Because they were doped to the gills and the cycling world kind of had to move forward st some point.
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Thanks!
Let's just focus on the actual racing question.
The clinic is the place for your comment.
Dude, you have issues if you remember that so precisely.
I mostly remember the fact that there had been a competition in a Danish newspaper that you could win Ivan Basso's Tour bike, and, well, it'd be brand new when you got it!
I don't know if they cancelled the competition after the news broke that he wouldn't ride.
Is it really? For something that happened 17 years ago and has been known and ruled as a doping case from the onset?
Basso was a monster at the Giro but there was a question mark regarding a fatigue factor following that race. However, if you recall 2005 Basso was targeting Giro as well and was very strong in that race (but his chances were gone due to a stomach bug). Still he managed to prepare a very good form for the Tour (albeit mostly in the second half of the race). It's hard to say who would have won the Tour in 2006 - Ullrich most of the time had some form/crashes issues in that race in the second half of his career so it's not a given it would have been a smooth sailing for him. If Basso had been still very close to his Giro 2006 it would have been his victory methinks - his mountain level was amazing and he wouldn't have lost much time during TTs.
So you wish for another such reset just before the Tour this year?
No?
Insinuating that everybody is doping in 2023 is not the same as saying that the people involved in Operación Puerto were in 2006. I am not insinuating the former, by the way, that's on you and your clinic friends.
Yes I remember there was a lot or hype going into that Tour, especially after watching Basso destroy everyone in the Giro and seeing Ullrich turn up looking leaner than ever.
Then again, it was still a crazy race and the mythical stage 17 would haven been raced differently if we had the original startlist....
What spoke for Ulle certainly was his team. They were on fire.
If you see how Honchar beat everyone in the two long ITTs… Jan would have destroyed everyone in these TTs… He was so much better than he was already in Pontedera in spring.
Kessler in Valkenburg, Klöden - the team was 100% ready.
I remember Klöden saying after TdF 2006, „(…) and with Jan, we would have won this TdF 2006 100% sure.“. Klöden had no doubts.
He was absolutely on track. Climbing super on Albula in TdS. Destroying everyone in Berne in the TdS TT. Skinny, and motivated.
The guys were good friends. Rogers, Sinkewitz, Kessler, Jan, Sevilla, and so on. Jan had the men around him he wanted to have. He had Rudy in the car. Everything was ready.
T-Mobile and CSC with Basso wouldn‘t have allowed Pereiro 30mins. And would have controlled Landis.
I actually dream of Jan in the last TT of this Tour, catching Basso (his three minute man) just like Virenque in 1997.
Just imagine Jan doing this to Basso, with his 88x3 gearing. Basso would have gone onto his knees on the finish line, and praised the Kaiser…
Armchair cyclist
Moderator
The battles we never got to see: Andre Mahe and Franz Leenen carrying their bikes through the press box, down the stands of the Velodrome and over the fences to try to win the 1949 Paris-Roubaix. If ever there was something that I would like to hear Carlton Kirby commentating on...
That's just a whole different level of sadness...
I'm sure Remco would have loved being able to go up against Bjorg in the Ardennes.
I remember being so sure that Bjorg making a tactical error during the 2019 FW wouldn't really matter, because he'd have learned the lesson, and be in the mix multiple times for years to come...
Logic is your Friend vs Elos Anjos post LBL criterium. Honestly it was shaping up to be a big battle.
Off the top of my head:
2003 Tour - Joseba Beloki
2006 Tour - Ullrich, Basso, Vino, Valverde and Mancebo out
2010 Vuelta - Igor Anton not being given the chance of defending (yes, he would have won)
2014 Tour - Contador, Froome and Nibs duel
2017 Tour - Valverde having the chance of his life to win (along with 2006, prolly).
2003 Tour - Joseba Beloki
2006 Tour - Ullrich, Basso, Vino, Valverde and Mancebo out
2010 Vuelta - Igor Anton not being given the chance of defending (yes, he would have won)
2014 Tour - Contador, Froome and Nibs duel
2017 Tour - Valverde having the chance of his life to win (along with 2006, prolly).
Eleonora Patuzzo. Won the Junior Worlds in Aguascalientes beating the likes of van der Breggen and Blaak, and then at age 20 finished top 10 of Flèche, 6th at Emakumeen Bira and 4th at Trentino after beating Arndt, Häusler and Cantele in a small group finish in a mountain stage. Then got screwed over by the Geox/Diadora fiasco ruining the team she was riding for, got disillusioned with the sport and retired at 22 to pursue her studies. She was a really strong climber who came along at an era where the women didn't get to do many real mountainous races but was gone by the time her contemporaries like van der Breggen hit their stride, and wasn't all-round enough to make it on results in the flatter and bumpier races until the race calendar caught up with her skillset the way, say, Longo Borghini could. She's still only 33 now, younger than the likes of Moolman-Pasio and van Vleuten who are still going strong in the mountains in women's cycling, and while I know there are plenty of breakout climbers who have then been unable to kick on to the next level and have either stagnated (e.g. Nosková or Merino) or have fallen off the map (e.g. Cauz or Tuhai), I really think Patuzzo just came at the wrong time. Earlier, and she'd have had the chance to capitalise on the end of Luperini's popularity and the harder Giri of those days with Monte Serra and the likes, and later and she'd have had the chance to perform in her playgrounds more often, but at the time she arrived, I can't say that prioritising her education was the wrong move. But I did want her back in the bunch for a while.
I reckon what happened to Pantani in the 99 Giro is going to happen to Logic this year.
Lemond and Hinault on different teams in 1986
Think Hinault would have won, and won easily. After he got a 5+minute lead, Hinault still had to do donkey duty for Lemond by going into the suicide breakaway the next day. Even waited for Greg's group on the Peyresourde. The Greg took wheel sucking to a while new level over the Croix de Fer and ADH
Think Hinault would have won, and won easily. After he got a 5+minute lead, Hinault still had to do donkey duty for Lemond by going into the suicide breakaway the next day. Even waited for Greg's group on the Peyresourde. The Greg took wheel sucking to a while new level over the Croix de Fer and ADH
What do you mean? 2017 was Valverde's best spring season. He was basically unbeatable.
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