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They're literally winning every classic.

Yes, yes, I know their tactics are sublime and I know they have serious talent.

But to win even one classic, you need great tactics, serious talent, supreme form and a fairly healthy dose of good luck.

These guys are wiping the floor with all comers, every single time: luck has become irrelevant. The only plausible explanation is that they are at least a few degrees stronger than every one else.

Thoughts?
 
Jan 11, 2018
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I think it's always a warning flag whenever a team has multiple riders all in absolute top form at the same time. No question Alaphilippe, Stybar and Viviani are all talented riders and Quick-Step always produce strong teams with good domestique support in Spring, but still it's a little suspect when most of the team is all so dominant and strong at once, even by their standards.

Once we get into the really big Belgian classics I think we'll get a better idea of their true position relative to the others, but certainly at the moment they seem to have found a particularly good program this year, whatever exactly that consists of, legal or otherwise.
 
Stybar was never very good at sprinting before.

Here's this from Milan-San Remo. No idea if it's actually useful or meaningful or not.

55467880_1962637520530467_7085476113069113344_n.jpg
 
Well the picture says they were both very strong, ala stronger still, and that valverde is more aero and/or drafted: huge power difference but only one sec time difference. In other words it does not say much more than that ala was the best.

Qs is killing the classics like sky. Ridiculous.
 
zlev11 said:
Sybar, Alaphilippe and Viviani (including last year) sprinting better than ever, while guys who left like Trentin, Kittel and Gavira seem to have lost a bit of their top end sprint. motors?
And riders like Gilbert who spent several seasons at BMC with very lacklustre results- then goes to QS and pulls off one of the most suspicious performances this decade in Flanders and wins AGR with a kidney injury. He also won his first race back after that knee injury at last year's TDF.
 
Re:

F_Cance said:
Should be time to talk about Asgreen. This is a Sky rider like transformation.
Agreed. He has barely been anything more than pack fodder until his 2nd at Flanders. Since then he has improved at a ridiculous rate. Seriously- the guy has achieved literally nothing apart from winning a tiny race no one has ever heard of last year until the past month, and a couple of junior races in 2017. DQS are one of the most suspicious teams out there.
 
Re:

F_Cance said:
Should be time to talk about Asgreen. This is a Sky rider like transformation.
Never understood why transformations are such a big thing. A talent slowly progressing vis a vis a talent who transformed massively doesn't prove or disprove doping by any stretch of imagination. European talent has been known to dope very very early in their careers.
LOL at people saying they are more intelligent. Their intelligence flying off as they move to other teams, right?

Talking about Sky, Astana being doped up to their gills but at the same time giving QS a free ride is hypocrisy at best.
 
Re: Re:

therealthing said:
F_Cance said:
Should be time to talk about Asgreen. This is a Sky rider like transformation.
Agreed. He has barely been anything more than pack fodder until his 2nd at Flanders. Since then he has improved at a ridiculous rate. Seriously- the guy has achieved literally nothing apart from winning a tiny race no one has ever heard of last year until the past month, and a couple of junior races in 2017. DQS are one of the most suspicious teams out there.
I know bringing facts to the table is not something that is customary in this corner of the forum, but let's at least try to be objective.

I would suggest you rewatch the World Champs from Innsbruck last year, where Asgreen was one of the main reasons behind QS' TTT world title as he drove the pace up the quite difficult climb on the route. Then he went on to deliver a great performance in the Road Race as he was part of the break where he was the last rider to be caught with only 22k to go. Before that he came 6th in Trofeo Laigueglia, one of the tougher Italian spring classics.

The reason it might seem to you that he was only "pack fodder" is probably because he did not get much freedom to ride for himself at any point during his first season at QS. Being the rider that he is - having an enormous engine and good work ethic - he was mostly sent to the front to close down breakaways. It's not like he did not do anything throughout his first season and just got dropped like you are describing it.

Overall, I agree that he has really stepped up this year - and the performance in ToC is surprising - but I think that in hindsight I can probably see where his development has come from taking all his past results into consideration.
 
This subforum should be renamed from "clinic" to "doping accusation". I see very little factual arguments or indications of doping, but rather wild speculation based on personal preference.

I don't know if QST is doping. If they are, i don't know if they're doping more than the other teams. In fact, i've said it in the general thread weeks ago. I find it strange that there is a QST doping thread 2019, while they have been the most succesful classics & 1 day race team for years, but nobody is asking questions about the sudden rise of Bora. But because Sagan isn't performing, that means the rest of the team is clean. They virtually have the same amount of victories, but 2 more WT victories. Now even guys 31 years old, are winning their first pro victory in a mountain stage of the Giro.

DQS is using Ketones, they are being monitored by the lab of the university of Leuven that recenctly did a largescale research about Ketones and found that many athletes were not taking them correctly. So, if DQS is using them correctly, and other teams are not, and according the research, you get improvements 10% and up... But in this topic, nobody has even mentioned Ketones. Just some wild accusations and speculation because they win a lot.

Kittel (among others) indeed doesn't get the same results after leaving. Now it turns out he's emotionally very fragile and depressed. But still he is being used a an example why DQS would be doping.

I'm all for an open discussion, but the more i read in the clinic forum, the more i get the impression people are here because a team they dislike is winning more than they'd like, or a rider they like isn't winning enough. Very little in depth discussion going on here.
 
Re:

Logic-is-your-friend said:
This subforum should be renamed from "clinic" to "doping accusation". I see very little factual arguments or indications of doping, but rather wild speculation based on personal preference.

I don't know if QST is doping. If they are, i don't know if they're doping more than the other teams. In fact, i've said it in the general thread weeks ago. I find it strange that there is a QST doping thread 2019, while they have been the most succesful classics & 1 day race team for years, but nobody is asking questions about the sudden rise of Bora. But because Sagan isn't performing, that means the rest of the team is clean. They virtually have the same amount of victories, but 2 more WT victories. Now even guys 31 years old, are winning their first pro victory in a mountain stage of the Giro.

DQS is using Ketones, they are being monitored by the lab of the university of Leuven that recenctly did a largescale research about Ketones and found that many athletes were not taking them correctly. So, if DQS is using them correctly, and other teams are not, and according the research, you get improvements 10% and up... But in this topic, nobody has even mentioned Ketones. Just some wild accusations and speculation because they win a lot.

Kittel (among others) indeed doesn't get the same results after leaving. Now it turns out he's emotionally very fragile and depressed. But still he is being used a an example why DQS would be doping.

I'm all for an open discussion, but the more i read in the clinic forum, the more i get the impression people are here because a team they dislike is winning more than they'd like, or a rider they like isn't winning enough. Very little in depth discussion going on here.


I'm more surprised it's not just a DQS thread without a year like the Astana one or the Sky/Ineos one.
 

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