Most Suspicious Performance Of The Last 5 Years

[mcduff]

Re:

OK, this should be more to your liking. Still ridiculous four years on (his even more comical predecessor passed outside the 5 year margin last week).

I'm sure that you'll be pleased to see that Mustafa Sayer is still picking up trophies...

https://www.strava.com/activities/955121055#23377722566

P.S. Wasn't it Kittel that openly called Sayer out on it (pre pozzy)? Who else do we know that Kittel has been less than sympathetic towards this last year?

 

[Irondan]

Re: Re:

Obviously the dude was loaded but it seems rather tame to me. He is clearly attacking, as the bike sways from side to side and he is using his upper body muscles as well. The cadence isn't that fast and he only won the stage by 18 seconds.

Seems like a typical attack from a doped-up cyclist and not as visually impressive as the Contador/Nibali efforts. I give that attack a score of Quintana.

Yes, Sayar can't hold a syringe-shaped candle to his predecessor Ivailo Gabrovski. The Bulgarian attacked 7-8 km from the mountain top with an acceleration that makes Riccó on Aspin look like a Honda Civic. Turning a monster gear and being all over his bike, he kept pulling out the gap all the way to the top, despite the others (including a young Bardet) turning themselves inside out to eat into his advantage. In the end, he won by one and a half minute to the next rider, and with only ten riders within three minutes.

Is there a link to any video of this stage?

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Re: Re:

Obviously the dude was loaded but it seems rather tame to me. He is clearly attacking, as the bike sways from side to side and he is using his upper body muscles as well. The cadence isn't that fast and he only won the stage by 18 seconds.

Seems like a typical attack from a doped-up cyclist and not as visually impressive as the Contador/Nibali efforts. I give that attack a score of Quintana.

Yes, Sayar can't hold a syringe-shaped candle to his predecessor Ivailo Gabrovski. The Bulgarian attacked 7-8 km from the mountain top with an acceleration that makes Riccó on Aspin look like a Honda Civic. Turning a monster gear and being all over his bike, he kept pulling out the gap all the way to the top, despite the others (including a young Bardet) turning themselves inside out to eat into his advantage. In the end, he won by one and a half minute to the next rider, and with only ten riders within three minutes.

Gabrovski's out of the 5 year window now (just), but what I found most remarkable about Gabrovski was that because at that point Törku was super weak, he took the lead on stage 3 and there were 5 stages left to defend, with him having to chase down group attacks on his own all week to back up that performance. With Sayar the following year they were a bit smarter - he finished near the best in Elmalı but then only on that stage to Selçuk, with only two flat stages to come, did he take the lead of the race.

The big thing with Sayar was the gearing. On the big MTF Magnus had already been absolutely mind-blown by the gear that he was pushing on the climb, and noted how when the riders attacked near the top, the higher gear he was using made it harder for him to respond to attacks, and he made a big point of that in the commentary on the stage Sayar won, only for Sayar to then do completely the opposite and shred people completely despite riding a 9% gradient in a gear usually reserved only for Bert Grabsch and Peter Weening.

Anyway, here's Gabrovski's masterpiece of Mühlegging. His attack comes around 11-12 minutes in.

 

[Squire]

There used to be a video of that stage with Kirby and Smith commentating. Their disbelief was hilarious, too. Especially since Smith laughed off Gabrovski's attack when he made it, and predicted he wouldn't last long out in front.

 

[GraftPunk]

That acceleration is just nuts!

 

[BullsFan22]

Re: Re:

Obviously the dude was loaded but it seems rather tame to me. He is clearly attacking, as the bike sways from side to side and he is using his upper body muscles as well. The cadence isn't that fast and he only won the stage by 18 seconds.

Seems like a typical attack from a doped-up cyclist and not as visually impressive as the Contador/Nibali efforts. I give that attack a score of Quintana.

Yes, Sayar can't hold a syringe-shaped candle to his predecessor Ivailo Gabrovski. The Bulgarian attacked 7-8 km from the mountain top with an acceleration that makes Riccó on Aspin look like a Honda Civic. Turning a monster gear and being all over his bike, he kept pulling out the gap all the way to the top, despite the others (including a young Bardet) turning themselves inside out to eat into his advantage. In the end, he won by one and a half minute to the next rider, and with only ten riders within three minutes.

