Single most "questionable" ride of the year?

[18-Valve. (pithy)]

There may have been many highly questionable performances this year, by a multitude of riders, but what ride was it that raised your eyebrows the most? In other words: your nominations for the most doped up performance of the year, please.

If you can't narrow it down to one performance by one rider, then please post more than one.

 

[roundabout]

Kiryienka to Sestriere

 

[Berzin]

Leipheimer and Horner at the ToC.

Leipheimer at the Tour of Utah. No testing at either race, and since I'm convinced they had advanced knowledge of this, they had to have been doped to the gills.

Both these guys are at the back ends of their respective careers, and by all accounts should not be having performances like they had in 2011. But the doping at Radio Shack goes on seemingly undisturbed, and these two guys are at the top of the list to me.

 

[ak-zaaf]

Froome and Cobo's Vuelta. Voeckler's TDF. Me getting home last friday.

 

[hrotha]

Froome & Cobo at the Vuelta, Europcar at the Tour.

 

[Havetts]

Contadors sudden extreme improvement after refill-day in the Tour de France.

 

[Zoncolan]

Froome and Cobo @ Vuelta
Bottle and Horner @ ToC
Frank Schleck's TT @ Criterium International

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Chris Froome. Nothing else comes close.

Rebellin's return in a distant 2nd.

 

[The Hitch]

Chris Froome. Nothing else comes close.

Rebellin's return in a distant 2nd.

What would you say if I brought your favorite rider into this thread?

 

[thehog]

Thor.
Gilbert.


Levi/Horner

 

[bicing]

Froome and Cobo's Vuelta was rare in that it turned me off watching and following a GT. Wiggins too.

 

[will10]

Cobo on Angliru.
Cancellara at E3.
Horner at California.

 

[on3m@n@rmy]

Some good replies here already... like Froome & Cobo (Vuelta), Gilbert in general were the eye-brow raising performances for me.

 

[LaFlorecita]

Contadors sudden extreme improvement after refill-day in the Tour de France.

No.
....

 

[hfer07]

Gilbert- just too much power all year round.
Froome was too strong at the Vuelta, without a prior record.

 

[Anonymous]

Levi in Toc and Utah/Horner in ToC. One of the few times ive watched the tv and just laughed. and the fact that there was no testing says it all.

Gilbert. The first win was fine, two was fine, but by the time it became predicatable I had lost all interest.

But most laughably obvious of the year was Levi and Horner.. theres really nothing else came close. Whats funnier is that its a **** pot race that nobody outside of America cares about.

 

[maltiv]

Thor.

Thor? Seriously? He's had one of his worst seasons in a long time, has never been implicated in anything, always ridden for acknowledged "clean teams" and was an enormous talent ever since he started riding his bike. Remember, he as a u23 rider he wasn't even a sprinter, he was a time trialist and a puncheur (random examples: 10th on mont faron in 2002, also the first TDF stage he won was a medium mountain stage). For some reason he suddenly decided that he was a sprinter, luckily the last years he has gone a bit away from that and improved his climbing while his sprinting has become a lot worse. I really don't see how that's suspicious.

Anyway, I'd like to nominate Kern, who suddenly went from half-decent mountain domestique to a top level climber and time trialist.

 

[Berzin]

Speaking of Gilbert, there is no way any one rider can win two one-day classics and a semi-classic all in one week without a tremendous amount of doping.

It just kills me that I don't know what he was on. One day those secrets may be revealed...

 

[Oldman]

Gilbert. At times you could almost see the fumes wafting from his trail.
Levi and Horner although it became obvious that, all things being equal: Horner delivers more.

 

[Fausto's Schnauzer]

A Levi fan that I ride with described Levi's TOC as "UnF____ingbelievable!" Yup, I'll agree with that.

 

[thehog]

Thor? Seriously? He's had one of his worst seasons in a long time, has never been implicated in anything, always ridden for acknowledged "clean teams" and was an enormous talent ever since he started riding his bike. Remember, he as a u23 rider he wasn't even a sprinter, he was a time trialist and a puncheur (random examples: 10th on mont faron in 2002, also the first TDF stage he won was a medium mountain stage). For some reason he suddenly decided that he was a sprinter, luckily the last years he has gone a bit away from that and improved his climbing while his sprinting has become a lot worse. I really don't see how that's suspicious.

Anyway, I'd like to nominate Kern, who suddenly went from half-decent mountain domestique to a top level climber and time trialist.

Thor's season was on the ropes. He wanted out of Garmin and prepared himself nicely for the Tour to prostitute himself to suitable teams. Before you knew it he was climbing with Contador & Evans.

 

[thehog]

Levi in Toc and Utah/Horner in ToC. One of the few times ive watched the tv and just laughed. and the fact that there was no testing says it all.

Gilbert. The first win was fine, two was fine, but by the time it became predicatable I had lost all interest.

But most laughably obvious of the year was Levi and Horner.. theres really nothing else came close. Whats funnier is that its a **** pot race that nobody outside of America cares about.

Watch it all again: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gqiNUSD9Rz8&sns=em

Those pesky Euros get beat by a couple of Yanks!

 

[Big Doopie]

geos boys in last two weeks of vuelta.

cobo, of course, and we know about menchov who suddenly got form in the vuelta when the team needed sponsorship.

wiggins. his latest super supportive/complimentary comments of armstrong basically did him in. with everything proving armstrong doped throughout his years of dominance, and wiggins states he was legit when (at the very least) he could have said nothing...un-freakin'-believable.

andy schleck. doped to the gills. to the gills. can't wait until next year.

contadope. doped but couldn't risk quite as much as before.

 

[zlev11]

Kern at the Dauphine, Vandenert on Plateau de Beille

 

[El Pistolero]

Gilbert. At times you could almost see the fumes wafting from his trail.
Levi and Horner although it became obvious that, all things being equal: Horner delivers more.

What does it say about Gilbert's opponents then that finished near him? It's not like Phil is someone who wins with many minutes. Most of the time just a few seconds.