Rodriguez's time trial of his career!

[iZnoGouD]

he is very suspect, he seems to have improved a lot on suitained efforts and he is still as explosive as before...
but he could crack on one of the next stages, who knows?

 

[luckyboy]

Any athlete apparently peaking at age 33 has to be suspect.

To be fair, he's only been a team leader for three seasons.

 

[roundabout]

The current Rodriguez would have been co-leader with Valverde.

 

[Mr.38%]

vetooo‏@ammattipyoraily

Puerto de Ancares (last 9 km, 8.2 %, 738 m). Joaquim Rodriguez: 25 min 48 sec, 20.93 Kph, VAM 1716 m/h, 6.09 W/kg. #vuelta2012

 

[maltiv]

vetooo‏@ammattipyoraily

Puerto de Ancares (last 9 km, 8.2 %, 738 m). Joaquim Rodriguez: 25 min 48 sec, 20.93 Kph, VAM 1716 m/h, 6.09 W/kg. #vuelta2012

That's not very high for a 25 min climb. Roughly the same numbers as Hesjedal was producing in a similar climb in the Giro.

 

[hrotha]

To be fair, he's only been a team leader for three seasons.

Before riding for Caisse, he rode for Saunier Duval, where he had a free role. He was 25 and 26 years old, so he still had room for improvement. He was very good, but definitely no GC man. Even riding for Caisse, he went to the Giro with a free role and he only managed a 17th place in 2008 (aged 29). In 2009, he abandoned when he was 12th (I don't know if he crashed out or what).

Honestly, I don't buy it.

 

[lemoogle]

Why is there no proper thread on Rodriguez? His performance at the vuelta looks VERY suspicious to me.

 

[Parrulo]

this is indeed very suspicious, he is absolutely untouchable and it's not for lack of trying for his rival(s).

although what makes it the most suspicious for me isn't even the ease which is he is closing all the attacks but how much consistency he has shown. in the giro he had days where he clearly wasn't as good and lost time to RH but at the vuelta he simply looks imperious on every mountain and has shown no difficulty following alberto freaking contador

 

[hiero2]

Why is there no proper thread on Rodriguez? His performance at the vuelta looks VERY suspicious to me.

Agree. But everybody is noticing, so the race marshals, or whoever is in charge of testing, will be on alert. But, if it is undetectable, here we are again. I really did not expect Contador to do well, since his performances since the clenbuterol pop have been less outstanding than he used to go. I figured this would be another such. But Rodriguez makes him look cleanish.

 

[luckyboy]

Don't know what he could be doing that everyone else isn't though.

(Not defending Purito btw, just hard to explain it)

 

[Mrs John Murphy]

Conversely, take out Rodriguez and what does Contador's performance look like? Taking chunks of time out of Froome and Piti, neither of whom seem to be averse to the needle.

If we're raising an eyebrow at Rodriguez then the other needs to be raised at Contador.

As other have said - this is looking like 2008 all over again.

 

[Fearless Greg Lemond]

When things seem to good to be true they often are. Just like Valverde of course.

High mountains and Rodriguez? No sir. Or it must be the training by Weber of course, he is a TT specialist, and now a 23% climb specialist. Marginal gains. Get tha f outta here.

Bust.

Wonder what the VAM was, I clocked around 41 minutes for the final 15 kilometres.

 

[Caruut]

Don't know what he could be doing that everyone else isn't though.

(Not defending Purito btw, just hard to explain it)

His two biggest rivals are just coming back off bans - if they're being cautious then possibly a lot. I can see the UCI might not want any really big wins from Berto and Piti yet.

 

[Zinoviev Letter]

Rodriguez' big weakness has always been his TTing. The Vuelta organisers conveniently eliminated that weakness from this race. One, medium length TT with a big hill in it isn't enough to have the ITT's usual effect of removing him from contention. If the TT had been similarly minimised in other races, Rodriguez would already be a multiple GT winner.

The power numbers for the climbs are, as with the Giro and the Tour, not of a sort which automatically point towards oxygen vector doping for an explanation.

There are only two things which raise suspicions, over and above standard skepticism about pro cycling:

1) He's beating Contador. But Contador is just back from a ban.
2) He became a GC rider late in his career.

 

[roundabout]

this is indeed very suspicious, he is absolutely untouchable and it's not for lack of trying for his rival(s).

although what makes it the most suspicious for me isn't even the ease which is he is closing all the attacks but how much consistency he has shown. in the giro he had days where he clearly wasn't as good and lost time to RH but at the vuelta he simply looks imperious on every mountain and has shown no difficulty following alberto freaking contador

Ahahahahahahaha.

