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Tadej Pogacar and Mauro Giannetti

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I really don't understand why people are in denial. There is always been doping. One way or another. Do they get hurt emotionally? are the invested in the sport? do they work for the UCI? I don't understand.


Who is in denial? Maybe that you and others who have been claiming there is widespread doping for a decade with no real evidence are the ones in denial. You can't face that your opinions may be wrong.

I was watching cycling in the early 90s.EPO wasn't a secret. It was its effects that weren't understood. So what is it now? I see the likes of you grasping at ketones, motors and asthma meds.

You have invested so much into your narrative as you believe it shows how smarter you are than regular fans that you can't admit that the person you being conned is you, by yourself.

(No idea about Pogacar. Maybe he's doping., but the first time or saw him I thought that he was unlike anyone I'd seen in 35 years of watching this sport)
 
Pogacar is on some massively effective steroid cocktail. Everyone knows this. It's scientifically amazing how he's able to ride a bicycle as if it was a motorcycle, similar to how Ben Johnson exploded out of the starting gate in the Olympics to beat Carl Lewis in the Olympics. You watch it, and you're amazed at the power of drugs on human performance.

My question is, at what point does it make the races involving Pogacar become so ridiculously non-competitive that it negatively effects viewership, sponsorship, and the sport in general? For example, I no longer watch any mountain/GC stage that Pogacar is competing in, because he literally wins every one, and usually by a huge margin. I'm not wasting 4 hours of my life to watch a race where I know the winner ahead of time. At the rate he is doping for his age, he could continue this for 10 years.

I wasn't watching during the Armstrong doping years, but was it this ridiculous, where Armstrong never lost any GC stage, let alone a race? If so, did anyone watch it? And if they did, why?

And why would any team field a GC rider against Pogacar in any race? It's just a waste of time and money.

I'm at the point where I'm rapidly losing interest in cycling because it's so non-competitive due to Pogacar's doping. I can't be the only one who feels this way.
I love the "everybody knows" and than goes comparing a doper Ben Johnson to another doper Carl Lewis. I am guessing you werent around when communism was alive, you would have loved it.
 
I followed this threat for a long time. I think there are three topic who all are infiltrated in the view of Pogacar's suspicious.
I bring 3 topics up in front: 1:Slovenia, 2: Colnago and 3: UAE. 4: Being good all year

1: Slovenia nature, mountains looks quite the same as Austria. The tourist industry in the country have a interest in having good professional cyclist to brand the beautiful mountains side in Slovenia, to the amateur cyclist who wants to go on "cycling" vacation. If you search on Youtube, you will see advertising with Pogacar riding in the Slovenia's mountain, and Roglic and Pogacar battle on Slovenia history. Economic is the country pretty rich compare to others "Balkan/Tito) countries. Maybe Slovenia just are the new "old" Colombia, but why haven't we seen any good cyclist in Croatia, Romania and Hungary (Only Attila Valter), and we haven't mentioned Polanc and Mohoric. Two solid riders. All this facts alone made it a bit suspicious.

2: If you go to Colnago's webpage and scroll down, you will find pictures of a number of UAE riders who won recently. They made a deal to give them there bikes. And Pog' and Mcnulty are there posters boy. I find it hard to see that are very old and prestige brand like Colnago would doing business with a Team, who doped there riders or maybe doing motordoping - sometimes it seem a bit to easy to Pog or Mcnulty then they attacks. It would a scandal if we found out that there a doping in the team and Colnago would loose a lot of money and goodwill. The fact that Colnago are co sponsors to UAE give them actually some kind of credibility to the good side. I seems strange if they know the Team is doing doping program.

