State of the forum 2024

[Tricycle Rider]

Looks like Vingegaard might still be too heavy to get a gap in the real mountains. He should consider using my method ahead of Grand Colombier. It's all about farts per kilo.

Maybe not so much in cycling, but a side stitch due to gas buildup can definitely kill a runner's efforts.

So by all means fart, fart freely while you still can!

 

[Ilmaestro99]

Maybe I'm wrong , maybe I'm just spending less time at the forum, but it seems like after the Giro Arms race between remco and roglic fans, this tour is a relatively tame affair

 

[Salvarani]

Maybe I'm wrong , maybe I'm just spending less time at the forum, but it seems like after the Giro Arms race between remco and roglic fans, this tour is a relatively tame affair

I think you are on to something.

 

[gregrowlerson]

Maybe I'm wrong , maybe I'm just spending less time at the forum, but it seems like after the Giro Arms race between remco and roglic fans, this tour is a relatively tame affair

Yep, a lot of us are discovering first hand (or arm) just how difficult the Giro-Tour double is.

 

[Samu Cuenca]

Yep, a lot of us are discovering first hand (or arm) just how difficult the Giro-Tour double is.

Yeah, we should have quit halfway through the Giro like Pedersen did.

 

[topcat]

Primoz Roglic is the next Kim Kardashian - extremely relevant.

 

[RedheadDane]

Primoz Roglic is the next Kim Kardashian - extremely relevant.

Kim Kardashian; relevant?
Okay... what drug are you on?

 

[topcat]

Forum clearly going mutant today. Many fist fights, lots of ppl put on the ignore list by ppl who should be ignored. The forumites who think today’s result was due to training and the heat: what drugs are they on? I want some, it might make me think my wife isn’t squandering our money.
In his interview Pog said “The big wheel always turns.”

 

[SHAD0W93]

Forum clearly going mutant today. Many fist fights, lots of ppl put on the ignore list by ppl who should be ignored. The forumites who think today’s result was due to training and the heat: what drugs are they on? I want some, it might make me think my wife isn’t squandering our money.
In his interview Pog said “The big wheel always turns.”

And recovery. We all need a recovery after today.

 

[Cookster15]

The Clinic seemed to go to sleep around April. It has certainly woke up with Vingo, even a few forum lurkers have joined to share their astonishment at Vingegaard’s performance.

 

[Savant12]

I’ve doubled my Ketone intake just to keep up responding about what we witnessed yesterday.

 

[Põhja Konn]

It's been some time since the Clinic was the first place to check while coming to the forum. Thanks, Jonas!

 

[saganftw]

as a proud clinic enjoyer for many years, this forum section is going through renaissance right now

 

[topcat]

On a serious note, I feel deflated like I did during the Froome/Armstrong dominance. Vinnie’s performance was too much. I might be able to get past the Ped’s if we had a close competition but Vinnie/Froome/Lance show up in July, you tell yourself Pog/Nairo/Ullrich might win but you know deep down who is Le Boss.

 

[Rackham]

as a proud clinic enjoyer for many years, this forum section is going through renaissance right now

I've got to admit, I find it hard to post in the 'naivete section' of the forum right now (I'll call it that anyhow).

I mean it's just too much. I love this sport but come on, what's happening right now is wild. All the stuff cycling nerds love to obsess over (route, weight, watts, form, altitude, recuperation, teamwork, tactics, training, equipment, nutrition... even wheelsucking) means absolutely diddly-squat aka f*ck-all. What really matters is a tactical clinical nuclear bomb dropped on the right day.

Jumbo just dropped their own with lots of family hugs & kisses blown for the cameras. If someone wants to believe & even dissect that ITT performance, be my guest! But for me, it's just science-fiction.

It's like that moment in a movie when you spot a mistake with the visual effects & it takes you right out of the experience. 41km/h average versus 37km/h for the guy in third did exactly that.

 

[meat puppet]

And yet, it is a lot easier to be dumbstruck and disgusted by immediate events, such as wattbombs, than longer term developments, such as riders transcending specialisation, which just kinda numbs you. The frog in a slowly boiling water kind of thing.

Take Vingo out of the TDF picture and Pog dominates virtually in all terrains. Would that be substantially less ridiculous? I don't know the answer.

In absolute performance level terms it probably would be less ridiculous, as Vingo went somewhere else with the TT. But in relative terms not so much.

Guess quite a bit of spectator attitudes are in fact driven by aesthetic and moral preferences, along with the more sport specific stuff. Nothing wrong with that, as long as these factors are at least somewhat transparent to ourselves.

In my case I recognise that the fantasy of a new merckx is the messenger RNA of cycling fandom, but find the mere thought most off-putting. When all is said, doping included, I am more comfortable with specialists gunning for it in their narrow domains.

Take away these two teams, or their newfound capacities, and we maybe have something worthwhile here.

