Is the new "clean" era over?

[SkyTears]

This year started with Kristoff, Katusha, Zakarin and exploded with some of the most ridiculous performances ever saw in cycling

Astana domestiques at Giro
Sagan doing sprints and finishing few seconds off in HC climb at high altitude
Alaphillipe another ridiculous performance, sprinting last km on 10% after droping the "climbers"

It's clear that nobody can keep a straight face anymore

at least the ridiculous performances of Froome and Co. could be justified somehow with 2% body fat, 65kg's and stuff, you could keep a straight face when talking about new clean era.

but in the past weeks the ridiculous line was shamefully crossed. even Bassons was talking lately about "again fat asses out climbing climbers"

UCI failing to eliminate Astana is the signal for no shame doping again?

P.S. im not saying till now cycling was clean. but at least some decency boundaries were kept.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

2008 was the ONLY attempt at a "new clean era" we could talk about with a straight face, because AFLD were actually trying to catch dopers.

Everything since then has been lip service only. You know this, but continue to peddle the same line to suggest Катюша and Astana this year are somehow more ridiculous than Sky and OPQS in 2012. What is the motivation?

 

[SkyTears]

Re:

2008 was the ONLY attempt at a "new clean era" we could talk about with a straight face, because AFLD were actually trying to catch dopers.

Everything since then has been lip service only. You know this, but continue to peddle the same line to suggest Катюша and Astana this year are somehow more ridiculous than Sky and OPQS in 2012. What is the motivation?

are you arguing that Astana and Sagan are less ridiculous than Sky 2012 ?

i can buy Sky *** for 2012 , but never last days Astana's (let's not forget that they got an EPO positive for a TdF champ domestique) or Sagan's

so, i think the red line was crossed this year, from march to now.

 

[BigMac]

It's that teams have been pushing the tripwire, but never really making a move. With Sky they found out it isn't really connected to anything, id est, UCI doesn't give a crap, so everyone decided to escalate to the absurd.

Tonight, from up there, Alaphilippe and Co. graciously took a leak over the Conti peloton. I mean...

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Re: Re:

2008 was the ONLY attempt at a "new clean era" we could talk about with a straight face, because AFLD were actually trying to catch dopers.

Everything since then has been lip service only. You know this, but continue to peddle the same line to suggest Катюша and Astana this year are somehow more ridiculous than Sky and OPQS in 2012. What is the motivation?

are you arguing that Astana and Sagan are less ridiculous than Sky 2012 ?

Yes. If Astana and Sagan continue to ride like this for five months non-stop, they will be as ridiculous as Sky 2012.

 

[carton]

I agree with the OP's general sentiment. But here's the thing: everyone wants doping ... I got a little off-topic, I'll continue on the manifesto thread.

 

[Ferminal]

Gilbert 2011

 

[Tonton]

I also agree with the OP statement. I truly thought that the peloton was getting cleanish after last year's TdF, when no one besides Nibbles posted suspicious power outputs on climbs. I thought it was now possible for a clean rider to make a top-5 in a GT, that Astana (Vino), Saxo (then-Riis) and eventually Sky would go down. I am a lot less optimistic today. Cycling is becoming a world of clones: Sagan is following the footsteps/transformation of Jalabert, Piti has a replicant named Alaphilippe, and Big George's destiny as a GT leader may be fulilled by Ritchie. The dark history of cycling is repeating itself. The arm's race that we seem to be witnessing is an indictment of the incompetence, lack of will, and/or corruption of the UCI, the federations, in some cases the governments.

 

[Dazed and Confused]

Cookson failed to deliver.
Status quo.

 

[Alexandre B.]

Cycling is becoming a world of clones: Sagan is following the footsteps/transformation of Jalabert

Sagan is doing what he did in previous years : bossing the Tour of California - Tour de Suisse period.

 

[Gung Ho Gun]

I strongly disagree with OP's sentiment that there was anything justifiable about Froome
Very surprising that it took the other teams this long to start going nuclear as well
I'm sorry for everyone who believed in the miracle again

 

[TheGreenMonkey]

There has to be a new clean era before it can be over.

 

[SkyTears]

Re:

I strongly disagree with OP's sentiment that there was anything justifiable about Froome
Very surprising that it took the other teams this long to start going nuclear as well
I'm sorry for everyone who believed in the miracle again

i never said last years performances were clean, but they were somehow human, believable, with doping within some decency limits, to make the sport credible, to be able to sell it as "clean" or cleaner.

few ridiculous performances were present every year but this days every day is a ridiculous day.

Sagan on MtBaldy is of such stupidity that i challenge anyone to find something of same level in the history of cycling. Cippo on Mount Ventoux ? or something like that.

 

[mrhender]

Doping practices are evolving all the time..

Dividing it in era's of clean/dirty is an attempt to create make believe magnitudes from minor setbacks and nuances of said evolution.....

Take the ABP and 50% rule for examples..
It's just minor bumps on the road.. It can't stop doping evolution. Only maybe contribute to it...

