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Teejay Van Garderen Clinic Thread

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Re:

zlev11 said:
i still think he was legitimately sick last year. it appears to have turned him into a germaphobe. this year he's just getting blown away by the incredible pace.

Yes, TVG wrote on Twitter that he was keeping up with these guys only a month ago. What he didn't say was 20 watts has been added since that time and he has stayed the same.

The pace set by Sky is brutal.
 
Have you any evidence of Sky's "brutal" pace because I'm only seeing them ride mainly defensively (for example today it was Astana that upped the tempo with Nibali and Rosa, that's when the leaders group thinned out more, when Sky were at the front the gap to the breakaway stayed fairly constant).

TJVG sadly the same as he ever was when it comes to consistency. That may or may not make him more believable as a rider depending on your perspective. I'm definitely giving him the benefit of the doubt though until he pulls a crazy ITT or something.
 
Re:

Fergoose said:
Have you any evidence of Sky's "brutal" pace because I'm only seeing them ride mainly defensively (for example today it was Astana that upped the tempo with Nibali and Rosa, that's when the leaders group thinned out more, when Sky were at the front the gap to the breakaway stayed fairly constant).
.

Just a hint for you, when the pace is that high, that no one can attack (ref: Dan Martin) and then GC contenders drop off because of the speeds that would indicate "brutal".

Is that enough evidence for you? :cool:

Riding defensive, lol! :lol:
 
May 26, 2009
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Re: Re:

thehog said:
Fergoose said:
Have you any evidence of Sky's "brutal" pace because I'm only seeing them ride mainly defensively (for example today it was Astana that upped the tempo with Nibali and Rosa, that's when the leaders group thinned out more, when Sky were at the front the gap to the breakaway stayed fairly constant).
.

Just a hint for you, when the pace is that high, that no one can attack (ref: Dan Martin) and then GC contenders drop off because of the speeds that would indicate "brutal".

Is that enough evidence for you? :cool:

Riding defensive, lol! :lol:

Sky train are like the Borg and only LRP has the key to ride away from it. Notice they didn't chase him down the Dawg just hopped over and rode behind his BFF.
 
Jul 16, 2010
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Re:

hrotha said:
The fact is still that big groups make it to the few last km and the breaks have an easy time staying ahead.

That's because Sky gives the break a lot of minutes in a very short time by riding very slowly. After they deem the gap is large enough they start controlling the entire stage and the gap doesn't go out anymore. If they wanted to Sky could easily take back every break. They just don't want to appear too dominant (even though they're doing a poor job of hiding it, at least the average fan seems to be fooled by it).
 
Re: Re:

El Pistolero said:
hrotha said:
The fact is still that big groups make it to the few last km and the breaks have an easy time staying ahead.

That's because Sky gives the break a lot of minutes in a very short time by riding very slowly. After they deem the gap is large enough they start controlling the entire stage and the gap doesn't go out anymore. If they wanted to Sky could easily take back every break. They just don't want to appear too dominant (even though they're doing a poor job of hiding it, at least the average fan seems to be fooled by it).
My point is that, at the sticky end of every stage, the break still doesn't lose all that much time to the peloton/leaders group.

Yes, it will be easier for the break to do that when they didn't have to race very hard once the break was formed, but still.
 
Re:

jmdirt said:
Disclaimer: I'm a JvG fan.

I'd like to think his 'level' demonstrates that he is riding as clean as possible in the top platoon.

If he was WT good, clean-ish, it would have shown when he was riding at the national level with dominating performances.

I feel bad for American riders. USAC is perfectly okay with doping along with the UCI.

There's really no choice in the matter. Be a clean-ish impoverished national level rider, or low pay WT worker, or get on the program and see what happens. If something good happens, you might see some good revenue. Maybe.
 
Re: Re:

thehog said:
Fergoose said:
Have you any evidence of Sky's "brutal" pace because I'm only seeing them ride mainly defensively (for example today it was Astana that upped the tempo with Nibali and Rosa, that's when the leaders group thinned out more, when Sky were at the front the gap to the breakaway stayed fairly constant).
.

