Team Ineos (Formerly the Sky thread)

[willbick]

if we're gonna have 100 posts claiming doping every time Sky win a race this will be the longest thread in the history of the internet

 

[Escarabajo]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u8iTPCfKMmM

Really, even the best Sky fan must be shaking his head, keep it a bit believable peeps. Softpedalling richie rich.

Scam.

There are many reasons to suspect Sky riders. This one is not one of them. Let's try to keep it more objective.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Seemed like a good, well timed attack to me. Cancellara-esque? Really?? I thought winning stages by attacking from groups and holding off chasers was quite a well used tactic. Or no? It always comes down to a sprint? What would be the normal way to win such a stage? Or is it just the fact he is even in such esteemed company that sets your dopedar a-tingling spidey?

That a team that started two men down and haven't got it's biggest two stars riding has been able to control the Vuelta al País Vasco - one of the toughest races in the world to control - is enough of a problem in the first place.

 

[Don't be late Pedro]

That a team that started two men down and haven't got it's biggest two stars riding has been able to control the Vuelta al País Vasco - one of the toughest races in the world to control - is enough of a problem in the first place.

I would be interested from your (imo objective) view if you thought that the finish really was Cancellara'esque as some people have said? Am I crazy to think that was a fairly normal finish for a bike race? i.e One guy makes a break and the others are to busy watching either other to really commit to catching him until its too late.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

I would be interested from your (imo objective) view if you thought that the finish really was Cancellara'esque as some people have said? Am I crazy to think that was a fairly normal finish for a bike race? i.e One guy makes a break and the others are to busy watching either other to really commit to catching him until its too late.

Haven't seen it yet, can't judge.

That might not stop me, mind.

 

[martinvickers]

That a team that started two men down and haven't got it's biggest two stars riding has been able to control the Vuelta al País Vasco - one of the toughest races in the world to control - is enough of a problem in the first place.

Well, shouldn't we ask why they've been able to control it, rather than just grumble-grumble.

I kinda assumed Saxo brought out the big guns in this race to send a message - that they had watched the Skyborg last year, and at PN and CI, and that with Roche, K, Rogers, they had the talent to challenge it - turns out the SaxExpress, big names and all, isn't worth a damn. The big belarussian has been better ON HIS OWN.

And seriously what have the other teams done to try and break it?

Dan Martin took his cahones in his hands, and took on the Borg, and with a bit of luck he broke it - hell, Wiggins was only 5th.

Nibili took his giant cahones and had a punt; and he beat it's most advanced T-1000 model.

Has Contador attacked properly once? At some point the sheer uselessness of the Saxexpress has to become as much part of the conversation...

 

[Don't be late Pedro]

Haven't seen it yet, can't judge.

That might not stop me, mind.

Ah, ok.

Well, you could comment. Watch it. And then see how close you are?

fyi FGL posted a link of the finish a few posts back.

 

[woodenswan]

Am I crazy to think that was a fairly normal finish for a bike race?

i agree. i have no problems with that particular move.
a good tter, choosing the right moment and just going for it. a couple of colombians and the likes of Gadret were never gonna catch him.

 

[Bernie's eyesore]

Beginning to look almost certain that Sky will win the next four Grand Tours with four different riders. This thread has barely started yet.

 

[xcleigh]

Richie rich doing a Cancellara would do the trick for people who watched cycling before team Sky was formed.

Sorry doesn't work for me. I started watching blokes riding bikes circa 1987 aged 13. How about you club leader?

 

[uphillstruggle]

i agree. i have no problems with that particular move.
a good tter, choosing the right moment and just going for it. a couple of colombians and the likes of Gadret were never gonna catch him.

It's not the final push and the stage win that are fantastical to me. it's the fact that RICHIE PORTE has constantly been at the front of the race on the climbs, against the best climbers around, all week (make that the last month). Hell, he has been closing down guys like contador and sanchez for fun when previously he could not do a turn on the front for AC.

Now I could buy the 'cycling is getting cleaner' line if other riders where also doing surprisingly well. I naively thought this in the 2011 tour when rolland voelkler, Cunego au naturel were up there, but the pattern of: join sky = ride better than everyone else. Leave sky = ride like a fat man commuting home from work is just too far for me.

 

[willbick]

its a shame Sky forget to give their classics riders magic beans. Maybe they only have so many to hand around

 

[willbick]

It's not the final push and the stage win that are fantastical to me. it's the fact that RICHIE PORTE has constantly been at the front of the race on the climbs, against the best climbers around, all week (make that the last month). Hell, he has been closing down guys like contador and sanchez for fun when previously he could not do a turn on the front for AC.

