Help me find someone to root for at Le Tour

[Bernie's eyesore]

Re: Re:

I like Pinot. A real cyclist, humble, discreet, and not a clen-skinny freak.

Clean - who knows. But I am cheering for him.

Me too. Aaaah, today is such a beautiful day!

Yes, Pinot is definitely clean. FDJ seem like the cleanest team around.

 

[Benotti69]

Re: Re:

I like Pinot. A real cyclist, humble, discreet, and not a clen-skinny freak.

Clean - who knows. But I am cheering for him.

Me too. Aaaah, today is such a beautiful day!

Yes, Pinot is definitely clean. FDJ seem like the cleanest team around.

Pinot is definitely clean? Why? Cos he is French?

FDJ cleans?

http://www.dopeology.org/teams/Française-des-Jeux

 

[the sceptic]

Re: Re:

I like Pinot. A real cyclist, humble, discreet, and not a clen-skinny freak.

Clean - who knows. But I am cheering for him.

Me too. Aaaah, today is such a beautiful day!

Yes, Pinot is definitely clean. FDJ seem like the cleanest team around.

nibali is the cleanest rider in the peloton.

 

[pmcg76]

Re: Re:

I like Pinot. A real cyclist, humble, discreet, and not a clen-skinny freak.

Clean - who knows. But I am cheering for him.

Me too. Aaaah, today is such a beautiful day!

Yes, Pinot is definitely clean. FDJ seem like the cleanest team around.

Pinot is definitely clean? Why? Cos he is French?

FDJ cleans?

http://www.dopeology.org/teams/Française-des-Jeux

Yeah, how many of those cases have been in the last 10 years.

Delage was cleared, Offredo was for a poor whereabouts violation, Di Gregorio was shown to have been using homeopathic medicine, Duval was the only actual positive and that was for an appetite suppresant. Yes major doping scandals at FDJ.

 

[seldon71]

Selected my "rooting-for" riders for this tour :

Bouhanni ('cause he is a part-time boxer. That is my #1 in sports, cycling comes 2nd, BBall 3rd)
Brice Feillu (as the most likely stage winner from BSE. They are the real underdogs)
Voeckler (he may be an a**h***, but he has also been memorably entertaining and unpredictable)
Kristoff (I have a soft spot for him due to years when no one in Norway gave him a thought as EBH was the "next great thing")
HAIMAR ZUBELDIA (going for another Top-10 spot without appearing in tv screen once)

Also one of Kennaugh, König, Poels or Roche finishing TopTennish... And that by becoming a leader of Sky after Dawg & Porte are blown&drown in Atlantic during tomorrow's tornado

 

[Benotti69]

Re: Re:

I like Pinot. A real cyclist, humble, discreet, and not a clen-skinny freak.

Clean - who knows. But I am cheering for him.

Me too. Aaaah, today is such a beautiful day!

Yes, Pinot is definitely clean. FDJ seem like the cleanest team around.

Pinot is definitely clean? Why? Cos he is French?

FDJ cleans?

http://www.dopeology.org/teams/Française-des-Jeux

Yeah, how many of those cases have been in the last 10 years.

Delage was cleared, Offredo was for a poor whereabouts violation, Di Gregorio was shown to have been using homeopathic medicine, Duval was the only actual positive and that was for an appetite suppresant. Yes major doping scandals at FDJ.

Yeah, Delage was prevented from starting his National Championship after returning an elevated cortisol level. Same as Boom

But hey plenty of teams fly under the testing radar, dont make them cleans.

Poor whereabouts = doping and a ban.

FDJ run by another admitted doper. Just like Astana, CSC/Tinkov under Riis. Garmin. Leopard under Anderson........

doping is doping, whether for vials of EPO or an appetite suppresant, it is cheating.

 

[Escarabajo]

So the big four:

Contador: Doping ban
Froome: Insists on being clean, but Leinders, magic leap
Nibali: Astana, US Postal 2.0, Vino, my god this guy is dirty
Quintana: Spanish team, teammates with Valv,Piti

Any thoughts on who might be the least dirty? Hope for an improbable run from Pinot? I'm trying to find a rooting interest beyond the theater of it all.

I think you'd better root for some stage hunters. I don't know, Brammeier has not been selected, I'd go for Nathan Haas, but he was praising Hesjedal during the Giro (I don't care, but it seems you looking for someone not touched by any doping related info)
Bauer and Navardauskas, but someone will tell you they race for Vaughters who dedicated his life to Antidoping, even though it does not seems so.
some Bretagne Sechè riders?

I mean. don't look for any GC rider to find a clean one.