Just a hint for you, when the pace is that high, that no one can attack (ref: Dan Martin) and then GC contenders drop off because of the speeds that would indicate "brutal".

Is that enough evidence for you? :cool:

Riding defensive, lol! :lol:

Yup, defensively. As in only increasing their pace when someone launches an attack rather than forcing the pace themselves to drop off GC contendors (like they have done at times in previous years). But don't take my word for it. Even Dan Martin said yesterday that Sky had "eased off" after Astana gave up, so Martin would have a chance at an attack. He thought he'd maybe be left by Sky as he was 5 mins down, but no such luck.

A moot point with TJVG though. He was dropped at a time when the breakaway was extending its lead over the defensive Sky train. Suggestion that TJVG had simply not eaten or drank properly but I've no idea if that is accurate. UK media talking like he is a quitter and a mental lightweight. I find that pretty offensive coming from a 24 carat cheat like Dave Millar. Maybe if TJVG had juiced like Dave he'd have had a better day of it.
 
Re: Re:

Fergoose said:
thehog said:
Fergoose said:
Have you any evidence of Sky's "brutal" pace because I'm only seeing them ride mainly defensively (for example today it was Astana that upped the tempo with Nibali and Rosa, that's when the leaders group thinned out more, when Sky were at the front the gap to the breakaway stayed fairly constant).
.

Just a hint for you, when the pace is that high, that no one can attack (ref: Dan Martin) and then GC contenders drop off because of the speeds that would indicate "brutal".

Is that enough evidence for you? :cool:

Riding defensive, lol! :lol:

Yup, defensively. As in only increasing their pace when someone launches an attack rather than forcing the pace themselves to drop off GC contendors (like they have done at times in previous years). But don't take my word for it. Even Dan Martin said yesterday that Sky had "eased off" after Astana gave up, so Martin would have a chance at an attack. He thought he'd maybe be left by Sky as he was 5 mins down, but no such luck.

A moot point with TJVG though. He was dropped at a time when the breakaway was extending its lead over the defensive Sky train. Suggestion that TJVG had simply not eaten or drank properly but I've no idea if that is accurate. UK media talking like he is a quitter and a mental lightweight. I find that pretty offensive coming from a 24 carat cheat like Dave Millar. Maybe if TJVG had juiced like Dave he'd have had a better day of it.

You get the idea with some riders that they switch off after their podium chances are gone. TJVG is obviously frustrating to watch for his fans. To be honest I don't know what to make of his performance in this race but it does seem sometimes that he seems to think it is better to fight another day than fight today ! Or maybe just the Sky way of racing is too much for him and in that regard he would not be the only one. Even Contador has struggled with the Sky train.
 
May 26, 2010
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Re: Re:

El Pistolero said:
PremierAndrew said:
El Pistolero said:
Hard to imagine he's riding dirty in this Tour.

But why stop now? Surely his performances last year and in 2012 weren't clean?

Why not? He has never impressed me. I don't really buy the theory that absolutely everyone dopes in the peloton.

Why would any team hire some who dope and others who dont? Would the dopers not be angry that the team hired guys who might blow the whistle.

TJ dopes. BMC are there to get wins. Rihs and Och have no morals about doping.

Didn't TJ do some training with Armstrong recently? That screams he is clean :lol:
 
Re: Re:

Benotti69 said:
Why would any team hire some who dope and others who dont? Would the dopers not be angry that the team hired guys who might blow the whistle.

Even back in the days of in house doping programmes, there was the occasional clean rider on a dirty team (eg Moncoutie, Bassons). Doping switched to an out sourced model so as to avoid or minimise risks built into in house programmes that turned out to be big problems. One of those risks was there being too many people who knew what was going on. Part of the point of out sourced doping is to limit flows of information, to keep as many people as possible as ignorant as possible of what anyone else is doing. If random riders on a team know what everyone else is or isn't doing, it defeats the purpose.
 

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