Merckx: Cycling a predominantly clean sport

[craig1985]

http://www.sbs.com.au/cyclingcentral/news/34271/cycling-a-predominantly-clean-sport-says-merckx

Lololololol 95%?

Heard all of this before.

 

[rhubroma]

Merckx is a tool.

 

[Zam_Olyas]

He is turning to become like Pele.

 

[doolols]

He forgot to add "Not like it was in my day."

 

[18-Valve. (pithy)]

It's clear to me that he doesn't believe that at all. It's just the politically correct thing to say when you're still active in the cycling world.

His comments on the climbing speeds in last year's TDF were pretty telling, IMO.

 

[Benotti69]

If one was to take Merckx's words in a certain interpretation, Greenedge are doping up to their gills

"And I think the team is doing everything right. They have strong riders, good staff and a solid backing.

"I think they can be very successful."

 

[craig1985]

Have you seen Luke Durbridge's chin?

 

[The Hitch]

I like a lot of what he says here.

But Merckx, who won five Tours de France, said that the slower overall pace up the mountains might be due to something as simple as the weather conditions.

"The speed is nothing to do with the (doping) controls," he said. "It depends on also the weather - headwinds or (tailwinds).

"If you look at the Galibier stage and what kind of wind it was, it was a headwind, it was strong.

"Andy Schleck won the stage and I don't think they go slower now than before."

Merckx said cycling would always have its cheats, but it was no different from the wider world.

"If you think back to the days of Phil Anderson, when there were very few Australians to now when you have a Tour de France winner in Cadel Evans, a professional team in GreenEDGE, and classics winners in Stuart O'Grady and Matt Goss - the sport is bigger and bigger in Australia," Merckx said.

Any cyclist past or present, does a great service to his sport by remembering to point out that others sports are just as dirty.

Prefferably with the controlls argument like Cav does - we test more so are cleaner than those who test less.

The bit about the headwind and not rushing to proclaim the Tour clean because the speeds were slower and often, simply because their favourite rider won, is intelligent. The whole cycling community celebrated as if July 2011 marked the end of doping, but Mercx is using his brain.

Obviously it is arguable whether the headwind really was responsible for slower speeds but its an interesting theory and most commentators just state obvious facts all the time, they never think for themselves.

Finally it is essential when praising Australian success in this thing of ours, not to forget the role played by riders like Goss and Ogrady with their monument wins.

Thanks for that Eddy.

 

[gregrowlerson]

If he'd said 50% than the media would be all over him like a pack of wolves. He would probably be hounded for which riders/teams he suspects of doping, so he can't say something like that.

Even if the 95% thing is false, he is trying to emphasise that there does appear to be less doping than during the past 20 years. And many of us would agree with that.

As for the Galibier stage, good of Merkx to point out about the headwind - I wasn't aware of this, or if I was, then I'd forgotten about it. In anycase Andy's time on the final kms wouldn't have been very fast anyway (PEDS or not), given how far out he had attacked.

Was there a headwind on PDB too? And if so, how significant? That stage was the one that indicated to me that the peleton is a different beast now (especially with Voekler hanging on), given that it was a very different race up there to the ones in 2004 and 2007.

 

[The Hitch]

Was there a headwind on PDB too? And if so, how significant? That stage was the one that indicated to me that the peleton is a different beast now (especially with Voekler hanging on), given that it was a very different race up there to the ones in 2004 and 2007.

I agree, Plateau and Luz were the stages which really showed a difference in speeds.

These 2 articles explain it well.

http://cyclocosm.com/2011/07/plateau-de-beille-times-2002-to-present/

http://cyclocosm.com/2011/07/a-tale-of-two-luz-ardidens-2003-and-2011/

 

[gregrowlerson]

I agree, Plateau and Luz were the stages which really showed a difference in speeds.

These 2 articles explain it well.

http://cyclocosm.com/2011/07/plateau-de-beille-times-2002-to-present/

http://cyclocosm.com/2011/07/a-tale-of-two-luz-ardidens-2003-and-2011/

Thanks for posting these links. The Luz Ardiden was especially eye opening, given that they rode with a tailwind.

 

[jens_attacks]

.................

 

[blackcat]

Have you seen Luke Durbridge's chin?

craig, some folks like George, now Jawge, have naturally quite exaggerated facial bone structure. The element needs to be the "change". Manhattan high fashion male models have massive heads, and large square jaws and big foreheads, because they show better on catwalk and print. Self-selective. Difference between 2010 pro sport, and 1980 pro sport, is the bone structure as signatory, or a talent indicator, of professional competence, should have never changed. Never ever have a pro sport play with the head size of kareem abdul-jabaar. U get Dwight Howard instead.

Luke's father and/or mom, may or may not have large jaws too, but the kid had it as a 15yo. More worried about the frontal bossing for a potential simian brow.

 

[blackcat]

It's clear to me that he doesn't believe that at all. It's just the politically correct thing to say when you're still active in the cycling world.

His comments on the climbing speeds in last year's TDF were pretty telling, IMO.

95% dirty > 5% clean innit Eddie?