Julian Alaphilippe

[bigcog]

Re:

Is the clinic losing its touch or is everyone too busy saying Sky is doping, with Landa pulling out? I like to believe most riders are clean and it is the odd 1% mixed with the sports history that ruins it for everyone, so I don't like to say he must be doping as the fact is, we can almost never be 100% sure.

However watching Alaphilippe basically sprint for almost the entire last 2km up Gibraltar Road had me sit up and think well that looks suspicious. He was flying whilst everyone else suffered, so I am surprised no one has mentioned anything on here or am I missing something?

He's french so gets a free pass

 

[hrotha]

More like what he did feels like ToC 2015 2.0, and we already discussed that at length. Plus the ToC is kinda losing prestige the last few years I think.

 

[Benotti69]

Alaphilipe riders for Lefevere and that automatically means doping with Dr Ibauguren.

No one is calling Alaphilipe the saviour for clean cycling in comparison to JV and Sky, hence the silence in this thread.

 

[Oldermanish]

Re: Re:

i heard UCI let USADA do antidoping tests here

i hope they catch both Julian and Sagan

this is so ridiculous that words can't describe, Armstrong and all his EPO era mates were 10x more believable.

I'd say it's on the same level as Hincapie going from cobbled classic specialist, to winning Tour mtf's to being talked up as Armstrong's successor.

It's Tour of California here, a non-WT event with a weak field. Not the greatest stage race.

Still, Alaphilippe raced yesterday's final climb only 10 seconds slower than super-doped Horner and Levi, Sagan finished only 30 seconds or so behind, that's pretty suspicious.

The conditions vary with every year. This stage was pretty neutral with little wind and no excessive heat. You also had Anaphillipe literally motorpaced to the top while Stetina bridged and then set tempo. Not comparable. Also not saying these guys are beyond reproach.

 

[Escarabajo]

Re:

More like what he did feels like ToC 2015 2.0, and we already discussed that at length. Plus the ToC is kinda losing prestige the last few years I think.

+1. I felt the same the last few years. The level is just not there. So I am not that surprise with that performance.

 

[IndianCyclist]

There are some points.
1) Field is very weak. Climbers are not even 3rd level (no disrespect)
2) One mountain stage is equivalent to a one day race. Which is why Sagan & Alaphillipe were able to drop Henao last year. They have sufficient anaerobic energy to summon to match the more aerobic climbers for short distances. Put 2-3 mountain stages in a row and they will drop like a stone like in a GT.
it is difficult to conclude based on a single stage but Etixx says it all w.r.t their transformation with Kittel as well

 

[The Hitch]

Re:

Is the clinic losing its touch or is everyone too busy saying Sky is doping, with Landa pulling out? I like to believe most riders are clean and it is the odd 1% mixed with the sports history that ruins it for everyone, so I don't like to say he must be doping as the fact is, we can almost never be 100% sure.

However watching Alaphilippe basically sprint for almost the entire last 2km up Gibraltar Road had me sit up and think well that looks suspicious. He was flying whilst everyone else suffered, so I am surprised no one has mentioned anything on here or am I missing something?

99% is clean but allaphillipe is the one who's doping?

 

[gazr99]

Re: Re:

Is the clinic losing its touch or is everyone too busy saying Sky is doping, with Landa pulling out? I like to believe most riders are clean and it is the odd 1% mixed with the sports history that ruins it for everyone, so I don't like to say he must be doping as the fact is, we can almost never be 100% sure.

However watching Alaphilippe basically sprint for almost the entire last 2km up Gibraltar Road had me sit up and think well that looks suspicious. He was flying whilst everyone else suffered, so I am surprised no one has mentioned anything on here or am I missing something?

99% is clean but allaphillipe is the one who's doping?

I would much rather say it is a good performance rather than doping and Alaphillipe could be clean, and I could be getting more cynical as I get older. But I just expected it to be a real battle up Gibraltar Road, not see Alaphillipe basically sprint up for almost the entire last 2km which is the toughest section. That got my most of them are clean mindset a little worried/confused/suspicious. I just expected more people on here to mention it, but I could be wrong and it was just a very good performance

 

[The Hitch]

Re: Re:

Is the clinic losing its touch or is everyone too busy saying Sky is doping, with Landa pulling out? I like to believe most riders are clean and it is the odd 1% mixed with the sports history that ruins it for everyone, so I don't like to say he must be doping as the fact is, we can almost never be 100% sure.

