I have been dismissive of the motor doping theory in the motor doping thread but I am starting to reconsider.
I feel especially obtuse today, sorry. Unless you are being sarcastic (which is fine if you are), what part of my message would you like me to elaborate on?You are too intelligent for me, can you restate that in layman's terms? Thanks
Thanks for reminding of that one. I recall it as a good chuckle. The participant Mou, the alleged insider, actually made a point out of it. His narrative was that, finally, Toddy got himself a "normal" coach and was actually going to do something else besides that famous "zone 2" easy riding for training. So everyone would better expect some serious gains, implying that the relative scale thereof was going to be comparable to what a total novice just starting serious training could see. Shortly thereafter, lo and behold, the gains came along. Indeed what else did you expect? The chap just was getting serious about the sport.For the sake of spitballing, what are the thoughts on Pogacar getting a new coach this year? Related to his performance improvements or not, both in a training and clinic sense? Or part of the smokescreen? Or to avoid throwing up red flags for the original coach when he suddenly started pushing 5-10% more power overnight?
I wasn't being sarcastic.🙂 "I get an impression that most people even here tend to still give too much credit to the level of decency and intelligence of the current monopolized system and to the powers of today's science which is considered capable of producing some miraculous "genetic doping", for example."I feel especially obtuse today, sorry. Unless you are being sarcastic (which is fine if you are), what part of my message would you like me to elaborate on?
Considering The New York Times' role in bringing UFO BS into the mainstream, I think we'd more likely get a story on Pogi's extra-terrestrial origins, than any doping bust, unfortunately.
Good observations right there. No sweat means no body heat which implies that either the power production of the body was low or the efficiency of said body was much closer to 100% than previously believed. Incidentally, in his first superhuman performance in that 2020 TDF TT that robbed Roglic of the yellow jersey, he actually did look labored and sweaty towards the end of the climb. He blitzed that one as we know, but that performance looked normal for a good biologically doped climber assuming he started the climb fresh. The clearly abnormal part of that TT was the flat one where he went faster than specialists while sitting in a "coal miner" position, in blatant disregard of that pesky air resistance.
What I am curious about is how many W/kg for how long he would have to de before most people here begin drawing a line between what's possible and what's not with the help of a good old biological doping. Would, say, 10W/kg for an hour be sufficient for that? I get an impression that most people even here tend to still give too much credit to the level of decency and intelligence of the current monopolized system and to the powers of today's science which is considered capable of producing some miraculous "genetic doping", for example. Were something like that real we wouldn't have, for instance, the high jump record of 2.45 standing for decades with nobody capable to even get close.
An hypothetical example from a different field. If it had been "officially" (i.e. in a TV program and on major online resources) announced (I am not talking about distant future here) that the first expedition to Mars successfully landed, complete with "footage" of the silo tower "Starship" standing on the background of yellow-orange sky and some yellowish hills, how many people here would have called BS right away as opposed to starting to muse about "them" having finally solved the technical problem associated with possibility of such a voyage.
But why didn’t Pogacar ride with a bike computer in the last race? 🤔
A statement?
Well his VO2 max isn't among the best and, really, can we believe a study conducted in-house? It's like, but who polices the police?from the Weightweenies foorum
Not sure if you guys have read it but these two paper by Dr. San Millan (UAE coach, and Pog's personal coach until 2023) dive pretty deep into his metabolomics and the finding is pretty nuts. In short he has insane aerobic capacity, have very high lactate threshold (the highest in the test) among the test subjects (20+ UAE riders), have the ability to metabolise fat very very efficiently with little metabolites. A clean efficient engine with big fuel tank that can repeatedly attack essentially.
Interestingly one of the paper collect blood sample from 2019 amgen ToC through out the race and it shows that Pogacar has some of the best ability to maintain freshness for a long stage racing.
Obviously none of the paper cite the name nor the team but it's so easy to guess. They even layout the exact distance, gradient of the climb of the stage race they collect the sample from. That race is 2019 Amgen TOC. "Cyclist 1" is Tadej Pogacar.