Perhaps the arms race boils over and devours them, Jumbo first. There is some healthy backlash emerging already. But probably not.

 

[Samu Cuenca]

I don't have a daughter, but if I had one, then I would use her as a guinea pig before trying out any drugs myself. I would also have her read some of the posts on here before risking my own sanity.

 

[Krzysztof_O]

What is happening in Skeletor thread (in 2 days more posts than in the previous year) suggests that guys here are not cleaner than our skinny superhero.

 

[topcat]

I don't have a daughter, but if I had one, then I would use her as a guinea pig before trying out any drugs myself. I would also have her read some of the posts on here before risking my own sanity.

I have 3 daughters and 3 sons. They’re all clean except for one son who’s on salbutamol (I swear he has asthma)-he’s a rugby player and a boxer, very polite and friendly but he’d cut you for the shirt on your back when it comes to competition.
We’re a family loaded with love.

 

[ThisFrenchGuy]

I like The Clinic quite a bit but there's certainly a very real trait of the forum eating itself and the shadow of doping being a black hole. Not advocating for fake naivete but hopefully one day we'll get some real certainties about the closer past (Sky... ?) and another set of more recent data points. A lot of the discussion, for lack of any definitive material, is rooted in the 1998-2010 period and the slow work of reconstructing the history of doping leading up to the EPO years. Certainly this ITT (and Tour in general) seems a little too extra performance wise, as evidenced by the surge of discussion (me included).

Side subject :
The motor thread is fascinating, there was definitely a years long fever (with some proposing / backdating their doubts to 2009) on this topic but you can clearly see the discussion grinding to an halt 2-3 years ago. Some people are still very adamant about it but by and large that's a speculative avenue that fell out of favour roughly at the same time the whole Peloton starting going a lot faster on French roads (don't know if there's some causation).

 

[iceblink]

I like The Clinic quite a bit but there's certainly a very real trait of the forum eating itself and the shadow of doping being a black hole. Not advocating for fake naivete but hopefully one day we'll get some real certainties about the closer past (Sky... ?) and another set of more recent data points.

The forum ate itself by gorging on feeble Sky dominance for several years and now has the real deal dope to contend with again (since previous EPO era) and of course is all bloated out and unable to even fart a coherent opinion.

 

[the delgados]

And yet, it is a lot easier to be dumbstruck and disgusted by immediate events, such as wattbombs, than longer term developments, such as riders transcending specialisation, which just kinda numbs you. The frog in a slowly boiling water kind of thing.

Take Vingo out of the TDF picture and Pog dominates virtually in all terrains. Would that be substantially less ridiculous? I don't know the answer.

In absolute performance level terms it probably would be less ridiculous, as Vingo went somewhere else with the TT. But in relative terms not so much.

Guess quite a bit of spectator attitudes are in fact driven by aesthetic and moral preferences, along with the more sport specific stuff. Nothing wrong with that, as long as these factors are at least somewhat transparent to ourselves.

In my case I recognise that the fantasy of a new merckx is the messenger RNA of cycling fandom, but find the mere thought most off-putting. When all is said, doping included, I am more comfortable with specialists gunning for it in their narrow domains.

Take away these two teams, or their newfound capacities, and we maybe have something worthwhile here.

Perhaps the arms race boils over and devours them, Jumbo first. There is some healthy backlash emerging already. But probably not.

Re Healthy backlash:
I think that depends to some degree on the kickbacks riders are getting from this dog and pony show.
If I was a rider who knew what was going on and wasn't getting any kickbacks -- i.e. Netflix -- I'd be pissed.

 

[DirtyWorks]

Re Healthy backlash:
I think that depends to some degree on the kickbacks riders are getting from this dog and pony show.
If I was a rider who knew what was going on and wasn't getting any kickbacks -- i.e. Netflix -- I'd be pissed.

We all know what happened to Frankie Andreu. I’m sure the pressure to keep quiet is… a lot. Besides, athletes are at the absolute bottom in terms of influence.

A couple of super-alien days brought me back!

 

[gregrowlerson]

Forget about Vingegaard vs. Pogacar.....this final (proper) stage is all about Netserk vs. Volderke!

As I think they used to say in the old Batman comics, "Pow! Vam!!"

 

[the delgados]

We all know what happened to Frankie Andreu. I’m sure the pressure to keep quiet is… a lot. Besides, athletes are at the absolute bottom in terms of influence.

A couple of super-alien days brought me back!

True that.
I continue to be amazed by the fact professional cyclists have no support system.
They have been the slave to their masters since day one. They perform tasks that are beyond the imagination of what most people could even contemplate doing, yet they're treated like minimum wage workers at Starbucks.
No wonder why they do whatever they can to stay in the peloton. Those are the ones who just need to survive. Then you have those who it seems like are chosen to be the superstars of the sport. Their choice has been made by others.