Sounds to me like a description of any Armstrong attack from 1999-2002 at the Tour, though ol' Lance was all about high cadence and not the big gear grinding.

 

[BullsFan22]

The first two Sky wins at the Tour, 2012 and 2013. Wiggins as someone that came from a predominantly track background to contending in 2009 and then winning in 2012 is suspicious enough, but Froome's colossal accelerations at the 2013 tour were something else. The Ax3 and especially that Ventoux acceleration was just hilarious, in more ways than one.

Horner's win at the Vuelta had a lot of red lights and alarm bells going off.

Nibali's win at the tour may not be as extreme as Wiggins, Froome and Horner, and after the top contenders dropped out or simply didn't have the form already in the first couple tough stages, it was only a procession for Nibali, but still, he hardly put a foot wrong, and he dominated.

Gilbert, Cancellara and especially Valverde doing what they've been doing in their mid 30's is suspicious, it's not a single impressive performance that sticks out, but a lot of performances that you'd think they wouldn't be capable of at what should be the twilight of their careers.

 

[Rollthedice]

Porte's climb Leysin, Tour Romandie 7.35 watts for 8 min on 3km/8% is very similar to Sayar's jaw dropping antics leaving everybody like they were standing still.

 

[Irondan]

Re: Re:

<snipped for brevity>

Anyway, here's Gabrovski's masterpiece of Mühlegging. His attack comes around 11-12 minutes in.

Thanks for digging out that video Libertine!

Gabrovski climbing like a cycling god is about as ridiculous as it gets!

Beating down Romain Bardet the way he did should have been the first indication that it was an unworldly performance, but at the time we didn't know Bardet himself was a climbing ace.

 

[May0maniac]

Dani Diaz and Funvic vs the rest in the 2015 Tour de San Luis.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQU4Ehv-0X8
I can't find ny fotage of it right now, but at one point durnin the live coverage we go a helicopter shot of Dani Diaz sprinting past a motobike on the Alto El Amago ascent. Diniz was also migty strong but DNS in the IT becaue of "stomace disease" when he was 3rd on gc and Kleber Ramos won the fnal MTF.

 

[DanielSong39]

Horner's drug test dodge after the Vuelta was even more epic than his performances on the bike! One of the more epic maneuvers you will see in any sport.

 

[Irondan]

Re:

Horner's drug test dodge after the Vuelta was even more epic than his performances on the bike! One of the more epic maneuvers you will see in any sport.

Still an enigma to this day...

 

[DanielSong39]

Re: Re:

Anyway, here's Gabrovski's masterpiece of Mühlegging. His attack comes around 11-12 minutes in.

Shades of Contador at Verbier...

 

[thehog]

The first two Sky wins at the Tour, 2012 and 2013. Wiggins as someone that came from a predominantly track background to contending in 2009 and then winning in 2012 is suspicious enough, but Froome's colossal accelerations at the 2013 tour were something else. The Ax3 and especially that Ventoux acceleration was just hilarious, in more ways than one.

Horner's win at the Vuelta had a lot of red lights and alarm bells going off.

Nibali's win at the tour may not be as extreme as Wiggins, Froome and Horner, and after the top contenders dropped out or simply didn't have the form already in the first couple tough stages, it was only a procession for Nibali, but still, he hardly put a foot wrong, and he dominated.

Gilbert, Cancellara and especially Valverde doing what they've been doing in their mid 30's is suspicious, it's not a single impressive performance that sticks out, but a lot of performances that you'd think they wouldn't be capable of at what should be the twilight of their careers.

The Sky performances in 2013 were insane not just because of Froome but Porte who would lead out Froome then chase back in for second place. Utter insanity. Froome Ventoux was mental. But Ax3 is right up there in a total joke of a performance by the entire team.

 

[meat puppet]

Re:

Horner's drug test dodge after the Vuelta was even more epic than his performances on the bike! One of the more epic maneuvers you will see in any sport.