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Re: Re:

I strongly disagree with OP's sentiment that there was anything justifiable about Froome
Very surprising that it took the other teams this long to start going nuclear as well
I'm sorry for everyone who believed in the miracle again

i never said last years performances were clean, but they were somehow human, believable, with doping within some decency limits, to make the sport credible, to be able to sell it as "clean" or cleaner.

few ridiculous performances were present every year but this days every day is a ridiculous day.

Sagan on MtBaldy is of such stupidity that i challenge anyone to find something of same level in the history of cycling. Cippo on Mount Ventoux ? or something like that.

George Hincapie on Pla d'Adet. Easy.

 

[sniper]

OP trying to apologize for Sky beggars belief.
ffs, they were the first team since USPS to pull off such team dominance, and not just in the TdF but during a whole season.
There was a small window of opportunity for cycling to clean up in the wake of the Lance fiasco.
British Cycling and Sky closed the window and started a new arms race based on (a) weightloss drugs (b) year-long epo microdosing, (c) getting the governing body on board (Cookson, Zorzoli).
Also good to recall Sky's 2010 Vuelta abandonment. PDM 1991 all over again.

 

[sniper]

Re: Re:

I strongly disagree with OP's sentiment that there was anything justifiable about Froome
Very surprising that it took the other teams this long to start going nuclear as well
I'm sorry for everyone who believed in the miracle again

i never said last years performances were clean, but they were somehow human, believable, with doping within some decency limits, to make the sport credible, to be able to sell it as "clean" or cleaner.

even if true, then the very last team to thank for that is Sky.
in a period when doping quantities looked to be on the decrease (guys like Contador, Schlecks, etc. going slower than before), Sky were the exception making cycling look as ridiculous as in the Dark era.
Froome/Wiggins transformations will go into the books as the most ridiculous transformations cycling has ever seen. Right up there with Riis 1996.

 

[meat puppet]

what never begun cannot have ended. my take is that ignoring the uber ridiculous 2009 TDF, 2009-11 were about testing and re-optimising coctails. froome got it together in vuelta 2011, gilbert and lotto for the ardennes, as is well known. then in 2012 OPQS and sky went for it big time. others followed.

already lookin forward to see sky and astana A teams clash at the tour, with movistar added into the mix too. still, contador might as well win it. should be a howler.

 

[ebandit]

over before it even started..................LOL! and yes! i can maintain a straight face.............despite what others

might think......i'm not stooopid doping ebbs and flows sometimes more...........sometimes

less..............completely cleans is but an aspiration

Mark L

 

[Campervan man]

Re:

what never begun cannot have ended. my take is that ignoring the uber ridiculous 2009 TDF, 2009-11 were about testing and re-optimising coctails. froome got it together in vuelta 2011, gilbert and lotto for the ardennes, as is well known. then in 2012 OPQS and sky went for it big time. others followed.

already lookin forward to see sky and astana A teams clash at the tour, with movistar added into the mix too. still, contador might as well win it. should be a howler.

I think is fair to say some teams were more reluctant to dope around 11/12/13 when Sky were in full arms mode, obviously there's exceptions to this but in general sky caught a break. Other teams are defiantly throwing caution to the wind now and somewhere in a motor home sits Geert Leindeers. I'm looking forward to the ridiculousness of July, Astana A vs Tinkoff A vs Sky A. Majka, Sagan domestique for Alberto! Nibbles back to last years level with a better Astana team than this And then a fully pumped Froome with all his transformed domestiques like Porte, Nieve, Poeles!! I mean come on. Then Quintana fresh out of Colombia. Hurrah

 

[IndianCyclist]

when did it ever start. Each year cycling continues to have doping positives or ridiculous performances

 

[DBotero]

The new "clean" era never existed.But i got to say,seeing people coming with all type of justifications to legitimate the last night freak show in ToC is hilarious.I hope they keep them coming.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

The new "clean" era never existed.But i got to say,seeing people coming with all type of justifications to legitimate the last night freak show in ToC is hilarious.I hope they keep them coming.

The new wonder-drug for increasing power is a synthesized form of a substance called arrogantcretin. Sagan has a certificate for a high natural level of this substance.

 

[Gung Ho Gun]

Re: Re:

I strongly disagree with OP's sentiment that there was anything justifiable about Froome
Very surprising that it took the other teams this long to start going nuclear as well
I'm sorry for everyone who believed in the miracle again

i never said last years performances were clean, but they were somehow human, believable, with doping within some decency limits, to make the sport credible, to be able to sell it as "clean" or cleaner.

few ridiculous performances were present every year but this days every day is a ridiculous day.

Sagan on MtBaldy is of such stupidity that i challenge anyone to find something of same level in the history of cycling. Cippo on Mount Ventoux ? or something like that.

Yeah as I said, I strongly disagree with all that
There was nothing human, believable or within decency about what Froome did on Ventoux
Sagan did this at age 21, during the "clean era":
http://www.cqranking.com/men/asp/gen/race.asp?raceid=20560
Which puts him way closer to Froome pre-transformation than to Cipollini, actually
I could easily find ten performances which rank more ridiculous than this one by Sagan, in my opinion, which you will undoubtedly disagree with
Candido Barbosa immediately springs to mind as similar although Libertine may correct me on that

 

[hrotha]

It's completely ridiculous to start a thread with the premise that any performance is inherently less credible than Wiggins's transformation or 2012 Sky.