proof of talent Sky riders are held to before they go Bjarne Riis is incredbile. No one would ever expect to see the ppl that beat him Gorka Verdugo Roche, Casar, Karpets, Monfort, Trofimov to win the Tour de France.
You seem to be arguing that this is proof that people in the early 2000s were more heavily doped, because they climbed faster despite being heavier. Is that correct? If so, I would argue that, most likely, the only reason riders today are lighter without losing power is that they have access to weight-loss PEDs that people in the early 2000s didn't use, so...just have a look at lance at the beginning of 2000's. he alongside with ullrich, rumsas and others were simply 3-4 kilos heavier than thomas, froome and dimoulin at this point, which didn't hinder them from riding alpe d'huez sub 39 minutes. that was a completely different era as far as efectiveness of doping is concerned.
yes, from my perspective being 3-4-5 kg heavier on average took using more thermonuclear doping. though shredding fat peds probably give an advantage which is quite comparable to injecting epo / infusing stored blood, as you fairly noticed.hrotha said:He was pretty obviously an above average rider, as a look at CQ Ranking will make clear. And he could climb reasonably well, enough to become a reliable all-rounder domestique for flat and rough terrain, and a top 40 GC guy. But that's it. That made him an interesting rider with some promise for the classics and the more classics-like one-week races, not a future GT contender.
You seem to be arguing that this is proof that people in the early 2000s were more heavily doped, because they climbed faster despite being heavier. Is that correct? If so, I would argue that, most likely, the only reason riders today are lighter without losing power is that they have access to weight-loss PEDs that people in the early 2000s didn't use, so...just have a look at lance at the beginning of 2000's. he alongside with ullrich, rumsas and others were simply 3-4 kilos heavier than thomas, froome and dimoulin at this point, which didn't hinder them from riding alpe d'huez sub 39 minutes. that was a completely different era as far as efectiveness of doping is concerned.
batchuba said:Chaddy said:Why? are Spanish, French and Italian dopers more likable?
A little bit yeah..
For quite a while now, the majority of the sustained obvious perversions of the natural order of things, the comical arms "gaps" and the embarrassing miracle transformations have involved Anglophone riders.
Continentals tend to get on with the business of doping as much as they can, Anglophones tend to introduce entire globalised edifices of corruption, complete with pre-emptive information overloads, obfuscating schmalz offensives, and a mind-fogging appeals to patriotic sentiment - usually involving a constant background hum of quiet insinuations designed to invoke the image of plucky honest anglophone underdogs toiling honestly against the legions of cheating and colluding dagos and wops. An almost complete inversion of reality one might be familiar with from which ever ex-soviet dependency the Anglophone world's head-chopping proxy stormtroopers have burnt to the ground this week.
------------------------------------------------------------
In all spheres, Continental corruption is quaint compared to Anglophone corruption. Continentals tend to lie and cheat and steal. Anglophones tend to redefine what constitutes lying and cheating and stealing.
Or to put it another way - Continentals cheat the system and lie to others, Anglophones change the system and lie to themselves. Which brings a horrifyingly self righteous conviction to their approach to gangsterism which, in a cycling context, makes old school continental cheating seem endearingly honest, and almost naive, by comparison.
I'm not being exactly fair of course, it is hardly the case that non Anglophone doping set ups are all disorganised ,localised and lack such support structures and corruption networks - but speaking for myself, as to why I would find "Spanish, french and Italian dopers" at least less dislikable - it would be that difference in background to their cheating.
<snip>
----------------------------------
I am of course a proven champagne communist and semi-troll, so you probably shouldn't listen to scum like me.
However, I presume some would provide a much less hyperbolic and all-encompassing version of that rationale to explain any unique vehemence they direct specifically at the latest generation of blatant Anglophone dopers.
In short: that modern Anglophone doping somehow contrives to feel even more dishonest and distasteful, and be even more worrying in its potential for permanent distortion of the sport, than old school continental doping.
Saint Unix said:Two big factors:Cookster15 said:Hype alert. I agree that Thomas transformation from track to Tour winning climber is mega suspect but your cherry picking of PdB times of Thomas and Armstrong does not help your argument either Hitch. Can you explain why when Thomas won on Alpe D'Huez his time up that mountain was nearly 4 minutes slower than Armstrong's best and this is despite Sky riding high tempo from bottom to top to nullify attacks? Can you at least admit the doping controls are having some effect? Over 1 km effect on the Alpe based on my example.
1) Armstrong's best time was a time trial from the foot of the climb while this year it came at the end of a stage featuring two other very gnarly climbs.
2) Thomas, Froome, Bardet and Dumoulin also dropped roughly a minute by looking at each other and soft-pedalling at the end.
Not saying they aren't slower than the guys at the early noughties, but they definitely wouldn't have been four minutes slower than prime Armstrong on a l'Alpe TT.
For sure and that had nothing with the fact that there were much fewer riders, much fewer races,... in GB.gregrowlerson said:In regards to the excellent recent post on Anglophones vs. Continentals, I think that there is a feeling amongst many that British riders don't belong here, that they belong on the track, type of sentiment. It's also the invading aspect.....France, Italy and Spain host the grand tours and their riders have historically always had the most success. Hence their current day riders are given more credibility by some as being more naturally talented than their apparently donkeyesque counterparts.
Your are right. Thomas time shouldn't have been 4 minutes slower. Should have been 20 minutes slower.Cookster15 said:The Hitch said:lol you mean like when Geraint Thomas led the peloton up the Plateu de Beille in 2015 breaking Lance Armstrongs best time on the climb? Don't act like that was a steady progression from track cyclist to wannabe cobble rider to casually breaking Armstrongs time on a climb to winning the TDF and 2 mountain stages.Fergoose said:Brullnux said:It's fine everyone. Brailsford has cleared this up. It isn't a surprise, since Thomas' whole season has been planned around/towards the Tour. Going by the same logic, I'm expecting Guillame Martin, who will also plan his season around the Tour, to win next year.
