Maybe my SF bay area perspective is a bit of a money bubble. Everyone around here has crazy bikes and equipment.
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Interesting alternate timeline you live in. He was the strongest in Turkey, but inexperience cost him the overall win and the queen stage win on the only mountain climb in the race. He rode away solo at 8 or so km from the finish, but was only able to take 15 seconds, while Grossschartner, Kudus and Conti were taking turns, slowly wearing him out. They then caught him, and dropped him to finish a WHOPPING 7 seconds ahead of him, and he became 4th.After that, nothing close to a win for months.
I think Turkey was more about lacking experience and going a bit too early. They cut the flater part on top of the climb, so it was a rather regular 12km climb at 9%, on that kind of gradient the speed is so low that drafting isn't a big factor.Interesting alternate timeline you live in. He was the strongest in Turkey, but inexperience cost him the overall win and the queen stage win on the only mountain climb in the race. He rode away solo at 8 or so km from the finish, but was only able to take 15 seconds, while Grossschartner, Kudus and Conti were taking turns, slowly wearing him out. They then caught him, and dropped him to finish a WHOPPING 7 seconds ahead of him, and he became 4th.
"nothing close to a win for months"
lol, give me a break. The ONLY disappointing thing he did, was Romandië, where he actually still managed to finish 15th in the ITT, few seconds behind Tratnik & Thomas and ahead of Van Baarle, De Gendt, Martinez, Buchmann, Kruijswijk, Kangert, Bohli...
But ok, it's clear what you're trying to do, but nobody's falling for it. Or maybe you're expecting HIM to be 100% from January till October? Having to show a complete linear form curve throughout the year?
Do you actually have an argument to make, or are you going to keep making drive-by BS posts like this? Everybody's expecting him to go from far, nobody knows how he'll react to it. Maybe it's time to give up that mod-badge.Nah we all expecting that super long range attack in a 280km race tomorrow cause that's completely normal progression
If you ignore all arguments I make, I do indeed make no arguments.Do you actually have an argument to make, or are you going to keep making drive-by BS posts like this? Everybody's expecting him to go from far, nobody knows how he'll react to it. Maybe it's time to give up that mod-badge.
Arguments based on guesswork and what you deem "normal". Do you deem Pogacar's performances normal? Bernal? I'm still baffled by the fact that there are a growing number of people in the general forum, that are coming to terms that it is indeed Pogacar's ("only 16 months older") that is giving the star performances relative to his age, and not Remco, but somehow i'm not seeing any posts with the same arguments in a Pogacar clinic topic.If you ignore all arguments I make, I do indeed make no arguments.
Natural progression at any age wouldn't make performances believable when those performances are at levels in top riders at their peak.
I find it very likely he is indeed a huge talent and an early bloomer, but the assumption he's clean is almost solely based on hoping he's the perfect boyscout on a team that's otherwise generally scrutinized.
The reason Bernal and Pogacar don't have huge Clinic threads is nobody defends them at all costs. That's basically the reason Sky threads and Armstrong threads were so big.Arguments based on guesswork and what you deem "normal". Do you deem Pogacar's performances normal? Bernal? I'm still baffled by the fact that there are a growing number of people in the general forum, that are coming to terms that it is indeed Pogacar's ("only 16 months older") that is giving the star performances relative to his age, and not Remco, but somehow i'm not seeing any posts with the same arguments in a Pogacar clinic topic.
"Levels in top riders at their peak". This is simply not true. The fact of the matter is that Remco is simply a very peculiar case, not because of how strong he is, but because the type of rider he is. He is light and he has great stamina. Normally, small guys are explosive (Higuita, Lambrecht, Yates...) and not worldclass ITT'ers. This means in San Sebastian, he can't wait for the final, because he lacks punch and would be dropped by "top riders at their peak". So he has to go from far. They let two (then four) domestiques do the chasing who have been working all day and let him ride (big mistake). So, they come up short, because unlike other tempo guys, he doesn't collapse on the last climb (because he's lightweight). In the peloton, a few guys try to attack, but they stop the effort because other punchy guys immediately follow, and they don't want to bridge with another guy in the wheel. Let him ride that same final together with Valverde or Pogacar, and he will lose that race 9 out of 10. He won't be able to drop them on the flat, but they will drop him on the climb. He has a specific set of skills, which simply change the entire dynamics. If the other riders don't adapt, they will lose.
Also, i was responding to a post that was completely disingenuous. Your response was nothing short of a driveby troll. You did completely ignored what both i or the post i was responding to, was saying. And it wasn't the first time you've been doing that.
That. Makes. No. Sense.The reason Bernal and Pogacar don't have huge Clinic threads is nobody defends them at all costs.
Case in point. Nobody bothered to. Bernal is basically the most ordinary SkIneos TdF winner, yet I doubt you'd find a huge amount of posters buying into him being clean.That. Makes. No. Sense.
They don't have huge clinic threads. They have NO clinic threads.
lol ok.Case in point. Nobody bothered to. Bernal is basically the most ordinary SkIneos TdF winner, yet I doubt you'd find a huge amount of posters buying into him being clean.
As for Pogacar, I can only speak for myself but I just couldn't be bothered. Similarly doubt many would proclaim him as a 2nd coming of cycling Jesus
Pog did get mentioned in the 2019 alien awards threadlol ok.
So, nobody thinks they're clean, but nobody bothers to start a doping topic. After winning the TDF at 22 or podium in Vuelta at 20 and 3 MTF wins.
