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Team Ineos (Formerly the Sky thread)

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Anyone want to post a summary of what the sycophant's are saying?
Why don't you listen, then report back, instead of grandstanding.
By rights the person who posted the link shoulda posted a summary of the salient points, if any. But that would have required listening to the podcast and not just link spamming this thread.

For the record, on this the Smugcasters are not quite sycophantic (but they are still smug), they repeatedly say that testosterone appearing in Manchester is serious. They admonish Brailsford for not investigating the matter at the time. They draw a link between Brailsford's response and the way Ineos/Ratcliffe and Murdoch/NewsCorp surf negative stories (Moore mentions a Tortoise piece on the Plastic Emperor which might be worth reading for those not fully up to speed on some of his negative coverage), which I guess suggests that Brailsford will just ride out this story ("Oh! Look! Laura Kenny's being interviewed in the Times. And the Guardian. And the Sun. And the Independent. Isn't she wonderful? You never hear her talking about cheating."). Oh yeah, and they've a new series for their dedicated followers:
Spodcast.png


All told, a half hour of your time you don't need to waste, most of it - like so much of the British media's coverage since Friday - simply repeating things you already know and not talking about the most interesting aspects of the matter.
 
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Back to the OP, 2012:
"WELL?

Does anyone apart from me think there's been something fishy about this team for a while now? Today's performance in Dauphiné reminded me of the bygone days of Lance's teammates at the Tour, when all of them (except he, of course) were doped to the gills ....

No offence intended."


Answer: yes, indeed. No offence taken.
 
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The Plastic Emperor, little Jimmy Ratcliffe, gives his full support to Dave Brailsford:
In an interview with Telegraph Sport on Tuesday he repeated that claim. “This happened what, 10 years ago?” Ratcliffe said. “My principal concern is where we are now and how we conduct ourselves now. I was very clear, right from the beginning, that if there was ever any sense of that going on in our team, I'd walk away from it immediately. And nothing's changed in that regard. In my opinion you haven’t accomplished anything if you’ve done it by cheating. There’s no honour in that."

Ratcliffe said he had not spoken to Brailsford since the ruling, but insisted that he retained his full backing. “We’ve all got antenna haven’t we?” he said. “And your antenna starts pinging if you’re uncomfortable about something. My antenna doesn't start pinging away when I'm chatting today to Dave. Quite the opposite.

"I also know the riders. I know Chris Froome, I know Egan [Bernal] and Geraint [Thomas]. I’d be astonished if there’s any of that going on.

“I like Dave. I think he's a very straightforward northerner. I think he's accomplished a lot. A bit like Toto [Wolff] has with Mercedes F1. There’s no accident that these guys are successful. When I look at how meticulous Dave is. The marginal gains stuff isn't fiction. He is a workaholic. I mean, he is present at the [races] for 220 days a year in his caravan, you know? I mean, that's utter dedication. To the detriment of his own health and family life. So that’s the side of Dave I see.”

Ratcliffe added: “He has my full support. Unless something came up that I was shocked by, he will continue to have my full support.

“It comes back to this debate we had when we first took over. Cycling has a mixed history, a reputation. But assuming it's now clean as a sport, you shouldn't consign it to the dustbin, should you? Like athletics, or football, it’s a fantastic sport and that’s why, ultimately, we decided to support it.”
 
Throwback Wednesday: remember when some were holding Dave Brailsford up as a sign that omertà is a thing of the past?
Another factor that has helped in changing attitudes is that a number of new teams with outspoken directeur sportifs have entered the sport. Teams who are committed to anti-doping programs and maintaining a drug free roster of riders. Bob Stapleton at HTC-Columbia, Jonathan Vaughters at Garmin-Transitions and Dave Brailsford at Team Sky have all spoken openly about anti-doping and their commitment to running a drug free team. [...] The Omertá is dying (we hope), a new code has been created and is catching on, the code of honesty, and as a result amajority clean peloton is getting closer and closer. - Cillian Kelly, 
writing for Bike Pure, usually found @ Irishpeloton.com
 
If anyone thinks that anything will come out and destroy the legacy of BC and Brailsfraud then you're deluded.

We are dealing with people of the realm here. The establishment. Too many secret handshakes, back slaps and Eton love in's. They wont let Sir Brad, Sir Dave, Sir Chris Hoy or any other take any downfall. It will be, as always a small minion not connected to Sky or medals that will take the hit.
 
If anyone thinks that anything will come out and destroy the legacy of BC and Brailsfraud then you're deluded.

We are dealing with people of the realm here. The establishment. Too many secret handshakes, back slaps and Eton love in's. They wont let Sir Brad, Sir Dave, Sir Chris Hoy or any other take any downfall. It will be, as always a small minion not connected to Sky or medals that will take the hit.
Assuming Freeman's appeal to High Court by Friday is successful, it will be beyond UKAD & GMC ability to control the scope of the cross-examination to Freeman only as Sutton won't be a volunteer witness anymore, he'll have to talk and will have to be cross-examined over jiffygate and his DCMS statements because that will be the basis of the appeal as O'Rourke implied on the decision. Once Sutton has to decide under oath, which side of the fence he wants to play, then it's going to blow up anything that is hidden, if there is anything more. I think it's relatively obvious he's going to follow his DCMS statements though and take the jiffybag hit. It won't surprise me if Wiggins, Freeman & Brailsford decide not to push through defamation claims and they sign an agreement on that effect.
 
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Does Pidcock need to be in this thread? Or is the fact that he was/is a phenomenon before joining joining Ineos make it inherently above board that he can sprint with the wattage freaks while climbing with the climbers, etc?

For those who are Pidcock fans and sensibilities are upset by such a question, I tend to be pretty skeptical whenever I see somebody being able to do it all.
 
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Does Pidcock need to be in this thread? Or is the fact that he was/is a phenomenon before joining joining Ineos make it inherently above board that he can sprint with the wattage freaks while climbing with the climbers, etc?

For those who are Pidcock fans and sensibilities are upset by such a question, I tend to be pretty skeptical whenever I see somebody being able to do it all.

Maybe no one's gotten around to including him yet? I've haven't seen him race enough to include him. I know he was a good sprinter before (so strictly talking about sprints I may not), but climbing would.
 
I think his U23 Giro performance is the only indication he can climb with the best really and that's not the best indicator of longer-term GC type climbing potential really at WT level. His sprint is ok, but only at the end of tough single day races where the wattage sprinters are not going to be or if they are, more equalised. Like Remco, we won't know his climbing ability until he actually gets to lead a GT which at the moment won't be Pidcock's objective. I think his first objective is to hold Road, MTB & CX Worlds Jerseys all in the same year. Then he said he might look at GC.
 
Wigan is trolling us. He's setting up a Tour de Force. Basically go out and stay with them in France and ride with em. Will cost a shed load but he can sit and bathe in the dribble of the sychophants. Who can blame him when he's brassic?

The troll part? It's set up by a company called pollen hahaha class.
 

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