The paper is more nuanced of course, so go check it out. San Millan certainly enjoy the benefit of having access to WT team and did not hesitate to use that access in his study.
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Frontiers | Metabolomics of Endurance Capacity in World Tour Professional Cyclists
The study of elite athletes provides a unique opportunity to define the upper limits of human physiology and performance. Across a variety of sports, these i...www.frontiersin.org
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Metabolic Signatures of Performance in Elite World Tour Professional Male Cyclists - Sports Medicine
Background and Objective Metabolomics studies of recreational and elite athletes have been so far limited to venipuncture-dependent blood sample collection in the setting of controlled training and medical facilities. However, limited to no information is currently available to determine if...link.springer.com
It's like some sort of weird version of a Shania Twain song ... "OK, so you're talented. But that don't impress me much ..."Well his VO2 max isn't among the best and, really, can we believe a study conducted in-house? It's like, but who polices the police?
I want to see independent studies without vested interests.It's like some sort of weird version of a Shania Twain song ... "OK, so you're talented. But that don't impress me much ..."
On the other hand, I believe Contadope, Pharmstrong, and Big Mig all also had studies demonstrating genetic superiority. And surprise, surprise, they also doped.
I want to see independent studies without vested interests.
It's like the marginal gains etc bs. Just something to make the big audience believe in stupid things, like "yeah the performances are a lot better than even the super doped riders had, but his clean. He just has this super metabolism, lactate clearance and aerobic capacity. It has never ever been seen before, he was already the best, last winter he finally started training properly and now you can see his true extra terrestial level"Well his VO2 max isn't among the best and, really, can we believe a study conducted in-house? It's like, but who polices the police?
I guess I said it a bit awkwardly. Let me try to correct it a bit. First, about the modern science. I meant that what today’s science is doing best is blowing smoke as opposed to achieving real progress. Like, for example, fundamental theoretical physics still has no idea what electric charge is while keeping itself busy with figuring out how the extra dimensions of space (of which there are, allegedly, at least six) curl up into “Planck scale size” to give rise, in particular, to the observed spectrum of elementary particles. (Needless to say, electric charges are reality that needs to be understood, and extra dimensions is a bunch of hooey.) So, given the subject matter discussed here, I simply meant to say that no miraculous “genetic doping” capable of changing Toddy’s biology to the extent of him being able to produce the results we are now witnessing (while literally breaking no sweat, to boot) is quite simply well beyond the modern science’s capability. Just like a sucessfull expedition to Mars (or even Moon) is beyond the said capability. So, given the choice – as means of a rational explanation – between a minor scientific miracle and blatant cheating (electromagnetic battery powered propulsion system hidden inside his bike, in our case), one should lean to the latter.I wasn't being sarcastic.🙂 "I get an impression that most people even here tend to still give too much credit to the level of decency and intelligence of the current monopolized system and to the powers of today's science which is considered capable of producing some miraculous "genetic doping", for example."
I'm interested in clarification on this statement and particularly the italicsed. I think you mean that one team or a very select number have the economic resources to gain access to the best programs. And that most fans chalk up the stellar feets we get, in this case Pogacar's, to just the new level of sophistcation in current performance science and not through illicit means. If this is correct, and I'm really not sure if you intended this, then I'm still perplexed by the same people thinking licit means would include miraculous "genetic doping"? So basically, I guess, I have no idea what you're talking about.🤷
PS: Unless you mean that the science isn't so advanced ("genetic doping") to achieve Pog's result without pharmachological means.
