Nibali : i'm a symbol of a clean sport

[Fearless Greg Lemond]

Re:

i hate to rain
on your parade

however

these lovely romantic ideas of these amazing specimens of cycling humanity
not performing up to expectations

because of lack of training, feeling a little off, the wrong build up, outside stress & pressure

are imho
complete bollocks

these men are professional athletes paid a lot of money to race their bikes and win
they do it year in year out

the idea that they got something wrong this time around is again
bollocks
they are surrounded by many experts, consultants and advisors to make sure they are performing optimally for the biggest cycling event of the year

they got the mix wrong
they got what goes into the mix wrong

and they are mixing in the wrong circles to get away with their mix

do yah feel me

uci don't like vino
uci don't like oleg
uci like rupert, david, froome walsh

do yah feel me

sounds plausible

 

[Energy Starr]

Indeed it does seem plausible. UCI has decided to let everyone have all the other races, but when TDF comes, their boys are protected and behold, they have the 3 best cyclists on the planet on the same team.

 

[86TDFWinner]

Re:

astana are in the last chance saloon remember

for the second time this year

very lucky just to be riding the tour

vino been pulled into line

That's UCI's fault then IMO.....the ENTIRE TEAM should've been given the boot when half the team was busted.

UCI/Cookson are a complete joke.

 

[observer]

I hope vino's medical tests on nibali shows up some badzilla

 

[gazr99]

Am I the only person, who has looked at Nibali's performances this year, read that testing was much more stringent on Mt Teide this year as it was apparently woefully below par last year, saw how dominant Nibali was last year even when Froome & Contador were there, and thought this is little bit suspicious.

Should Nibali be facing tougher questions potential doping in 2014, similar to the questions Froome is facing?

 

[franic]

Am I the only person, who has looked at Nibali's performances this year, read that testing was much more stringent on Mt Teide this year as it was apparently woefully below par last year, saw how dominant Nibali was last year even when Froome & Contador were there, and thought this is little bit suspicious.

Should Nibali be facing tougher questions potential doping in 2014, similar to the questions Froome is facing?

It seems very plausible. Nonetheless, Astana’s performances at the Giro were very suspicious.

 

[Afrank]

Am I the only person, who has looked at Nibali's performances this year, read that testing was much more stringent on Mt Teide this year as it was apparently woefully below par last year, saw how dominant Nibali was last year even when Froome & Contador were there, and thought this is little bit suspicious.

Should Nibali be facing tougher questions potential doping in 2014, similar to the questions Froome is facing?

All the top guys should face tougher questions. In order to have a clean sport, suspicious performances must be questioned in great detail.

 

[Eagle]

Am I the only person, who has looked at Nibali's performances this year, read that testing was much more stringent on Mt Teide this year as it was apparently woefully below par last year, saw how dominant Nibali was last year even when Froome & Contador were there, and thought this is little bit suspicious.

Should Nibali be facing tougher questions potential doping in 2014, similar to the questions Froome is facing?

The thing about Astana is they were almost kicked out of the sport earlier this year. Nobody that is anti-doping thinks they should be anywhere near the race. What sort of questions do you ask these guys?

 

[gazr99]

Am I the only person, who has looked at Nibali's performances this year, read that testing was much more stringent on Mt Teide this year as it was apparently woefully below par last year, saw how dominant Nibali was last year even when Froome & Contador were there, and thought this is little bit suspicious.

Should Nibali be facing tougher questions potential doping in 2014, similar to the questions Froome is facing?

The thing about Astana is they were almost kicked out of the sport earlier this year. Nobody that is anti-doping thinks they should be anywhere near the race. What sort of questions do you ask these guys?

I would start with why are the results from the tests you took during the tour taking so long?

Followed by how do you explain you're form this year, considering you followed last year's blueprint, where obviously you were dominant?

 

[Saint Unix]

The thing about Astana is they were almost kicked out of the sport earlier this year. Nobody that is anti-doping thinks they should be anywhere near the race. What sort of questions do you ask these guys?