True. He went full dillinger on everyone.

 

[Mr.White]

Re:

Porte's climb Leysin, Tour Romandie 7.35 watts for 8 min on 3km/8% is very similar to Sayar's jaw dropping antics leaving everybody like they were standing still.

Most suspicious performance of the year, for me!

 

[DFA123]

Re:

Porte's climb Leysin, Tour Romandie 7.35 watts for 8 min on 3km/8% is very similar to Sayar's jaw dropping antics leaving everybody like they were standing still.

Pfffh! That wouldn't even get him on the start list of the UK Hill Climbing Championship!

 

[yaco]

Is it any wonder why the Tour of Turkey is avoided by WT teams - The 2016 edition was only saved by echelons smashing the race in 2015 and 2016.

 

[red_flanders]

Re:

Horner's drug test dodge after the Vuelta was even more epic than his performances on the bike! One of the more epic maneuvers you will see in any sport.

Not sure why this links to a 404 page on PriceGrabber.

 

[DanielSong39]

I didn't put the link in. Not sure what happened there.

 

[ThePopeOfDope]

Re: Re:

Obviously the dude was loaded but it seems rather tame to me. He is clearly attacking, as the bike sways from side to side and he is using his upper body muscles as well. The cadence isn't that fast and he only won the stage by 18 seconds.

Seems like a typical attack from a doped-up cyclist and not as visually impressive as the Contador/Nibali efforts. I give that attack a score of Quintana.

Yes, Sayar can't hold a syringe-shaped candle to his predecessor Ivailo Gabrovski. The Bulgarian attacked 7-8 km from the mountain top with an acceleration that makes Riccó on Aspin look like a Honda Civic. Turning a monster gear and being all over his bike, he kept pulling out the gap all the way to the top, despite the others (including a young Bardet) turning themselves inside out to eat into his advantage. In the end, he won by one and a half minute to the next rider, and with only ten riders within three minutes.

Gabrovski's out of the 5 year window now (just), but what I found most remarkable about Gabrovski was that because at that point Törku was super weak, he took the lead on stage 3 and there were 5 stages left to defend, with him having to chase down group attacks on his own all week to back up that performance. With Sayar the following year they were a bit smarter - he finished near the best in Elmalı but then only on that stage to Selçuk, with only two flat stages to come, did he take the lead of the race.

The big thing with Sayar was the gearing. On the big MTF Magnus had already been absolutely mind-blown by the gear that he was pushing on the climb, and noted how when the riders attacked near the top, the higher gear he was using made it harder for him to respond to attacks, and he made a big point of that in the commentary on the stage Sayar won, only for Sayar to then do completely the opposite and shred people completely despite riding a 9% gradient in a gear usually reserved only for Bert Grabsch and Peter Weening.

Anyway, here's Gabrovski's masterpiece of Mühlegging. His attack comes around 11-12 minutes in.

Actually measured the ascent with the Strava profile for Gabrovski. I get 25'40" for the final 8km of Elmali. VAM is 1348 not that impressive. Vilella uploaded a ride on Strava and managed to climb it in 24'49" with an avg power of 320. Not really sure why people think it's impressive.

 

[Djoop]

Deleted post

 

[Irondan]

Re:

Nibali doing a Landis 2.0 in 2016. Went into hospital and emerged the Giro winner.

He didn't pull a Landis.

If Kruijswijk didn't crash this would be a non issue. Landis lost a boatload of time when he cracked one day and gained it all plus some back the next day. Completely different set of circumstances.

Although, Nibali is always under suspicion along with the rest of the GC contenders...

 

[lenric]

Well, if SK had not crashed, we wouldn't certainly be discussing this, but one has to wonder how the hell he had the capacity to win 2/3 minutes to Chaves in the last 2 stages, when he was weaker than him on all the previous ones.

EDIT: previously I had written "times". I corrected to "minutes".

 

[silvergrenade]

And to do that when his performance should decrease, especially at the end of a GT.
Extremely suspicious to find 10 Watts more when it should be 10 Watts less.