Krebs cycle said:Yes, I understand that the ABP can be beaten, I have never denied that (funny that in the other thread you trolled me for referring to "science" yet the very evidence you are referring to here is also published in the scientific literature). However, if the ABP can be beaten, then please explain why the top GC contenders from around 2007-2009 are going minutes slower up HC and cat 1 climbs from 2010 onwards???
There are two possibilities IMO:
1. you can beat the ABP but you don't get the same performance benefit as previously, so you slow down a little bit even though you are still doping.
2. all of the best riders in the world over the past 3yrs are physiologically inferior to those from before 2008 and those that cross over that time point are all having bad seasons year after year
Possibility #1 is the opinion expressed by Olaf Schumacher, Rob Parisotto and Anne Gripper publicly.
As far as the UCI is concerned, the ABP probably is an exercise in public relations but as far as people like those I just mentioned and also including Michael Ashenden and John Fahey (WADA president), it certainly isn't. The ABP is bigger than cycling.
3. Science in Sport do quick and simple calculations based on VAM, and the riders know the maximum power they are allowed to sustain on climbs for the performance to be believable. Wiggins generates this power by pedalling at 100-110 rpm uphill. Blood boosted to the max. Froome, who has not been in the spotlight before, gets anxious / overexcited and has a dig on stage 16 but it's too early, the speed of the ascent will be too high, so is told to pull back. He spends most of the Tour and the Vuelta checking his power meter.
On stage 16, towards the top, where the change in pace is going to have little impact on the overall ascent speed, Wiggins himself moves to the front, finally, and closes down Nibali, who attacked earlier. Wiggins appears to be making Froome suffer and looks fine.
On stage 17 Froome has the "beckon" moment where he's asking for Brad to speed up. This is a guy who has trained with Brad, so I have no doubts Froome knows what Brad is capable of. But it's good tactically for Wiggins to leave Froome out there, looking conspicuous. Perhpas feign a bit of tiredness. Make Froome look like the alien.
3 days later Wiggins smashes Froome in the TT, proving beyond any shadow of a doubt that he has more W/kg than Froome. It's much harder to quickly and simply estimate power based on speed and atmospheric conditions, but cycling power models have done so, and esimate Brad's power at 6.9W/kg for 64 minutes in the final TT.
Not normal.