Quintana the cleaner? he disappeared for months in Colombia to prepare for the Tour...

I always can't stop laughing my ass off at comments like these. how dare quintana "disappear" to his wife and and newborn child and rest of his family in his home country. I hope you, yourself realize how idiotic this sounds

he did not disappear to his family lol
I meant he left Europe

What in the world are you talking about???

 

[King Boonen]

Re: Re:

I like Pinot. A real cyclist, humble, discreet, and not a clen-skinny freak.

Clean - who knows. But I am cheering for him.

Me too. Aaaah, today is such a beautiful day!

Yes, Pinot is definitely clean. FDJ seem like the cleanest team around.

nibali is the cleanest rider in the peloton.

Truth.

 

[Hugh Januss]

None of them are clean, pick a rider an cheer him on. Just don't fall into the common trap where if you pick a rider from your home country you then begin insisting that he (and he alone) is clean, or at least cleaner than all the others. This seems to happen most if your chosen rider is English, American, Colombian or even Italian.

 

[mrhender]

Just root for the guy you like the most...

There is no hipocrisy in rooting for one doper over the other...

Unless you think (and maybe argue) "your guy" is clean(er) and the others aren't...

If you need to believe, or get clinic confirmation that a guy is clean and therefore ok to root for -it is pointless..

For me, the question is not who of the big four that is most clean, because those things can be dynamic and change over the course without bearing any meaning regarding morality/ethics or natural talent....

 

[Tonton]

Re: Re:

I like Pinot. A real cyclist, humble, discreet, and not a clen-skinny freak.

Clean - who knows. But I am cheering for him.

Me too. Aaaah, today is such a beautiful day!

Yes, Pinot is definitely clean. FDJ seem like the cleanest team around.

Definitely clean, we can't be sure. He doesn't have the aicar/skeleton look, he made his data available, so "cleanish" for sure. Clean? I hope so.

 

[Tonton]

Re:

Just root for the guy you like the most...

There is no hipocrisy in rooting for one doper over the other...

Unless you think (and maybe argue) "your guy" is clean(er) and the others aren't...

If you need to believe, or get clinic confirmation that a guy is clean and therefore ok to root for -it is pointless..

For me, the question is not who of the big four that is most clean, because those things can be dynamic and change over the course without bearing any meaning regarding morality/ethics or natural talent....

Agree 100% Capitaine Haddock. That's why last year I'm on the record expressing that I was waiting for data before getting too excited about the French Renaissance as it was called then. Pinot's climbing power output turned out to be realistic. When the numbers came out, Nibali was singled out: not normal. Then Pinot made data available that IMO the University of Besancon study dumbed down, so idiots could understand what VO2Max means. And basically show that he's better than Lance. Duh . Is Pinot clean? I hope so, because where he and I come from, he won't dare showing his face in public if he gets busted. Yes, Wiggins said that too. I, and hopefully many of his supporters will watch closely. We don't need another Virenque. To be continued...

So is Pinot Cuddles-clean, clean,

 

[Bernie's eyesore]

Re:

How about supporting Cummings and Eddie Bos? MTN will be trying their best to get these two into breakaways and every chance you might get to celebrate a stage win. Both guys are clean as a whistle so no reason to not get behind them.

Great to see a clean and honest pro like Cummings get the win he deserves. Tremendous stuff.

 

[jalep]

Who the heck is Steve Cummings? okay nice win, or is it? but Is he a known climber? He's British, a track cyclist, uh...34 years old.

Even one of the two commentators, Phil or Paul called it a fairy tail win. I don't know it kept me from actually enjoying Romain Bardet or Thibaut Pinot winning.

 

[Fearless Greg Lemond]

Pretty pleased with Cummings winning, I will root for him again.

 

[Bernie's eyesore]

Re:

Who the heck is Steve Cummings? okay nice win, or is it? but Is he a known climber? He's British, a track cyclist, uh...34 years old.

Even one of the two commentators, Phil or Paul called it a fairy tail win. I don't know it kept me from actually enjoying Romain Bardet or Thibaut Pinot winning.

He was 6th in Tirreno Adriatico this year, has won a stage in the Vuelta and picked up a number of other wins over his career whilst spending a lot of time working as a domestique. The fact that you have never heard of him says more about your knowledge of cycling than it does about him.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Re:

Who the heck is Steve Cummings? okay nice win, or is it? but Is he a known climber? He's British, a track cyclist, uh...34 years old.

Even one of the two commentators, Phil or Paul called it a fairy tail win. I don't know it kept me from actually enjoying Romain Bardet or Thibaut Pinot winning.

