42x16ss said:
Shut up shut up shut up! You'll burst the bubble
Just to add - The '98 stage had attacks almost from the start as everyone wanted to regain time on Ullrich before the TT and Pantani didn't really start riding until the final climb. Compare this to last years stage where not much happened until about 2/3 of the way into the stage.
Not saying that the peleton is squeaky clean or anything - just
compare like with like, including conditions and the race on the road.
Wait for this then.
The great Fearless Greg LeMond put forward a compare and contrast with almost identical stages from the 98 and 2012 Tour's(Pau-Luchon) to prove that cycling had not really slowed down or gotten any cleaner as has been suggested.
He also put forward the comparative times of Jan Ullrich (23.39) and Wiggins/Froome/Nibali (24.27) on the Col de Peyresoude to illustrate the same thing. It's all there in the Cadel is clean Thread.
The 2012 stage was indeed quite a bit faster than 98 but they had almost perfect conditions in 2012 whilst in 98 the weather was bad as far as the Peyresoude with multiple crashes on wet roads and heavy fog at the top of the Aubisque/Tourmalet. It was not actually raining on the Peyresoude but the road was still wet and actually dryish into Luchon.
This is where the distortion really kicks in though, for some strange reason FGL failed to highlight the fact that Ullrich was only 3rd fastest up the Peyresoude in 98. Pantani was 40 seconds faster and Escartin was also faster as they both broke away from the Ullrich group despite Ullrich killing it in the big ring.
He also failed to note that 8-9 other riders were also with Ullrich at the top of the Peyresoude, thus they had the same time as Ullrich.
So there were 11/12 riders who rode almost a minute faster than Wiggins/Froome/Nibali in 2012. Indeed the 2012 boys would most likely have been in the 2nd group on the road in 98 about a minute back.
So that would be approximately 20 riders in 1998 who rode as fast as Wiggo etc in 2012!!!
In 2012, the next group of riders (VDB, TJVG, Piti, Papa H) after Wiggo were a minute back, put that time into the 1998 version and
you would have had thses guys finishing in the 30s on the same stage in 98 version. Best young rider Thibaut Pinot would have been in the 40s!!.
So in summary if the likes of VDB/TJVG etc had been riding the 98 Tour at their 2012 pace, they would have been riding with such luminaries as Peter Farazijn, Laurent Madoaus, Philip Bordenave, Cesar Solaun.
This is of course all using the same fantastic logic as FGL who I think has quite clearly demonstrated that there has been no slow down at all in pro cycling since 1998
.
That Fearless Greg LeMond, what a guy, never mess with his facts!!
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