Now I could buy the 'cycling is getting cleaner' line if other riders where also doing surprisingly well. I naively thought this in the 2011 tour when rolland voelkler, Cunego au naturel were up there, but the pattern of: join sky = ride better than everyone else. Leave sky = ride like a fat man commuting home from work is just too far for me.

thats funnt coz i seem to remember voeckler winning the king of the mountains and Rolland winning a mountain stage of the 2012 tour. maybe i hallucinated it

 

[uphillstruggle]

thats funnt coz i seem to remember voeckler winning the king of the mountains and Rolland winning a mountain stage of the 2012 tour. maybe i hallucinated it

Point being that in 2011 they were mixing it with the big boys and a year later they were breakaway desperadoes. It might be a matter of form, or it might be a matter of drugs.

 

[willbick]

or it might be a matter of neither

 

[Netserk]

its a shame Sky forget to give their classics riders magic beans. Maybe they only have so many to hand around

I also remember how US Postal dominated the classics.

 

[BYOP88]

I also remember how US Postal dominated the classics.

and all the week long races too.

 

[Cookster15]

if we're gonna have 100 posts claiming doping every time Sky win a race this will be the longest thread in the history of the internet

Not just when Sky win a race but if Mick Rogers continues to fail to impress since leaving. I'll be watching Roger's performance just as closely. Last year he was able to dial up 450 watts on the climbs and confidently boast nobody could attack or stay away. I'm looking forward to seeing if Rogers can do that at his new team. The parallels with Armstrong's era are frightening. Each passing race the circumstantial evidence of a lopsided playing field is stacking up.

If Sky pioneered new training methods, don't you think other teams would have replicated that by now? Instead the gap seeems to be getting wider, not smaller as you would expect if this was true.

Do doubt this has all been mentioned previously but felt this needed saying and I'm not reading back over 16,000 odd posts !

 

[Fearless Greg Lemond]

Sorry doesn't work for me. I started watching blokes riding bikes circa 1987 aged 13. How about you club leader?

1982, so, Richie doing a Cancellara/Nijdam/Ekimov don't work for me.

Shouldnt for you either it seems.

 

[luckyboy]

This team is so depressing.

 

[xcleigh]

1982, so, Richie doing a Cancellara/Nijdam/Ekimov don't work for me.

Shouldnt for you either it seems.

Just a difference of opinion, really nothing more than that, tis only cycling after all.

 

[mattghg]

if we're gonna have 100 posts claiming doping every time Sky win a race this will be the longest thread in the history of the internet

That's the way it looks currently.

 

[Fearless Greg Lemond]

Just a difference of opinion, really nothing more than that, tis only cycling after all.

If Sky would drop the 'holier than others' line people would be less cynical.

Wiggins----> Indurain/Armstrong [loose weight, maintain power]
Froome----> Ricco [blood disease/high hematocrit]
Porte------> domestique turning into superrider [Bettini vs Bartoli]

Dont get me wrong, some of the skyborgs are talented, it is just a little bit amazing how they are developing, all of them. I'd almost say Conconi has made his last trick work.

PS: we have not even seen Sivtsov...

 

[martinvickers]

Not just when Sky win a race but if Mick Rogers continues to fail to impress since leaving. I'll be watching Roger's performance just as closely. Last year he was able to dial up 450 watts on the climbs and confidently boast nobody could attack or stay away. I'm looking forward to seeing if Rogers can do that at his new team. The parallels with Armstrong's era are frightening. Each passing race the circumstantial evidence of a lopsided playing field is stacking up.

If Sky pioneered new training methods, don't you think other teams would have replicated that by now? Instead the gap seeems to be getting wider, not smaller as you would expect if this was true.

Do doubt this has all been mentioned previously but felt this needed saying and I'm not reading back over 16,000 odd posts !

What I want to know is, if Michael Rogers was on the secret undetectable sauce, surely he can tell Bjarne, and get all the boys on it? Why would he hold out now?

 

[MatParker117]

Not just when Sky win a race but if Mick Rogers continues to fail to impress since leaving. I'll be watching Roger's performance just as closely. Last year he was able to dial up 450 watts on the climbs and confidently boast nobody could attack or stay away. I'm looking forward to seeing if Rogers can do that at his new team. The parallels with Armstrong's era are frightening. Each passing race the circumstantial evidence of a lopsided playing field is stacking up.

If Sky pioneered new training methods, don't you think other teams would have replicated that by now? Instead the gap seeems to be getting wider, not smaller as you would expect if this was true.

Do doubt this has all been mentioned previously but felt this needed saying and I'm not reading back over 16,000 odd posts !

Every other team doesn't have Rod Ellingworth, Shaun Stephens & Tim Kerrison. If the coaches & sports scientists trying to replicate the training methods are doing a terrible of it as Sky evolve there own methods the it stands to reason the gap will keep getting wider.