Cummings has won on the Alto do Malhão (around 3km at 9%) in the Volta ao Algarve in the past and has been pretty useful on intermediate stages before with some good finishes on Mont Faron (more than once) and Monte Pora in the Giro in 2008.

From the break this is something within his remit. I'm surprised he beat Bardet and Pinot who are stronger climbers than him albeit weaker in a sprint, but this kind of climb is something he can do in the right stage (e.g. from the break, if he's targeted this day).

 

[gooner]

Re: Re:

How about supporting Cummings and Eddie Bos? MTN will be trying their best to get these two into breakaways and every chance you might get to celebrate a stage win. Both guys are clean as a whistle so no reason to not get behind them.

Great to see a clean and honest pro like Cummings get the win he deserves. Tremendous stuff.

I remember Phinney speaking about him even refusing to take painkillers.

Loved that overtaking move from behind to take the win.

 

[jalep]

Re: Re:

Cummings has won on the Alto do Malhão (around 3km at 9%) in the Volta ao Algarve in the past and has been pretty useful on intermediate stages before with some good finishes on Mont Faron (more than once) and Monte Pora in the Giro in 2008.

From the break this is something within his remit. I'm surprised he beat Bardet and Pinot who are stronger climbers than him albeit weaker in a sprint, but this kind of climb is something he can do in the right stage (e.g. from the break, if he's targeted this day).

Thanks Libertine Seguros, appreciate the help. I want to enjoy cycling. He had just enough road to kill two of my favorite Frenchies at the end. Bummer. But fair enough. Happy for him and his team.

 

[Happy dude]

Re:

How about supporting Cummings and Eddie Bos? MTN will be trying their best to get these two into breakaways and every chance you might get to celebrate a stage win. Both guys are clean as a whistle so no reason to not get behind them.

I was cheering for them today

 

[jalep]

Re: Re:

Who the heck is Steve Cummings? okay nice win, or is it? but Is he a known climber? He's British, a track cyclist, uh...34 years old.

Even one of the two commentators, Phil or Paul called it a fairy tail win. I don't know it kept me from actually enjoying Romain Bardet or Thibaut Pinot winning.

He was 6th in Tirreno Adriatico this year, has won a stage in the Vuelta and picked up a number of other wins over his career whilst spending a lot of time working as a domestique. The fact that you have never heard of him says more about your knowledge of cycling than it does about him.

You could be civil instead of insulting couldn't you, Bernie? I had heard of him. Just surprised and asked the question. Already watched Andy and Jamie Murray killing Tsonga and Mahut in Davis Cup doubles. Forgive me, it all does make me wonder what they are on. Anyway in sports that is all about responders vs responders there is a chance that someone who has been clean suddenly getting a boost at age 34 has changed his/her training program. I'm a believer that epo, exo or endo types, do meet with resistance and become less effective over time and overuse and there is a hyporesponsiveness effect. Look at Stan Wawarinka - no slouch, not quite a typical journeyman in the ATP. All titles won were 250 level, one gold medal with Federer in 2008 Olympics. But really, he wasn't considered a GS contender at age 29 in 2014 when he shocked the tennis world with winning the Australian Open, then won a masters 1000 in Monte Carlo; and this year, age 30 wins French Open. It's dodgy is what I think. Late bloomer and clean? I doubt it. A theory is that these older athletes who have been clean or relatively so have perhaps a better chance when they start using later in their career, as opposed to say, Rafa Nadal.

 

[KyoGrey]

So the big four:

Contador: Doping ban
Froome: Insists on being clean, but Leinders, magic leap
Nibali: Astana, US Postal 2.0, Vino, my god this guy is dirty
Quintana: Spanish team, teammates with Valv,Piti

Any thoughts on who might be the least dirty? Hope for an improbable run from Pinot? I'm trying to find a rooting interest beyond the theater of it all.

I find this a little bit offensive tbh. ¿Would you have said the same if he rode for an Italian or an American team?

 

[The Hitch]

I couldn't find a Gallopin thread and didn't want to create one.

What the *** is TG playing at in this video 2 mins in - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RmiXBulLdlw

He says "I did 5.9 w/kg while my heros were between 6.7 and 7 w/kg". What for 40 minutes???? when did anyone do that?

 

[Gung Ho Gun]

Pantani in his Alpe d'Huez record did 6.7 I think?

 

[SeriousSam]

I think Riis' Hautacam is the highest estimated w/kg for a close to 40 min effort. 6.8. Pantani's and Armstrong's best Alpes are up there too.