Team Ineos (Formerly the Sky thread)

[Benotti69]

Are Sky geniuses or alchemists? If a key had been so elementary, entire peloton would have used this thing.

This comment could so easily have been made in the early 90s about EPO.

 

[MartinGT]

Luckily Sky's classic team decided to go training on Teide, otherwise they would have annihilated Ronde van Drenthe yesterday as well.

The way the Dawg jumped Contador and Nibbles I just LOL'd. Just crazy.

 

[Fearless Greg Lemond]

They also thought the sky is the limit:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nCijUZvvESc

 

[ulrikmm]

Froome reminds me very much of Ricco. Sky reminds me of US Postal. Targeted testing, please.

The concept of modification of EPO gene expression is extremely interesting. Remind me of how Ricco using CERA and good medican advide was able to convince the italian doping authorities that his hematocrite was naturally increased above 50%.

 

[martinvickers]

Froome reminds me very much of Ricco. Sky reminds me of US Postal. Targeted testing, please.

To the surprise of some, i agree entirely with the bolded above. Sky should be tested and trailed within an inch of their lives - it's the price they need to pay for dominance.

AS for froome=ricco, that's just silly Ricco was arrogant, careless and stupid. Froome, even if he dopes, is clearly reasonably humble, VERY careful, and sharp as a tack.

Looks sh!t on a bike mind, but still.....

 

[Bernie's eyesore]

I was actually quite surprised yesterday at how ineffective the Sky train was given that they had three of the top climbers in the race working as domestiques. You would have at least thought they could have dropped that Polish guy and got the race lead. Then when Froome attacked he was only able to take five seconds out of a rider who I had never even heard of. Judging by the responses on here you'd think they had soft pedaled up the mountain to fill all three podium spots!

 

[Tinman]

Its not laughable to your 'average joe sunday cyclist'.

Its an Australian win from Porte - which boosts viewing figures by millions.

Its a South African / British win - again boosting viewing figures.

These wins attract new viewers - Wiggins supporters !! and anything anglocised.

CYCLING profits either way - and other teams know / understand this. They will profit in the long run by increased sponsorship and salaries. The aim, I believe, is to gain money from UK, Australia and South Africa.

And bingo. Before soon we'll have a world wide wrestling franchise. With Pat's "cycling family" selling the paraphernalia.

 

[Benotti69]

I was actually quite surprised yesterday at how ineffective the Sky train was given that they had three of the top climbers in the race working as domestiques. You would have at least thought they could have dropped that Polish guy and got the race lead. Then when Froome attacked he was only able to take five seconds out of a rider who I had never even heard of. Judging by the responses on here you'd think they had soft pedaled up the mountain to fill all three podium spots!

That the Polish rider is from OPQS is nothing new. Ibarguren and Lefevere are old hands in cycling.

 

[Tinman]

How easy it is. Order on line. And don't have to go to China, our colleagues from the USA will sell it to you.

http://www.selleckchem.com/products/fg-4592.html

 

[Dear Wiggo]

How easy it is. Order on line. And don't have to go to China, our colleagues from the USA will sell it to you.

http://www.selleckchem.com/products/fg-4592.html

Good find.

DMSO irrationally scares the willy out of me - this is an oral medication soluble in DMSO? The storage details seem strange too?? This is not something you can just send in the mail? <= 0C storage requiremnts?

Incroyable!

 

[Pandora]

Everyone here thinks Froome has found another gear. Reality is that other riders have lost one.

I agree that other riders lost one gear, Contador for example (but still fights with all his heart). But as I see it, Froome definitely has found not one, but 2 or even 3 extra gears, Porte 1 or 2, while Rogers lost at least 2 since leaving Sky.

 

[sniper]

Its not laughable to your 'average joe sunday cyclist'.

Its an Australian win from Porte - which boosts viewing figures by millions.

Its a South African / British win - again boosting viewing figures.

These wins attract new viewers - Wiggins supporters !! and anything anglocised.

CYCLING profits either way - and other teams know / understand this. They will profit in the long run by increased sponsorship and salaries. The aim, I believe, is to gain money from UK, Australia and South Africa.

good analysis. i subscribe to this.
nobody within cycling is interested in stopping the farce.
that's also why i think vaughters' call for internal change (which he sometimes claims has already occurred) is straight from the BS drawer. guys like vaughters are a big part of the problem, not really interested in a solution, but interested in controlling the public perception.

 

[Tinman]

Good find.

Comes as a powder, can be bought in bulk, not cheap. USD270 for 50 mg. human doses used in phase 2 trials between 70-210 mg twice weekly. let's say an average of 150 mg to get to "legal" Hct levels.

So for a team of 5 riders taking these as "vitamin supplements" with breakfast twice a week, would cost the team USD7500 per week.

Probably would make sense to make some enquiries in China also... Based on the hplc, NMR and other purity data you have a good spec to aim and compare China production against...

 

[jamesmasters]

I agree that other riders lost one gear, Contador for example (but still fights with all his heart). But as I see it, Froome definitely has found not one, but 2 or even 3 extra gears, Porte 1 or 2, while Rogers lost at least 2 since leaving Sky.