3: The sport is being more and more global, it's doesn't take much time to see. UAE, Bahrain are both in the top 5 in the ranking. The middle east countries is sponsored billions in sport, to legitimate that they suppress guest work in their countries, who living in same conditions like the family in parasite. Weird allegory i see. I seen them going really far to have maybe seven to ten good year in the cycling industry.
The other suspicious link is Mauro Gianetti who was sports director on Saunier Duval and Lampre: Piepoli, Ricco, José Cobo. In a interview from 2008 the Stephane Heolut was being quoted about Gianetti: "Doping is a so ingrained part of some Sports Directors, that they doesn't can imagined any other way". Mauro are actually not a part of the staff if you look on Procycling, but maybe he just are in the background.
In an interview who the reporter asking about the Gianetti past Pogacar is quoted saying in july 2021: ” If I need to say something, it was in the past. When I met Mauro, he was really great to me, and he is a super good person. I believe what is in the past is in the past, and this new cycling is a way more beautiful sport than before. I can only speak for myself.” I think the combination of general manager who have a suspicious past and a team UAE, who are in the sport for the goodwill are a bad combination UAE in general would go pretty far for results.
And in 2022 it seems to me - that you all have mentioned that a lot more riders are picking: Ayoso, Mcnulty, Covi. Solid good young guys, but wins from far out. And why are Ackermann, Gaviria, Bennet, Hodeg under performed. Maybe because it more difficult to doped if you're a sprinter.

4: I make no sense that you as a cyclist can be good the whole year. Normally you can peak 2-3 times. Pog' should be in good shape in 2 months from end february to end april. It's a long time. Normally you shape will drop after one month's or so - if you not are Valverde the Faun of modern cycling sport. His next form top is Tour de France and then Vuelta (who the skeleton Froome win both, but was underperfom in the spring 2017). His last form top would be Il Lombardia. It make some kind of sense. But if he perfom well an have a more suspicious win ratio this year it make no sense at all.

I know that the threat already have discuss a lot of the topics. And im sorry i didn't write well, and from Denmark, and funny enough i don't believe in Asgreen either.

And i think Pogacar can win the Milano San Remo, Liege Bastogne Liege and Fleche Wallone (because Hirshi is underperformed)
could you explain to me a bit more about the "suspicious" part 1 ? Is Slovenia state sponsoring doping for cyclist ? Have they developed a new super drug in one of their many biolabs that were left there by former communist secret police ? Thank you
 
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If you knew the real situation in Slovenia, you would not write this. The tourism industry is only taking advantage of the current fame of Pogačar and Roglič. Tourism industry did nothing for their success. The situation in slovenian cycling in general is exactly the opposite, as Roglič and Pogačar show. There is a huge gap behind Tadej, things are not going well in slovenian cycling clubs, there is no money and no real system in the younger selections. Roglič and Pogačar are just exceptions and I think that all credit goes to TJV and UAE.
oh come on, why are you killing this.... It was the best post since Seinfeld.
 
Who is in denial? Maybe that you and others who have been claiming there is widespread doping for a decade with no real evidence are the ones in denial. You can't face that your opinions may be wrong.

I was watching cycling in the early 90s.EPO wasn't a secret. It was its effects that weren't understood. So what is it now? I see the likes of you grasping at ketones, motors and asthma meds.

You have invested so much into your narrative as you believe it shows how smarter you are than regular fans that you can't admit that the person you being conned is you, by yourself.

(No idea about Pogacar. Maybe he's doping., but the first time or saw him I thought that he was unlike anyone I'd seen in 35 years of watching this sport)
I don't think you know me and I am not grasping at the things that you are saying. I could careless what you think now. I have been watching cycling for 42 years and there are no needs for positives, unfortunately, to know that there is doping. So if we get another bust and find out about doping in many cyclists we can conclude that only those cyclists involved were doping and nobody else. And that after that everyone will go clean for another 10 years. That is a stretch. I am out because I know you won't convince me and I won't convince you. And I hate these aggressive discussions. This is not the reason why I came to these forums.
 
Guys, I think Giannetti made it clear during one of his interviews. He couldn't trust older generations of riders and was never sure what they were doing behind his back (ah, these dark sheeps Ricco and co). Now he believes that the new generation of cyclists is clean, credible and has a different approach so no need to overreact here. Even Pogi himself says he's a good boy (isn't he?) and doesn't take shortcuts, which should end the discussion once and for all!
 
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It's the typical scenario. When someone is too good to be true, at every single aspect, something's afoot. Dude seems to possess equal and phenomenal strength in characteristics that often don't go hand in hand (partial list - TT on the flats and the hills; climb the big cols, the short hills, and the bergs; sprint; go incredibly deep, and then recover the next day with no problem).

All the lolz and zero f***s given. :D