The science itself is bound to the same market demands and capital that explains why Pog and his entourage aren't being pressed by journalistic integrity. That which goes against the interests of capital, is simply ignored. And yet the elephant stands among us.I guess I said it a bit awkwardly. Let me try to correct it a bit. First, about the modern science. I meant that what today’s science is doing best is blowing smoke as opposed to achieving real progress. Like, for example, fundamental theoretical physics still has no idea what electric charge is while keeping itself busy with figuring out how the extra dimensions of space (of which there are, allegedly, at least six) curl up into “Planck scale size” to give rise, in particular, to the observed spectrum of elementary particles. (Needless to say, electric charges are reality that needs to be understood, and extra dimensions is a bunch of hooey.) So, given the subject matter discussed here, I simply meant to say that no miraculous “genetic doping” capable of changing Toddy’s biology to the extent of him being able to produce the results we are now witnessing (while literally breaking no sweat, to boot) is quite simply well beyond the modern science’s capability. Just like a sucessfull expedition to Mars (or even Moon) is beyond the said capability. So, given the choice – as means of a rational explanation – between a minor scientific miracle and blatant cheating (electromagnetic battery powered propulsion system hidden inside his bike, in our case), one should lean to the latter.
As to the italicized words in your reply, they would take me a little longer to properly elaborate on but let me just try to sketch it. As K. Marx showed in “Das Kapital” a century and a half ago, the only constant of capitalism is the ever increasing capital’s concentration and centralization. Following that inevitable tendency, capitalism entered its monopolistic phase in late XIX century that was succeeded by the state-monopolistic one and later, roughly in the last third of XX century, by the global monopolistic one which is now fairly ripe (and thus is beginning to rot). That lack of any independent investigative journalism mentioned recently in this thread many times is pretty much a direct consequence of that ultra monopolization. To put it simply, one could say that everything now sits in the same pocket and people with very different job descriptions get paid from the same source (and their real job duties often differ quite a bit from the “official” job description). That lack of real competition works against keeping the system “honest” (it tends to lose its “decency”). As to intelligence, the system, being so ripe, also loses its progressive tendencies and takes on an ultra-conservative status-quo maintaining character thereby becoming progress-averse and anti-intellectual.
In application to the issue discussed here, this means that what sounds quite stupid and ridiculously blatant (like turning pro cycling of WWE version) should be considered fully possible. For the system, it is just one of many entertainment industries that exist for profit and as means of control of masses (a form of the proverbial “brainwash”). So, making what was already somewhat of a circus into a full-blown circus is really no biggie, from the system’s point of view. That is unless the target audience just refuses to buy it at the moment which, by now, they realized it does not.
While capital concentrates it's not that it results in one communist-like entity that controls everything on the planet. The problem of capital concentration is that it creates entities, like UAE for example, that are too big and too influencial to control by a sports body, especially a minor one like the UCI. For the same reason many countries cannot handle the likes of Apple or Google within the rules of their system without making exemptions and adaptions (official and unofficial) as their lobby and impact of their products is just too big. Normally this shouldn't be a big deal as the big players don't care about cycling unless there is real interest for whatever reason. Countries with endless pools of money that use cycling for promotional purposes is toxic for our sport. Astana, Bahrein and now UAE ... they all have their issues.I guess I said it a bit awkwardly. Let me try to correct it a bit. First, about the modern science. I meant that what today’s science is doing best is blowing smoke as opposed to achieving real progress. Like, for example, fundamental theoretical physics still has no idea what electric charge is while keeping itself busy with figuring out how the extra dimensions of space (of which there are, allegedly, at least six) curl up into “Planck scale size” to give rise, in particular, to the observed spectrum of elementary particles. (Needless to say, electric charges are reality that needs to be understood, and extra dimensions is a bunch of hooey.) So, given the subject matter discussed here, I simply meant to say that no miraculous “genetic doping” capable of changing Toddy’s biology to the extent of him being able to produce the results we are now witnessing (while literally breaking no sweat, to boot) is quite simply well beyond the modern science’s capability. Just like a sucessfull expedition to Mars (or even Moon) is beyond the said capability. So, given the choice – as means of a rational explanation – between a minor scientific miracle and blatant cheating (electromagnetic battery powered propulsion system hidden inside his bike, in our case), one should lean to the latter.
