Re: Sky
this, ladies and gentlemen, is a great post from the Velorooms forum.
that´s the right way to bash Sky or Froome or Thomas
not childishly blaming them for the way the hold a tea cup, how many times they crash, the wives they have, the whales on the jersey, their weight 11 years ago, their staged/not staged kudos to each other and so on
the poster´s name is "riding too slowly"
AG your two posts are exactly where I am. The Thomas win could have been believable but it is the transformations, where Thomas can out climb the climbers who he never could before and out TT the TTers who he never could before.
That is three on a row who Sky have been able to trasnsform. Of them all, Brad's transformation was the slowest and "most believable" and that was because he had changed his attitude after Beijing 2008 when he and Sutton had a heart to heart and he realised Sutton's way was the only way. for Brad in 2009 it was for Floyd in 2006 - F*** this sport, Lance was so clearly the king of dope and yet in 2009, not content with 7 wins, the guy is allowed back by the sport to come and screw it over again. As Floyd said - the only view anyone clsoe to the sport could have is that it is a steaming pile of sh*t. It is easy to see how the return of Armstrong in 2009 changed Brad's attitude to "anything goes, tell me Shane what do I have to do?"
For Froome the thing that blackened his name right from the get go, because certainly in every single press conference and interview he has cultivated this ridiculous persona of polite deference and humbleness. Not the guy who as a kid stole the class pets and fed them to his snake (FFS he can get other stuff to feed his snake this is pure black stuff of the type the followers of Freud could have a field day over). But despite all that, Froome was screwed in the public eye from the moment he stepped into the spotlight. Vaughters came out and said Sir Dave had been trying to offload him so we all knew his contract with Sky was ending and then there was the totally bogus "I only got good because I eventlually shook off Badzilla" excuse. He started with the doubters doubting because there were two mutually supporting red flags flying before he got to the end of the Veulta.
But for Thomas it is an entirely different story. This is someone who was working with Sutton from before the age of 16. He is a lot smarter than Brad and knows the lie of the land. Brad getting the nod for the 2008 ip over him even though he was faster was a kick in the teeth for Thomas by Sutton, because it was Sutton's call. But Thomas knew beyond virtually everyone what Sutton could do if you challenged him because he had seen what Sutton could do closer than most. Thomas chose his pro cycling career rather than shake the tree, trusting his day would come. Brad would pass. I have observed Thomas' ability to keep his head down when Froome stepped forward to take the crown from Brad. I think this is not a measure of Thomas' devotion to the team cause but an huge fear of how the system works. I still don't see you guys have worked out who informed on Armitstead, which I was flagging up two years ago. The rest of her career is blighted and all she did before, is now blackened becasue someone needed to get a message to some other people.
This is a mafia style operation.
M Gee the media forget quickly. Froome was not going to ride the Tour. The "dogs with Asthma" report had been recieved and expert technical and legal advice on it received by the UCI. Lapartient and the UCI were ready for showdown. but Sir D B is right, Lapartient is a small town Mayor. Lapartient could not see that he was a busted flush from the moment Froome's Salbutemol case was leaked, becasue of the person who leaked it. Lapartient was always going to get backed into a corner where his personal career became the issue at stake. But only the legal guys, the ones with brinkmanship as their stock in trade - how many legal actions get to the eve of court or even into court and initial hearings before the losing side listen to their counsel and thow in the towel and hand over their money and dignity ? Only the legal guys would have confidence that that would be the way it would go. I think Froome and Cound did as well but I don't think Sir DB was that confident. I think his public mauling at Parliament where he couldn't offer a single answer confidently, had ruined his mojo. Compare his performance with that of Sutton. Now there was a consumate liar in action, on the prowl, even answering back to the MPs.
But when was that denoument with the UCI going to take place? That is where we have to admire Thomas. With Sir DB off his game (compare the post Salbutemol Sir DB with the guy running away from interviews and hiding that we had witnessed for the previous 9 months). Was this the "mastermind" on top of his job?. No, his eye was off the ball and he would not have been confident that Froome would get off. So when Thomas said he would prepare superbly for the Tour, Sir DB would have been backing him because it was a multiple win. If Froome does somehow get allowed to ride the Tour and Thomas' best is still not good enough then Froome gets the very best domestique. If Froome does not get to ride there is a "clean", British born winner for the Sky fans to rally around and Chris Froome can be more quickly forgoten. And of course the other scenario is the one we have witnessed.
Sport is all about taking your opportunites when they arrise. Thomas did that and he is the winner. Thomas upped his game considerably and did it in fairly short time order. Yes he had a great stroke of luck with Froome losing time early on, but then, by the end he had shown there could only ever have been one winner. And that winner was a rider we had certainly never seen in the previous 10 years of his career and the perfomrance was every bit as unbelievable as the many we have seen from Froome and Brad before him.
But I am not dreaming this is one star who is going to get busted soon. Thomas will have seen the way Brasilford mishandled Sutton and left Sutton at Manchester. Keeping Sutton on the Sky books at over £100,000 pa as "an advisor" was no sop to Sutton. Sutton's pride had been hurt and publicly hurt. An advisor that no one knows is advising is not what Sutton wanted. Thomas knows - Sutton is not someone you f*** with no matter how many times he has f***ed with you. Thomas sees others around him in that mould. Thomas is going to keep everyone sweet. Of the three Thomas is the one I would bet my money on will be sitting with a big grin on his face in 30 years time.
Now Cound.................... There's a different story. And Brad - well it took one hell of a bender in the boozer in 2008, post Beijing, to make the long term pro realise that riding clean he could beat all them dopers he had previously complained about, he just needed to lay off the nutella. It started as the haze cleared, it might all finish in the same way.
:lol:
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