Smell ya later.
There is quite a difference between the position of assuming he’s clean and the position of not assuming him to dirty.If you ignore all arguments I make, I do indeed make no arguments.
Natural progression at any age wouldn't make performances believable when those performances are at levels in top riders at their peak.
I find it very likely he is indeed a huge talent and an early bloomer, but the assumption he's clean is almost solely based on hoping he's the perfect boyscout on a team that’s otherwise generally scrutinized.
Pog is mostly cause he's super young, and he developed super fast in his first pro year. It's a matter of whether his development also flattens out a little earlier or not.I'm not entirely sure Pogacar did anything pre Vuelta to really be questioned. Sure he won California, but as much as I enjoy that race, I don't consider winning it meaning a whole lot. Remember Sagan won the overall of California.
Post not poster.Interesting alternate timeline you live in. He was the strongest in Turkey, but inexperience cost him the overall win and the queen stage win on the only mountain climb in the race. He rode away solo at 8 or so km from the finish, but was only able to take 15 seconds, while Grossschartner, Kudus and Conti were taking turns, slowly wearing him out. They then caught him, and dropped him to finish a WHOPPING 7 seconds ahead of him, and he became 4th.
"nothing close to a win for months"
lol, give me a break. The ONLY disappointing thing he did, was Romandië, where he actually still managed to finish 15th in the ITT, few seconds behind Tratnik & Thomas and ahead of Van Baarle, De Gendt, Martinez, Buchmann, Kruijswijk, Kangert, Bohli... While he had been in the break the entire day before.
But ok, it's clear what you're trying to do, but nobody's falling for it. Or maybe you're expecting HIM to be 100% from January till October? Having to show a complete linear form curve throughout the year?
If you follow Junior/U23 races, you would know that even half a year (in age) can be a big factor. One of the main excuses by the non-believers, was that he is from January, while a guy like Vacek is 8 months younger. First year juniors vs 2nd year juniors. Huge difference. First year U23 vs 2nd year U23. Huge difference. Two years ago, do you know where Pogacar finished in the Peace Race as a first year U23? He finished 41st at over 16 minutes from Lambrecht (winner). One year later, Pogacar kills the entire U23 field in Tour de l'Avenir.
As for the Lampaert quote, that was about his WAY of riding, his mindset.
Since l'Avenir his progression has been comparable to Bernal's, though. It probably looks more ridiculous because Bernal crashed hard in his first Tour and didn't get to peak for La Vuelta in his first Sky/INEOS year. But an on form Valverde could barely hold Bernal's wheel in Catalunya already... A more impressive performance than Pogacar's first WT stage win, IMOThe progression of Pogacar before Avenir 2018 to the Vuelta 2019 has to be the "best" ever (for a really young rider, note that i used progression and not transformation). So there are plenty of reasons to doubt.
That's not true at all since there's nationalities represented from many different countries from all over the world that are not part of, nor ever been part of the UK.It's because this forum hates British riders![]()
People get threads in the clinic for all sorts of reasons, some being legit and some being part of a forum members baseless agenda against a rider, but disguised well enough to evade being deleted by mods. With the latter reason being the main driver behind forum policy that requires some sort of proof or evidence that backs up any doping insinuations or allegations. The most difficult thing about enforcing that policy is our ability as a moderation staff to disceminate what can be considered proof/evidence and how do we corroborate that proof/evidence? We do our best to keep the clinic as a discussion forum that includes deserving subjects and not an axe grinding session aimed at British, US, or any other countries riders without cause.The larger question is why some riders get "threads" and others don't. By rights there should be a 200 page thread on Bernal, given the size of the Sky/Ineos, Wiggins and Froome threads. And yet...crickets.
Evenepoel is, for whatever reason, a polarizing rider, maybe because he seems to defy the conventional wisdom as far as his style of riding.
Look at how this topic got started. "Hey guys, are we suspicious of this guy or what do you think? Because i would sure like to be". Triggered because he won the Worlds Juniors last year. By ANY standards, what a kid like Brenner has done this year, is by far more remarkable. Evenepoel was a 2nd year junior, born in January. Brenner is a 1st year junior, born in oktober. That means that 's nearly 2 full years in development between the two, relative to their agebracket. Which is an age difference like night and day at that age. Consider Brenner's 1st year to Evenepoel's 1st year, while being 9 months younger WITHIN that first year, racking up a lot more wins than Evenepoel.People get threads in the clinic for all sorts of reasons, some being legit and some being part of a forum members baseless agenda against a rider, but disguised well enough to evade being deleted by mods. With the latter reason being the main driver behind forum policy that requires some sort of proof or evidence that backs up any doping insinuations or allegations. The most difficult thing about enforcing that policy is our ability as a moderation staff to disceminate what can be considered proof/evidence and how do we corroborate that proof/evidence? We do our best to keep the clinic as a discussion forum that includes deserving subjects and not an axe grinding session aimed at British, US, or any other countries riders without cause.
That's not true at all since there's nationalities represented from many different countries from all over the world that are not part of, nor ever been part of the UK.
I know this post is a year old but its still funny to see, after all these years, obviously flawed comparisons to real life and general lack of logic being used to forward the - "doping in cycling- nah" position.Need to wait until he's 23-35 in my opinion because that's when your brain and body physiology stops developing and plateaus. He might just be a bit of a freak in that he has little more development still to happen and others will catch up over next few years. It's like at school, when there's always the 6 foot 13 year old with stubble kind of thing.