As to the italicized words in your reply, they would take me a little longer to properly elaborate on but let me just try to sketch it. As K. Marx showed in “Das Kapital” a century and a half ago, the only constant of capitalism is the ever increasing capital’s concentration and centralization. Following that inevitable tendency, capitalism entered its monopolistic phase in late XIX century that was succeeded by the state-monopolistic one and later, roughly in the last third of XX century, by the global monopolistic one which is now fairly ripe (and thus is beginning to rot). That lack of any independent investigative journalism mentioned recently in this thread many times is pretty much a direct consequence of that ultra monopolization. To put it simply, one could say that everything now sits in the same pocket and people with very different job descriptions get paid from the same source (and their real job duties often differ quite a bit from the “official” job description). That lack of real competition works against keeping the system “honest” (it tends to lose its “decency”). As to intelligence, the system, being so ripe, also loses its progressive tendencies and takes on an ultra-conservative status-quo maintaining character thereby becoming progress-averse and anti-intellectual.
In application to the issue discussed here, this means that what sounds quite stupid and ridiculously blatant (like turning pro cycling of WWE version) should be considered fully possible. For the system, it is just one of many entertainment industries that exist for profit and as means of control of masses (a form of the proverbial “brainwash”). So, making what was already somewhat of a circus into a full-blown circus is really no biggie, from the system’s point of view. That is unless the target audience just refuses to buy it at the moment which, by now, they realized it does not.
But, of course, capital is the state and thus when UAE is too big to fail then the UCI, which should govern the sport, gets governed by capital.While capital concentrates it's not that it results in one communist-like entity that controls everything on the planet. The problem of capital concentration is that it creates entities, like UAE for example, that are too big and too influencial to control by a sports body, especially a minor one like the UCI. For the same reason many countries cannot handle the likes of Apple or Google within the rules of their system without making exemptions and adaptions (official and unofficial) as their lobby and impact of their products is just too big. Normally this shouldn't be a big deal as the big players don't care about cycling unless there is real interest for whatever reason. Countries with endless pools of money that use cycling for promotional purposes is toxic for our sport. Astana, Bahrein and now UAE ... they all have their issues.
as did merckx.It's like some sort of weird version of a Shania Twain song ... "OK, so you're talented. But that don't impress me much ..."
On the other hand, I believe Contadope, Pharmstrong, and Big Mig all also had studies demonstrating genetic superiority. And surprise, surprise, they also doped.
Do you believe motors are in use in the WT peloton in any meaningful way currently?If gene doping was this far along we'd hear much more buzz about miracle cures for heaps of crap. While it's super easy to sequence whatever RNA or DNA strand you need, the drug delivery is still gigantic problem.
In my view, doping is never really gonna be the super cutting edge medical science, but more likely high dose mundane crap. Or motors.
I guess I said it a bit awkwardly. Let me try to correct it a bit. First, about the modern science. I meant that what today’s science is doing best is blowing smoke as opposed to achieving real progress. Like, for example, fundamental theoretical physics still has no idea what electric charge is while keeping itself busy with figuring out how the extra dimensions of space (of which there are, allegedly, at least six) curl up into “Planck scale size” to give rise, in particular, to the observed spectrum of elementary particles. (Needless to say, electric charges are reality that needs to be understood, and extra dimensions is a bunch of hooey.) So, given the subject matter discussed here, I simply meant to say that no miraculous “genetic doping” capable of changing Toddy’s biology to the extent of him being able to produce the results we are now witnessing (while literally breaking no sweat, to boot) is quite simply well beyond the modern science’s capability. Just like a sucessfull expedition to Mars (or even Moon) is beyond the said capability. So, given the choice – as means of a rational explanation – between a minor scientific miracle and blatant cheating (electromagnetic battery powered propulsion system hidden inside his bike, in our case), one should lean to the latter.
Nothing says high tec more then eating sodium bicarbonate with a wooden spoon ...
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Damn! Metal cutlery .... talk about dance with the devil ...What kind of spoon did you expect from Woods? Teddy uses a metal one, which is his secret super power.