Cycle Chic said:
so how does his performance differ from Tiernan-Locke or Froome ?? who also have dodgey super riding achievements recently...and who are berated for it. I agree they should be questioned...i am not an anglophile.
Because they came from achieving next to nothing to winning small races in dominant fashion (Tiernan-Locke, though he may be en route to being the next Pecharromán if he is unable to duplicate that spell) and to contending Grand Tours (Froome).
You asked where Pozzovivo's results were after 2010, but in 2011 he actually scored 841 CQ points and outscored 2010, and ranked 32nd in the world for 2011.
Here's the notables of Domenico's palmarès.
2005:
5th, Giro dell'Apennino
14th, Giro del Trentino
114 CQ pts
2007:
3rd, Settimana Lombarda
16th, Giro del Trentino
17th, Giro d'Italia
14th, Volta a Portugal
30th, Giro di Lombardia
223 CQ pts
2008:
3rd, Giro del Trentino
9th, Giro d'Italia (inc. 2nd on Fedaia stage and 8th to Kronplatz)
5th, Brixia Tour
22nd, Giro di Lombardia
391 CQ pts
2009: (CSF were not invited to the Giro that year after Sella's and Priamo's indiscretions)
6th, Settimana Coppi e Bartali
1 stage, Settimana Lombarda
5th, Giro del Trentino (6th to Pampeago & 4th to Pejo Fonti)
9th, Tour de Luxembourg
3rd, Tour de Slovénie
9th, Giro dell'Appennino
2nd, Brixia Tour
7th, Trofeo Melinda
6th, Coppa Sabatini
476 CQ pts
2010:
7th, Tirreno-Adriatico
3rd, Giro del Trentino (& stage win to Pampeago)
2nd, Giro dell'Appennino
1st (& 2 stage wins), Brixia Tour
4th, Trofeo Matteotti
2nd, Tre Valli Varesine
5th, Trofeo Melinda
2nd, Giro della Romagna
6th, Coppa Sabatini
6th, Giro dell'Emilia
7th, Gran Piemonte
797 CQ pts
2011:
7th, Tour de Langkawi
10th, Settimana Coppi e Bartali
4th, Vuelta a Castilla y León
4th, Giro del Trentino
6th, Giro della Toscana
2nd, Brixia Tour (& a stage win on Passo Maniva)
2nd, Tre Valli Varesine
3rd, Trofeo Matteotti
5th, Settimana Lombarda
8th, Giro di Padania
10th, Coppa Sabatini
8th, Giro dell'Emilia
6th, Giro di Lombardia
841 CQ pts
So really, it looks like he actually made the jump in 2010, when CSF were able to ride the big stage races again, but he had also been able to develop an ability to pick up results in those moderately hilly Italian one-day races that make up a large part of that national calendar. Also, the switch in the team make-up from CSF-Navigare in 2009 to Colnago-CSF in 2010, where much of the team was purged and rebuilt around him, has enabled him to ride much more as leader.
If you can't see how that palmarès is enormously superior to Chris Froome's prior to August 2011, or Jonathan Tiernan-Locke's prior to February 2012, and therefore his performing at this level isn't enormously shocking, then I really don't know what your expectations are.
The insinuation that Pozzovivo is doping isn't exactly an earth-shatterer. But the implication that he has come out of nowhere is highly disrespectful.