Is Walsh on the Sky bandwagon?

[Benotti69]

Disagree. You could say the same in football terms for the likes of Luis Suarez and what he did in 2010 World Cup. The same for Henry in the World Cup play off match. Because of this, should we be more suspicious of them doping? I don't think so, just like Froome and what he did on the Alpe should be no extra reason to say he doped.

Football is rife with doping. If one is willing to cheat, which doping is, it is normal if a guy is going to dive, why would he have problems doping!

 

[sniper]

He still compares Mayo's ITT time to Froome! and Froome was "sedate".

Walsh sure is sharp.

2009 was a harder because it was a headwind and everyone was racing hard (ummmm no Wiggins??)

and 2013 was "gentle" at 220km!

And tailwinds give 40 watts!

Sedate, gentle, tailwinds giving extra power.

Nice choice of words.

How about "sold out"?

ffs, i figured it was going to be bad, but this is just beyond expactations.
btw, sounds an awful lot like RR speaking there wrt tailwind.
i'm trying to figure out what's the deal here. walsh also shared some Sky-friendly metaphors with vaughters.
some triangle walsh-RR-vaughters trying to sell us Sky, cleanER cycling, Cookson, and other cookies.
not pretty.

 

[Briant_Gumble]

Football is rife with doping. If one is willing to cheat, which doping is, it is normal if a guy is going to dive, why would he have problems doping!

I would say doping is more pernicious and calculated than diving.

I have to laugh at the football fans who get up in arms about diving oblivious to the doping going on.

 

[veganrob]

If I am not mistaken, the pace to Ventoux was pretty high this year. They reached the foot of the climb approx 45 min before planned. Not a gentle ride at all.
Who is Walsh trying to kid with his BS?

 

[Dear Wiggo]

If I am not mistaken, the pace to Ventoux was pretty high this year. They reached the foot of the climb approx 45 min before planned. Not a gentle ride at all.
Who is Walsh trying to kid with his BS?

All the new cycling fans.
All the older cycling fans from the same country.
All the older cycling fans lacking critical thinking skills.

I'd say they make up the majority of the followers of the sport, and that it's working.

 

[Ferminal]

I am confused as to the point Walsh is trying to make.

Does it mean that a 2009 Wiggins would have been somewhere around 2013 Froome (even considering that he sucked wheels in 2009)?

And what's up with a whole bb level 3rd cat climbs/4th cat climbs comparisons. An embedded journalist should probably have an actual idea what power Froome produced and how the performance compared to 2009.

Gotta watch out for those 5km @ 5% rollers with 50km to go, real leg sappers.

That's worth at least an extra minute or so on Ventoux. Especially when it was coming after this wall at the half way stage:

Where they hit the tough ramps at the start immediately after the descent from this monster:

And we shall not forget that the road went up as soon as the flag was dropped

 

[thehog]

Gotta watch out for those 5km @ 5% rollers with 50km to go, real leg sappers.

That's worth at least an extra minute or so on Ventoux. Especially when it was coming after this wall at the half way stage:

Where they hit the tough ramps at the start immediately after the descent from this monster:

And we shall not forget that the road went up as soon as the flag was dropped

LOL!

And the extra 70km in 2013 was gentle

Easy to throw in an extra 70km and not feel it. Means little. It's not very far

 

[thehog]

All the new cycling fans.
All the older cycling fans from the same country.
All the older cycling fans lacking critical thinking skills.

I'd say they make up the majority of the followers of the sport, and that it's working.

This is all you get on the "acceleration". It's like it never happened. Walsh fails to mention it and then later on makes a small reference to it. Did he not see what the French commentators were laughing at?

Short burst? Bizarre.

The write up on Ax3 is much the same.

The fact that he goes to great lengths to downplay everything means there's something to hide. He constantly is trying to justify each stage as normal and why it's ok that's its fast as dopers.

 

[thehog]

This is all you get on the "acceleration". It's like it never happened. Walsh fails to mention it and then later on makes a small reference to it. Did he not see what the French commentators were laughing at?

Short burst? Bizarre.

The write up on Ax3 is much the same.

The fact that he goes to great lengths to downplay everything means there's something to hide. He constantly is trying to justify each stage as normal and why it's ok that's its fast as dopers.

Was Walsh watching a different race?

At what point did Porte lead Froome to Quintana?

 

[zlev11]

how about Porte dropping the sh*t out of everyone else after doing all that work for Froome. does Walshy say anything about that? because it looked 100% clean to me.

 

[zlev11]

does Walsh mention the "chain resistance" marginal gain thing anywhere in the book?

during the Tour this year one of the NBC interviewers commented on how Team Sky management called a bunch of journalists and TV people into the Sky bus to show them all of their marginal gains. one of them was that they actually "figured out" that there is a certain point in the life of a bike chain where it has the least resistance.
Sky map out the mileage on each chain they have and when it gets to that magical point, they put it in a bag and save it for an important stage. i nearly spit my coffee all over the TV screen laughing.

 

[LaFlorecita]

Was Walsh watching a different race?

At what point did Porte lead Froome to Quintana?

And am I just silly or did Contador never "come back from a little behind to make the leaders a group of four"

Also nice how Walsh seems to know what Contador thought at that moment. I'm sure he was "buoyed" GTFO old man.

