Rodriguez's time trial of his career!

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May 12, 2010
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Do you really want me to paraphrase the linked and sublinked articles? Or paraphrase Ashenden's or Parisotto's studies on pubmed or sciencedirect? Or is that a nice way of calling me a fool who doesn't know WTF he's talking about?

I'd say the passport is a fantastic tool if applied correctly. You have a rider, you have statistical probabilities and if you have a determined team of scientists and enthusiasts to monitor you have a decent chance to spot cheaters and then target these guys and - based on their racing schedule and whereabouts - chase 'em down.

Discuss if the passport threshs are too conservative, discuss the competency of the monitors, discuss the credibility of the UCI. The whereabout system, the testing procedure, testing window with testers showing up at 5 am during a three-week stage race are already on the edge and honestly I'm not sure if these really comply with the charta of human rights. Riders are professionals after all.

On the other hand we see the results. Races are getting slower, riders showing signs of fatigue. It's far from perfect but it's a progress. Is Anton clean? My belly says he isn't. Gesink? Suspicious. Ten Dam? I have no idea. Purito? Guilty! AC has been reported to have a natural high Hct. Is he gifted or just the most talented cheater, how does he cheat if he already at the limit? I say he's incredibly gifted and just cheating "like everyone else". But it's just my belly.

No way, a rider is able to improve his FTP by more than 2-4% if already on blood doping. At the same time chances are same rider is able to improve his TIME TRIALING by a significant margin, especially if he sitting on his bike like **** and his equipment was 2-5 years behind the competition. Katusha was a MESS.

Edit: For the Germans, SW will be on the next Muax show.
 
Jun 7, 2010
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It wasn't really a bad day. He was still 3rd or 4th strongest today. He lost 25 seconds or even less to Contador in the head to head uphill TT.
 
Jul 3, 2009
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In that case, the greater change in performance was Valverde(+) then Purito(-) then Contador(+)? I still call it a bad day, relative to where he has been against those two for two weeks.
 
Jun 7, 2010
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Possibly. But it's difficult to tell who got better and who got worse.

I would still say that Contador was stronger than Valverde today.
 
Apr 20, 2012
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Ferminal said:
So Purito finally has his bad day, I retract.
This was no bad day, some others had reaaaaaaaaaal good days. Hoooray to Saxo Bank!

[Valverde, really, do not overdo it, even on Spanish soil....]

Too bad for mister Weber, ouch, 38%, he missed the attack today.
 
Jul 10, 2009
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Valvede

Is there any thread on Clinic about Valvede? I want to start a discussion on AV. His performance at the Vuelta is as suspicious as JRod and his catch up today was a big question mark.
 
May 12, 2010
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Fearless Greg Lemond said:
Too bad for mister Weber, ouch, 38%, he missed the attack today.
He is a really a genius when it comes to training and equipment. I'm not sure if SW is a master of race tactics as well :)

As a person, SW is an egocentric (I think, I mentioned this already) and choleric. There was an incident in the biggest German cycling forum, where he insulted a competitor (from his/our own town!) in a really, really bad way, discrediting his methods and lab equipment. Eversince SW's company name is asterisked in this forum.
 
Jul 8, 2012
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jilbiker said:
Is there any thread on Clinic about Valvede? I want to start a discussion on AV. His performance at the Vuelta is as suspicious as JRod and his catch up today was a big question mark.


I don't even think anyone would debate it...so probably why no thread.
 
Feb 20, 2010
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lemoogle said:
I don't even think anyone would debate it...so probably why no thread.

Not to mention that there are a number of threads back from his old pre-suspension days.

I don't think Piti has been that much more suspicious than anybody else here. In fact, he hasn't done anything to surprise me in terms of ability at this Vuelta. This has been a race full of medium mountains - the traditional terrain he always excelled at. On the longer ones he's been dropped. And it seems to be a not atypical thing that guys coming back from suspension take a few months to get back up to speed (cf. Basso, Scarponi, Vino).

I'm not saying Don Alejandro is clean, but I don't think he's going Full Riccò either.
 
Mar 11, 2009
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_frost said:
Must be the doper's fatigue then...

I think this is now the accepted term for Clinic posters who are struggling to keep pace with riders, who by under performing, are continually blowing up their theories.;)
 
Apr 20, 2012
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Mr.38% said:
He is a really a genius when it comes to training and equipment. I'm not sure if SW is a master of race tactics as well :)

As a person, SW is an egocentric (I think, I mentioned this already) and choleric. There was an incident in the biggest German cycling forum, where he insulted a competitor (from his/our own town!) in a really, really bad way, discrediting his methods and lab equipment. Eversince SW's company name is asterisked in this forum.
Glad to see you understood it was a joke. ;)
 
Apr 11, 2009
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mellow velo said:
i think this is now the accepted term for clinic posters who are struggling to keep pace with riders, who by under performing, are continually blowing up their theories.;)

Vis "doping fatigue"

Ha, ha, ROFLMAO!

:D

--------------------------

More seriously though, heartbreaking today for Rodriguez, esp. after a rest day: "And I was looking at the Saxo Banks and thinking ‘wow, they're riding well today."

He really got bushwacked.

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/rodriguez-admits-defeat-in-vuelta
 
Jun 18, 2012
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Well, stage 17 of the Tour is a new entry for this thread.

I'm a Purito fan, and I know this course really suited him...but "unbelievable" really comes to mind here. Third place, ten seconds behind Froome?
 
Jun 7, 2010
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The unbelievable part is that he can ride uphill without a wheel to suck.

Otherwise, very little flat so it helped him hugely.
 
Mar 15, 2011
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Stage placings show a very top heavy depth. Granted, that TJ, Shleck and the likes were the leaders for a while says something about the quality they beat, but the top 5 were all full *** today
 
Jun 10, 2010
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Ferminal said:
The bigger question is why was he so **** in the first week.
He wasn't even that bad, really. He only underperformed on Ax 3 Domaines, and even then he was 11th and only 20" behind Contador. If he responded particularly well to a blood bag, the performance jump is easy to explain without any additional variables.
 

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