You were busy defending him a few days ago after the TT and now he is very suspicious because your hero can't drop him.

Ahahahahahahaha.

 

[Parrulo]

Ahahahahahahaha.

You were busy defending him a few days ago after the TT and now he is very suspicious because your hero can't drop him.

Ahahahahahahaha.

hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha

if you paid attention to my posts you would realize that i said his time trial while suspicious it wasn't full proof of doping because of the specific circumstances of the time trial, after all he did lost 41 seconds on 13 flat km's.

and now i said his performance became more suspicious too me due to the consistency he has shown over the last week or so something he had never show previously, at least to this level (level of consistency not level of racing ofc)

but have it your way

ahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahah

posts do look prettier in btw "ahahahah's"

 

[roundabout]

I paid attention to your posts. Your alarm only really went off because Contador didn't drop him.

The TT was plenty suspicious by itself. And it would have been suspicious even if had been dropped in the last 3 days.

And I don't get your laughing. Unlike you, I am not a hypocrite flip-flopper.

 

[Parrulo]

I paid attention to your posts. Your alarm only really went off because Contador didn't drop him.

The TT was plenty suspicious by itself. And it would have been suspicious even if had been dropped in the last 3 days.

And I don't get your laughing. Unlike you, I am not a hypocrite flip-flopper.

i wasn't laughing just indirectly pointing out how immature and pathetic it is to involve a post in ahaha's, glad to see you noticed it.

also nice from you to skip the argument part and go straight into the insult department . . . . always refreshing.

just one more time:

time trial of his life = suspicious

time trial of his life + consistency to a level never shown before in a GT = more suspicious.

got it now?

when he had a bad day purito has always been dropped by more then 1 person, even at the giro this year. at the vuelta tho he hasn't been in difficulty a single time in an entire GT so that's something new for him in a GT at age 33.

ofc you will fail to see any of my arguments and will just go "ahahahah **** hurt contador fanboy ahahahah"

 

[Havetts]

Purito could smoke some puritos under that tempo indeed, but its only a margin faster than the Giro which is somewhat regarded clean. But now because he beats Bert at the same w/kgs its suspicious?

 

[Gregga]

Wonder what the VAM was, I clocked around 41 minutes for the final 15 kilometres.

The last 15 km were at 8% grade (1200m elevation)
So 41 minutes means 1756m/h VAM
That's about 6,3-6,4 w/kg or am I wrong ?
If it's correct, for more than half an hour it's a lot !

 

[meat puppet]

well, that sounds like a lot. too much actually, in the sense of what is good for anyone's own good. any confirmations? at least the race was seriously broken apart early on, as everyone could see.

the climbing data topic has not been very active lately.

however, https://twitter.com/ammattipyoraily (vetooo ‏@ammattipyoraily) has been posting some estimates, and I guess there will be one about today as well. as for covadonga the numbers were significantly lesser.

Lagos de Covadonga (Village Covadonga→next 8.0 km ,8.85 %, 708 m). Contador,Rodriguez: 25:01, 19.19 Kph, VAM 1698 m/h, 5.89 W/kg #vuelta2012

For the record JV quotes this twitter account time and again so it cannot be too much off the mark, I guess.

 

[Fearless Greg Lemond]

I am downloading the stage for the good timing, will be back for the correct numbers.

 

[Lanark]

To be honest, I've never entertained the possiblity that Rodriguez is clean. Don't have any real basis for it, and as far as I know there aren't any strong rumours about him, but I wouldn't be in the least surprised if he ever got caught (well, I would be surprised he got caught, not that he uses).

 

[Mellow Velo]

To be honest, I've never entertained the possiblity that Rodriguez is clean. Don't have any real basis for it, and as far as I know there aren't any strong rumours about him, but I wouldn't be in the least surprised if he ever got caught (well, I would be surprised he got caught, not that he uses).

If these three were riding like this, but at the Tour and kicking Evans all around the mountains, this thread would have 2,000+ posts.
As dodgy as it gets.

 

[lemoogle]

Conversely, take out Rodriguez and what does Contador's performance look like? Taking chunks of time out of Froome and Piti, neither of whom seem to be averse to the needle.

If we're raising an eyebrow at Rodriguez then the other needs to be raised at Contador.

As other have said - this is looking like 2008 all over again.

Contador showed weakness, to froome in the first week, or even to valverde ( when valverde and purito passed him to win the stage ), Rodriguez has shown absolutely no weakness, that to me is suspicious, even wiggins seemed more human when he couldnt follow froome and they called him back at the tour.