The really interesting topic now is not whether Contador can derail the Sky train (he can't). What will be interesting is who wins the 'dope-off' between Froome and Wiggins in the Tour...

 

[Ferminal]

What will be interesting is who wins the 'dope-off' between Froome and Wiggins in the Tour...

Hesjedal...

 

[thehog]

Interesting for me is if 'clean' they've managed to have 16 guys pushing the maximum values of 5.9w p/kg in two races.

Even Contador can't stay away. The Doms catch him within 500m.

You add to this that Froome and Porte when they attacked look so strong. And their acceleration was phenomenal.

For clean riding that's impressive. All 16 riders at peak. And it's March!

Who would have thought clean riding could produce such results.

 

[Don't be late Pedro]

The really interesting topic now is not whether Contador can derail the Sky train (he can't). What will be interesting is who wins the 'dope-off' between Froome and Wiggins in the Tour...

If Froome can put time into Contador in the TT then he only has to watch in the mountains. Assuming he has the superior team he can afford to let Contador try and attack then either reel him in or just limit his losses.

I am going to be very interested in the times posted for Alpe d'Huez this year.

 

[Tinman]

The really interesting topic now is not whether Contador can derail the Sky train (he can't). What will be interesting is who wins the 'dope-off' between Froome and Wiggins in the Tour...

+1. Don't forget a surprise Ritchie. Brailsford and his new DS in the car will have their hands full. Let's hope it implodes from within.

 

[Wallace and Gromit]

Hitch has totally debunked this amazing GT Giro ride. Porte was on the escapees who got a big advantage which he then lost huge time in the next 3 stages.

Stop repeating Porte has shown GT potential before Sky. He hasn't.

Porte gain 12 minutes in the break. Take this out and he drops fron 7th @ +7 mins to 20th @ + 19 minutes.

Porte was 34th @ + 81 minutes in last year's Tour.

I don't think it too much of a stretch to say that his 2010 Giro performance with the benefit of the break removed is a superior effort to his Tour performance last year. He certainly hasn't acquired amazing gt powers since joining Sky.

Porte is the least suspicious by far of the "4 Amigos".

 

[sniper]

Kimmage with a series of interesting tweets.

Paul Kimmage ‏@PaulKimmage

http://velonews.competitor.com/2013...transparency-wiggins-and-winning-tours_277210 … PR "came naturally to me," says Dario Cioni. Clearly.


Paul Kimmage ‏@PaulKimmage

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/hayman-refuses-to-discuss-geert-leinders … Come out Sir Dave Brailsford wherever you are.

 

[Tinman]

Porte is the least suspicious by far of the "4 Amigos".

Presumably only because he has not gone for GC, until now.

 

[hrotha]

Porte gain 12 minutes in the break. Take this out and he drops fron 7th @ +7 mins to 20th @ + 19 minutes.

Porte was 34th @ + 81 minutes in last year's Tour.

I don't think it too much of a stretch to say that his 2010 Giro performance with the benefit of the break removed is a superior effort to his Tour performance last year. He certainly hasn't acquired amazing gt powers since joining Sky.

Porte is the least suspicious by far of the "4 Amigos".

Agreed that Porte is the least suspicious of the lot, but that isn't saying much.

It's not even about the time Porte gained in the break, but about the time he lost in the mountains after that break, when he was going all in to defend his position.

In the 2012 Tour he let himself go often, but he was always there when needed. Even after giving his all, he'd come in the top 15. When the group of the favourites only had 8 survivors, 4 of them rode for Sky, one of them being Porte. I'd say there was quite obviously an improvement between 2012 and 2010.

 

[The Hitch]

Porte gain 12 minutes in the break. Take this out and he drops fron 7th @ +7 mins to 20th @ + 19 minutes.

Porte was 34th @ + 81 minutes in last year's Tour.

I don't think it too much of a stretch to say that his 2010 Giro performance with the benefit of the break removed is a superior effort to his Tour performance last year. He certainly hasn't acquired amazing gt powers since joining Sky.

Porte is the least suspicious by far of the "4 Amigos".

Mathematically if you took away the breakaway porte would have finished a lot higher than 20th. I think 9th or 10th. Because a lot of the guys behind him were also in the breakaway.

However that doesn't account for the fact that by getting the pink in the breakaway porte also got a team behind him and it became the aim to finish as high as possible while those who would normally fight for a top 10 gave up due to the deficit and instead chased stages or worked as domestiques.

 

[Wallace and Gromit]

I'd say there was quite obviously an improvement between 2012 and 2010.

It is very difficult to conduct any sort of robust analysis where a 60 minute decline relative to a gt winner is classed as improvement!

I know Porte had a different role in 2012, but I think your assessment is hard to justify.

 

[hrotha]

It is very difficult to conduct any sort of robust analysis where a 60 minute decline relative to a gt winner is classed as improvement!

I know Porte had a different role in 2012, but I think your assessment is hard to justify.

It's easy to justify. The justification is in the part of my post you didn't quote.