"Why are you still here?"

 

[LeindersGains]

Am I the only person, who has looked at Nibali's performances this year, read that testing was much more stringent on Mt Teide this year as it was apparently woefully below par last year, saw how dominant Nibali was last year even when Froome & Contador were there, and thought this is little bit suspicious.

Should Nibali be facing tougher questions potential doping in 2014, similar to the questions Froome is facing?

I'll grill Vino instead. The fact that he is allowed in the sport is a disgrace.

And he continues to create miracle riders such as Aru and Landa. Even Cataldo looked like one of the strongest riders early in the Giro.

 

[SkyTears]

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/night-time-doping-tests-blocked-by-french-law-at-tour-de-france

expecting some of the bad performers of the 2nd week to shine in 3rd week

 

[LaFlorecita]

Re:

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/night-time-doping-tests-blocked-by-french-law-at-tour-de-france

expecting some of the bad performers of the 2nd week to shine in 3rd week

Not sure I understand? There haven't been any night tests since they entered France so it has got nothing to do with their performance.

 

[SkyTears]

i don't think they were aware that they can't be tested, still living in fear. now that the green light is out, free for all.

 

[Jagartrott]

He means that: teams/riders thought night-time testing was going to happen this Tour but *now* it seems it's not legal to do so.

 

[LaFlorecita]

CN only just picked it up, but it was already reported on the 8th of July.

 

[SkyTears]

do you have any link to such an article?
still trying to figure why so many people sucked so hard in 2nd week

 

[LaFlorecita]

Re:

do you have any link to such an article?
still trying to figure why so many people sucked so hard in 2nd week

http://pelotonmagazine.com/feedzone/night-time-raids-the-next-level-anti-doping-uci-tour-de-france-2015/

July 7th even

 

[wendybnt]

Nibali taking 2 minutes out of the best climbers iin the world.

Shock and awe, Kimmy boy, shock and awe.

 

[SeriousSam]

You make it seem like he was the strongest climber today. He wasn't.

 

[franic]

Re:

You make it seem like he was the strongest climber today. He wasn't.

Still very impressive (strange?superhuman?) though. it took him 45:36 to complete La Toussuire after having been alone for about 50km...

 

[SeriousSam]

Re: Re:

You make it seem like he was the strongest climber today. He wasn't.

Still very impressive (strange?superhuman?) though. it took him 45:36 to complete La Toussuire after having been alone for about 50km...

You're quite right.. hm. I do wonder know where he would've ended up had he not gone by himself.

Perhaps one of the power experts can estimate this for us, like they did with Froome and Gesink.

 

[franic]

Re: Re:

You make it seem like he was the strongest climber today. He wasn't.

Still very impressive (strange?superhuman?) though. it took him 45:36 to complete La Toussuire after having been alone for about 50km...

You're quite right.. hm. I do wonder know where he would've ended up had he not gone by himself.

Perhaps one of the power experts can estimate this for us, like they did with Froome and Gesink.

My impression is that he would have ended third after Nairo and Froome or second with Froome. Just using an eyeballing metric he looks stronger than Valverde and Contador and weaker than Quintana.

 

[Eagle]

I think he would have been around Froome if he saved it all for the final climb, maybe a few seconds behind

Edit: https://twitter.com/ammattipyoraily/status/624620529270419457

Considering he was on the attack on the first climb and went clear on the second, monster ride

 

[meat puppet]

Re:

You make it seem like he was the strongest climber today. He wasn't.

he was quite clearly the strongest rider today. this does not necessarily mean that he could have destroyed quintana or froome on the final climb had he not attacked early on, ie been the strongest climber. probably not, in the end.

but for better or worse nibali is not your standard leave it to the last climb dragster, but appears to benefit from having the hard part of the race last more than an hour, ie distribute near to full gas intensity over a longer period. and he was insane on this stage.