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Tadej Pogacar and Mauro Giannetti

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That's because traditionally you had to be good at TTs as well to be competitive in the Tour. This new phenomenon of small, featherweight riders like Pogacar, Vingegaard and Remco cranking out faster flat TTs than the big, tanky specialists is indicative of some next-level alien mutant gear being used. How the f*** are they producing all those watts?

Yeh... this and higher cadences again up mountains are pretty good indicators...

Imagine if Asbel Kiprop (oh, known doper) was being beaten in his prime by Wilson Kipsang (oh, known doper) in the 1500m? (and quite frankly the differences physiologically between ~1500m and marathon runners are closer than the differences between World Tour climbers and specialist TTers)
 
That's not really true, TdF winners have often been guys that are great at climbing but can also win TTs. Contador and Froome won TTs in their GTs.
The TT Contador won was not flat, and Froome is way taller and heavier than the top 3 in this Tour.

EDIT: For what it's worth, comparing these current GC guys to two of the most doped riders ever does them no favors either way.
 
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  • Haha
Reactions: noob and SHAD0W93
I can accept there’s gonna be some doping in sport.

This is way too much to take the sport remotely seriously. Gross.

The 'problem' is the bubble that is pro cycling makes everything we see simply part of an ongoing arms race between UAE & Visma. It's relentless.

For example rightly or wrongly, Pog got what he had coming in 2022 on Granon (for his entire oeuvre in 2020 & 2021, especially that ITT mugging on LPdBF), meanwhile Visma & Vingegaard just got what they had coming (including Pog mugging Jorgenson for the stage win today on Isola 2000) after hammering Pog in 2023 (like in Combloux) & making it really personal (anyone here remember Nathan van Hooydonck suckwheeling Pog on the Champs-Élysées last year just for sh*ts & giggles? Yeah that one was ordered by the Jumbo DS).

It's a mutant war. If Pog & UAE suddenly decided they had a conscience & did the TdF paniagua, guess who'd be winning? The Danish miracle man & Visma.

There's no escaping this infernal dynamic.
 
Doped sports are so *** boring. It's not even that they're unfair.
I think I have gotten to the point where anti-doping should just be done away with. It's not solving the doping issue, and it's paradoxically creating a more unequal field than would be the case if everyone had access to standard doping. We're all now (rightfully) skeptical of almost everything these days, so what's even the point?
 
meanwhile Visma & Vingegaard just got what they had coming (including Pog mugging Jorgenson for the stage win today on Isola 2000) after hammering Pog in 2023 (like in Combloux)
Perhaps, but Jonas won only a single stage last year (the ITT). Even at that, he was up less than 2 mins going into Courchevel. Tadej blew up and Jonas sealed the deal and then coasted into Paris. In fact, Tadej even won Stage 20. It's not like Jonas was up 5 mins and attacking on every stage thereafter.
 
Perhaps, but Jonas won only a single stage last year (the ITT). Even at that, he was up less than 2 mins going into Courchevel. Tadej blew up and Jonas sealed the deal and then coasted into Paris. In fact, Tadej even won Stage 20. It's not like Jonas was up 5 mins and attacking on every stage thereafter.

Combloux was absurd.

It was the single greatest performance in terms of seconds gained per km in a Tour time trial since the 1960's.

The people who orchestrated that 'performance' get zero sympathy or 'good guy' points.
 
Vingegaard's wins were never this obscene. People lose their minds over the TT but a super lightweight doing well on a TT with very steep pitches isn't eye opening to me. We also know that Vingegaard was a technical demon on that TT which netted 20-30 seconds.
WvA, a big block of meat getting 3rd in that TT was more surprising imo.
 
as someone who watched the 2007 tour de france, i disagree that doped events are boring
Yeah, that tour had a set of very unique circumstances that are very hard to replicate for entertainment.

A lot of TT kms
Rasmussen got gifted ~3 mins, and people did not realize how big of a threat he was back then.
The top 3 climbers were inversely sorted in the TTs.
Contador being desperate to drop Rasmussen, and going insane all the time with a brutally strong team.
Vino and Soler doing crazy stuff for entertainment
 
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