However watching Alaphilippe basically sprint for almost the entire last 2km up Gibraltar Road had me sit up and think well that looks suspicious. He was flying whilst everyone else suffered, so I am surprised no one has mentioned anything on here or am I missing something?

99% is clean but allaphillipe is the one who's doping?

I would much rather say it is a good performance rather than doping and Alaphillipe could be clean, and I could be getting more cynical as I get older. But I just expected it to be a real battle up Gibraltar Road, not see Alaphillipe basically sprint up for almost the entire last 2km which is the toughest section. That got my most of them are clean mindset a little worried/confused/suspicious. I just expected more people on here to mention it, but I could be wrong and it was just a very good performance

Cynical?
If you think 99% of the peloton is clean then you are the opposite of cynical. (aka delusional)

 

[therealthing]

Blimey- beat Bouhanni, Bennett, Degenkolb and co. in a sprint today!

 

[Irondan]

Blimey- beat Bouhanni, Bennett, Degenkolb and co. in a sprint today!

He would have won the stage if he had another 10 meters...

 

[Valv.Piti]

Blimey- beat Bouhanni, Bennett, Degenkolb and co. in a sprint today!

He would have won the stage if he had another 10 meters...

Yup. But lets not forget that it was a 2% sprint which was why EBH was able to win, I think the clinic many times just simplifies things like that without the important details. I thought it had to be a little steeper for Alaphil to do this well, thats for sure. He is an incredible talent and sure has some insane explosiveness, no matter the gradient it seems.

 

[Guybrush]

flying on the climbs, without losing his sprint edge... good for him

 

[Rollthedice]

Alejandro Jalabert.

 

[Fergoose]

Bouhani said before he stage that he didn't have good legs yesterday and finishing behind EBH is probably equivalent to finishing around 7th on a TdF sprint. I also think it was not a very clean last km even after the crash, so several different sprinters were nowhere at the end.

This guy is worth watching closely but this was far less dubious to me than Movistar's Herrada making everyone look like boys on his uphill stage finish at stage 2. If Allaphillipe was boosted for this race you'd have thought he'd have been very competitive on that stage. He came in 28th.

 

[fmk_RoI]

So what's he on? Haribo? Cadbury's? Lindt? Nestle's?

 

[barmaher]

He's on his bike working his ass off.

What are you on?

 

[Benotti69]

Re:

So what's he on? Haribo? Cadbury's? Lindt? Nestle's?

Ferrero.

 

[Irondan]

JA is in the driver's seat for the biggest win in his career, It's nice to see fresh faces rising to the top.

 

[sniper]

Re:

It's nice to see fresh faces rising to the top.

And a big shame that there are no arguments left to believe in them.

 

[Irondan]

Re: Re:

It's nice to see fresh faces rising to the top.

And a big shame that there are no arguments left to believe in them.

Agreed. There's no reason whatsoever to believe that Quickstep doesn't have a TUE/Kenacort program that hasn't been exposed... yet....

 

[Benotti69]

Re: Re:

It's nice to see fresh faces rising to the top.

And a big shame that there are no arguments left to believe in them.

Agreed. There's no reason whatsoever to believe that Quickstep doesn't have a TUE/Kenacort program that hasn't been exposed... yet....

They may have also wrongly received a delivery of Testosterone patches

 

[Irondan]

Re: Re:

It's nice to see fresh faces rising to the top.

And a big shame that there are no arguments left to believe in them.

Agreed. There's no reason whatsoever to believe that Quickstep doesn't have a TUE/Kenacort program that hasn't been exposed... yet....

They may have also wrongly received a delivery of Testosterone patches

Of course, that's because it's common for pro cycling teams to get erroneous shipments of performance enhancing drugs. Quick Step sends the mistaken shipments back to the sender, as all pro teams do...

 

[Gloin22]

Why was the testosterone patches made such a big deal? Haven't really followed news. Even Riccardo Ricco wouldn't be stupid enough to use test nowdays, you can't even micro dose it in any good way

 

[Dan2016]

Re:

Why was the testosterone patches made such a big deal? Haven't really followed news. Even Riccardo Ricco wouldn't be stupid enough to use test nowdays, you can't even micro dose it in any good way

Probably a big deal just for the comedy value as much as anything.

One of the key components of a traditional doping regime just happened to be sent to them by mistake. Beggars belief alongside 'my dog ate my laptop' etc.