The point is more that G showed flashes of his ability as a domestique, staying with GC leaders on climbs even when peaking outside the TDF window. So an improvement when focussing on the TDF is a natural progression.
G's "flashes of brilliance" is an extreme euphemism for what were 2 massive transformations that performed by any none British rider would have all his fans howling with suspicion
Hype alert. I agree that Thomas transformation from track to Tour winning climber is mega suspect but your cherry picking of PdB times of Thomas and Armstrong does not help your argument either Hitch. Can you explain why when Thomas won on Alpe D'Huez his time up that mountain was nearly 4 minutes slower than Armstrong's best and this is despite Sky riding high tempo from bottom to top to nullify attacks? Can you at least admit the doping controls are having some effect? Over 1 km effect on the Alpe based on my example.
Escarabajo said:Your are right. Thomas time shouldn't have been 4 minutes slower. Should have been 20 minutes slower.Cookster15 said:The Hitch said:lol you mean like when Geraint Thomas led the peloton up the Plateu de Beille in 2015 breaking Lance Armstrongs best time on the climb? Don't act like that was a steady progression from track cyclist to wannabe cobble rider to casually breaking Armstrongs time on a climb to winning the TDF and 2 mountain stages.Fergoose said:Brullnux said:It's fine everyone. Brailsford has cleared this up. It isn't a surprise, since Thomas' whole season has been planned around/towards the Tour. Going by the same logic, I'm expecting Guillame Martin, who will also plan his season around the Tour, to win next year.
The point is more that G showed flashes of his ability as a domestique, staying with GC leaders on climbs even when peaking outside the TDF window. So an improvement when focussing on the TDF is a natural progression.
G's "flashes of brilliance" is an extreme euphemism for what were 2 massive transformations that performed by any none British rider would have all his fans howling with suspicion
Hype alert. I agree that Thomas transformation from track to Tour winning climber is mega suspect but your cherry picking of PdB times of Thomas and Armstrong does not help your argument either Hitch. Can you explain why when Thomas won on Alpe D'Huez his time up that mountain was nearly 4 minutes slower than Armstrong's best and this is despite Sky riding high tempo from bottom to top to nullify attacks? Can you at least admit the doping controls are having some effect? Over 1 km effect on the Alpe based on my example.
According to the top 100, it shows Armstrong's fastest ascent at the 15.5 ITT in 2004 (37:36/4th fastest ever) vs his 2nd fastest in 2001 (38:03/6th fastest). In the 03 version, he had a bad climb (for him) finishing outside the top 100 all time best (That was the year he lost to Mayo & Vino and finished about 2 mins behind with the Hamilton group).gregrowlerson said:Saint Unix said:Two big factors:Cookster15 said:Hype alert. I agree that Thomas transformation from track to Tour winning climber is mega suspect but your cherry picking of PdB times of Thomas and Armstrong does not help your argument either Hitch. Can you explain why when Thomas won on Alpe D'Huez his time up that mountain was nearly 4 minutes slower than Armstrong's best and this is despite Sky riding high tempo from bottom to top to nullify attacks? Can you at least admit the doping controls are having some effect? Over 1 km effect on the Alpe based on my example.
1) Armstrong's best time was a time trial from the foot of the climb while this year it came at the end of a stage featuring two other very gnarly climbs.
2) Thomas, Froome, Bardet and Dumoulin also dropped roughly a minute by looking at each other and soft-pedalling at the end.
Not saying they aren't slower than the guys at the early noughties, but they definitely wouldn't have been four minutes slower than prime Armstrong on a l'Alpe TT.
Armstrong's faster time came not in an ITT, but on a multi mountain stage in 2001. That stage had also been ridden hard before the final climb (with Telokom pushing the pace).
This.thehog said:The mere fact that riders like Quintana and Bardet were reduced to nothingness on climbs and Thomas attacked away from them shows all you need to know.
I went through at great length why Sky and their riders attract more a) suspicion and b) distaste than others without recourse to nationality last year, and don't want to repeat myself any more than is necessary, but in summary I disagree with this. It's not that British riders 'don't belong', after all we don't see the same distaste to a great extent around British riders outside of the Team Sky umbrella - the Yates twins, albeit with Simon having stuck his head a little above the parapet in the Giro, or Hugh Carthy for example - and even some riders from within it who've had some reasonable success too - Ian Stannard, for example. Even Thomas himself, while he was a Classics man, attracted less attention in the Clinic for his achievement level than you might have expected.gregrowlerson said:In regards to the excellent recent post on Anglophones vs. Continentals, I think that there is a feeling amongst many that British riders don't belong here, that they belong on the track, type of sentiment. It's also the invading aspect.....France, Italy and Spain host the grand tours and their riders have historically always had the most success. Hence their current day riders are given more credibility by some as being more naturally talented than their apparently donkeyesque counterparts.
Well, Dumoulin has figured it out as well. Which means that two unrelated, independent teams would have to have some super genius training secret - which, incidentally, ex-Sky riders can't seem to copy. I think Occam's Razor is nodding and winking quite heavily in the direction of your second option.Alpe d'Huez said:This.thehog said:The mere fact that riders like Quintana and Bardet were reduced to nothingness on climbs and Thomas attacked away from them shows all you need to know.
Occam's Razor tells me either Sky has some super genius secret training and prep that no other person on the planet has figured out, let alone been able to come close to replicate,, or something Clinic related is going on.