 

[LaFlorecita]

does Walsh mention the "chain resistance" marginal gain thing anywhere in the book?

during the Tour this year one of the NBC interviewers commented on how Team Sky management called a bunch of journalists and TV people into the Sky bus to show them all of their marginal gains. one of them was that they actually "figured out" that there is a certain point in the life of a bike chain where it has the least resistance.
Sky map out the mileage on each chain they have and when it gets to that magical point, they put it in a bag and save it for an important stage. i nearly spit my coffee all over the TV screen laughing.

How do they make this **** up awesome

 

[goggalor]

One free airsick bag with every book

papillon jaune

 

[Fearless Greg Lemond]

Was Walsh watching a different race?

At what point did Porte lead Froome to Quintana?

Looks like the tailwind got in his eyes.

Sad, Walsh cant even get the facts right. I hope it sells well though.

A short burst of acceleration, that is funny stuff.

 

[maltiv]

I remember Walsh last year said that the reason Sky were riding so fast up the climbs was that they were riding at a steady tempo instead of attacking and accelerating...what happened to that theory after Froome launched the most ridiculous acceleration of all time up Ventoux and still broke the record?

 

[Digger]

I read it - and how anyone can defend Walsh after this is beyond all comprehension.

It's the equivalent of those sticker books that girls buy about boybands. Lowest common denominator. And he has sold out...

And he is now officially on the sky badnwagon.

A former pro said to me he knew it was all rubbish when brailsford said it's only a matter of time before clean performances improve doped ones.

EPO alone gives a 10 to 15% increase...that;s EPO alone.

 

[Digger]

I remember Walsh last year said that the reason Sky were riding so fast up the climbs was that they were riding at a steady tempo instead of attacking and accelerating...what happened to that theory after Froome launched the most ridiculous acceleration of all time up Ventoux and still broke the record?

This is it though. The whole book, almost every page he contradicts himself on previous reasoning he has used. When started talking about sky using wind tunnels, doing recons and better technology, It may well have been Lance...irony!

He said that using climbing speeds and timing is 'flimsy' yet he did this himself numerous times before sky.

P.S. He even mentioned the French being jealous! Why do other teams not bother to train hard?!

 

[Bexon30]

And am I just silly or did Contador never "come back from a little behind to make the leaders a group of four"

Also nice how Walsh seems to know what Contador thought at that moment. I'm sure he was "buoyed" GTFO old man.

It would seem there were 2 versions of events that day. One with a mist of Murdoch magic. Perfect for the English to read to children round the Christmas tree. Chapeau David.

 

[Dear Wiggo]

I remember Walsh last year said that the reason Sky were riding so fast up the climbs was that they were riding at a steady tempo instead of attacking and accelerating...what happened to that theory after Froome launched the most ridiculous acceleration of all time up Ventoux and still broke the record?

I thought it was Brailsford, implying that you would have to be doped to keep accelerating like they used to. That a steady climb was more indicative of a clean peloton.

 

[Ferminal]

I think they are two different comments, but they are miles off in their implication (doping only helps with erratic exertions and ten years ago riders performed sub-optimally).

 

[Trudgin]

lol yeah. Kerrison spends 2010 watching cycling because he knows nothing about it and by 2011 he is the ultimate cycling expert, devising super secret training methods that sound exactly like the ones everyone else has been using for the last decade but provide for significantly superior results.

According to Chris Boardman, Kerrison was even the strategic genius behind Wiggins beating Cancellara in the time trial. He knows more about time trialing after 2 years in a Sky car, than the 4 time world time trial champion

To believe in Sky not only do you have to believe that they have stumbled upon the 2 greatest athletes ever lived in wiggins and Froome (because their numbers if clean are about 3 or 4 levels above what anyone has ever acheived clean) but they also happened to stumble across the most hard working son of a gun on the planet (Brailsford's in the British press is roughly the equivalent of Alexey Stakhanov in Pravda) and they also have found the most intelligent and gifted scientist since Einstein in this Kerrison fella.

In fact I don't know if Einstein even has a case. I remember reading that if you were to show one generation, scientific developments from a few generations into the future, they will be indistinguishable from magic, Kerrison has actually beaten Einstein et all on this because his developments wouldnt only seem like magic to people from the 1800's. They seem like magic to everyone from his time period too.

If you believe Sky are clean you should be writing to the Nobel comitte demanding to know why he hasn't won the science prize yet (lets leave the peace a few years after he gets his US Presidential thank you for winning the war on doping)


And the amazing thing, is 3 of these 4 humans of the century Sky have on their roster, were total nobodies until Murdoch (who's honesty and belief in doing things the right way, no one can possibly doubt) came a calling.

Correct!

 

[Trudgin]

Would have had better protection with the Kazakhs.

I agree with this also...

 

[rainman]

Was Walsh watching a different race?

At what point did Porte lead Froome to Quintana?

Froome bridged solo to Quintana. Contador stayed with him briefly but dropped off when they reached Nieve. The maillot jaune, with the threat contained, for some reason then repeatedly attacked Quintana. Walshes account of it is just fiction, befitting a tourist, but it may sell a few Sky subscriptions I suppose. Porte's supposed shout to 'Froomey' is just so ludicrous, even a schoolboy rider would feel stupid coming out with that, reminded me of Roy of the Rovers. (used to chat to team mates while slamming one in from outside the box)
Walsh has cashed in his chips. I await the true story from some disgruntled ex employee, someone in the cabal, not some obsequious outsider along for the jolly. Then maybe we get to find out what they are all so SMUG about.

 

[Ferminal]

Looks like this one was just the teaser... It's Not About the Bike coming next year!