The twilight zone called Portugal.

[classicomano]

So im again looking in disbelief at the showing in the Volta Portugal with all these Spanish and Portugese motorbikes sprinting up the mountains. I have a feeling the likes of Froome and Quintana would have a tough time following these guys up Alpe D'Huez.

So im wondering if theres people who have some more insight in all this? I get the feeling this whole race is rigged for the local riders, im really in awe of someone like Rui Sousa, a rider who must be pushing 47 by now who in his whole carreer has been pack fodder in other races but does this Nibali superpeak during the Volta and transforms into Rui Pantani. But im sure theres loads more who have just been taking the piss over the years.

Theres also a rider from a Dutch CT team riding the Volta this year who's tweeted about the controls being rigged and "ridiculous motorbikes going up the climbs 40 km/h".

 

[hrotha]

The Volta is awesome. It takes you back to the mid 90s.

 

[The Hitch]

Re:

The Volta is awesome. It takes you back to mid July

Fixed it for you.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

There is no Cândido Barbosa. The Volta is therefore less ridiculous than it was.

 

[afpm90]

According to Rui Quinta on twitter, a guy with some inside knowledge of the portuguese peloton, some riders have problems with their biological passports that will be known after the Volta. Also, the DS of Efapel was the guy in charge, some years ago, of portuguese Liberty Seguros team which had three EPO positives at the same time...

 

[pastronef]

Re: Re:

The Volta is awesome. It takes you back to mid July

Fixed it for you.

and they don't say they are doing it clean

 

[Fearless Greg Lemond]

I thought i was looking at a pack full of Danilo di Luca's this afternoon; it was awesome to see.

 

[BigMac]

Re:

There is no Cândido Barbosa. The Volta is therefore less ridiculous than it was.

Rui Sousa not the same too now that RP switched doctor from last year.

Mind though, his Efapel days were no more credible than last year's.

According to Rui Quinta on twitter, a guy with some inside knowledge of the portuguese peloton, some riders have problems with their biological passports that will be known after the Volta. Also, the DS of Efapel was the guy in charge, some years ago, of portuguese Liberty Seguros team which had three EPO positives at the same time...

Yeah, Americo Silva. He was commentator for Eurosport until this season.

 

[Parrulo]

Re:

According to Rui Quinta on twitter, a guy with some inside knowledge of the portuguese peloton, some riders have problems with their biological passports that will be known after the Volta. Also, the DS of Efapel was the guy in charge, some years ago, of portuguese Liberty Seguros team which had three EPO positives at the same time...

I heard Amaro Antunes is one of the guys with passport problems and that was why Tavira didn't re-sign him for this year.

Funny enough of the guys in front he is probably the weakest in the race and the one who showed most talent in previous years.

W52 DS and team owner (not 100% sure about this one) is Nuno Ribeiro so is pretty easy to see why they are dominating the volta this easily.

Anyway Portugal being Portugal, is normal.

Anyone got the tweets from the dutch guy?

 

[Fearless Greg Lemond]

https://twitter.com/ronanvzandbeek/status/628276530007904257

https://twitter.com/ronanvzandbeek/status/628250147084967936

Doesnt train hard enough.

 

[Parrulo]

Re:

https://twitter.com/ronanvzandbeek/status/628276530007904257

https://twitter.com/ronanvzandbeek/status/628250147084967936

Doesnt train hard enough.

Google translate was of some use.

I got the gist of it tho.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Re: Re:

There is no Cândido Barbosa. The Volta is therefore less ridiculous than it was.

Rui Sousa not the same too now that RP switched doctor from last year.

Mind though, his Efapel days were no more credible than last year's.

And before that he was in the late 2000s Liberty Seguros team and before that, Milaneza-MSS Maia. He has never been credible, and is less credible than ever before in the last few years.

It's weird that a lot of the time, the guys in the Portuguese péloton who show the most in races outside Portugal don't show anything in the Volta itself (thinking of e.g. Santí Pérez, who'd always fight hard for Asturias and the Spanish short stage racing calendar, then do nothing at the Volta, or Alberto Gallego this year, who was easily the team's strongest rider in the Route du Sud but is break fodder in the Volta with his DS constantly attacking him for not riding for the reanimated corpse of Rui Sousa).

That said, rigged or not, the Portuguese continental scene having its own skeletal biopassport is a step up from the Continental scenes of most countries - and that they busted one of the country's more popular riders in Sérgio Ribeiro under it shows that they can make uncomfortable decisions when needed. But really, Portuguese cycling was just in the process of salvaging its reputation after the Puerto exile days, seems like we're headed back in time again.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Re:

https://twitter.com/ronanvzandbeek/status/628276530007904257

https://twitter.com/ronanvzandbeek/status/628250147084967936

Doesnt train hard enough.

I was quite impressed by van Zandbeek in the stage on Sunday actually, he went well on the climbs and descended well, only to be swamped by W52 on Senhora da Graça. Sten van Gucht was very impressive indeed, getting to the base of Senhora da Graça only 30" down on turbo Filipe. He sat up though and finished 6 mins down, so van Zandbeek who was nearly 4 mins down on Cardoso at Mondim de Basto only lost another minute or so to him on Senhora da Graça (though what Filipe was doing putting in that kind of climb time is another question). It seems van Zandbeek's issues are more to do with the ascent of O Barragem do Alvão by the breakaway, which is around 9-10km at 7% including some lengthy periods of cobbles, and was where the break was shattered to pieces.

 

[TheGame]

2014 - No Positives

Clean

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Interesting, given 2013 was when Amorim's biopassport suspension was announced. So no positives, but still doping suspensions.

 

[Benotti69]

Re:

2013 - No Positives

Clean

Portuguese, Italians, UK, Dutch, Flandrian, Japanese and others don't AD don't take blood samples in competition???

 

[mrhender]

Re:

Interesting, given 2013 was when Amorim's biopassport suspension was announced. So no positives, but still doping suspensions.

The date of infraction is july 24th 2010 so maybe they are using that as reference point?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biological_passport
http://www.record.xl.pt/Modalidades/Ciclismo/interior.aspx?content_id=832487

 

[afpm90]

Re: Re:

According to Rui Quinta on twitter, a guy with some inside knowledge of the portuguese peloton, some riders have problems with their biological passports that will be known after the Volta. Also, the DS of Efapel was the guy in charge, some years ago, of portuguese Liberty Seguros team which had three EPO positives at the same time...

I heard Amaro Antunes is one of the guys with passport problems and that was why Tavira didn't re-sign him for this year.

Funny enough of the guys in front he is probably the weakest in the race and the one who showed most talent in previous years.

W52 DS and team owner (not 100% sure about this one) is Nuno Ribeiro so is pretty easy to see why they are dominating the volta this easily.

Anyway Portugal being Portugal, is normal.

Anyone got the tweets from the dutch guy?

Tavira looks like a clean team, now. But some years ago they dominated the Volta almost as they liked. Maybe the lack of money doesn't allow them to have a good doctor and a good "preparation". Ricardo Mestre looks like a shadow of what he was.

 

[afpm90]

An interesting fact is that in 2013 the doctor of Team Tavira, Benjamim Carvalho, moved to Efapel. My memory doesn't help me, but wasn't in that year that Efapel started to be the dominating team on the portuguese scene?

 

[TheGame]

Re:

Interesting, given 2013 was when Amorim's biopassport suspension was announced. So no positives, but still doping suspensions.

sorry, 2014, i forgot what year it was

 

[Brullnux]

Re: Re:

2013 - No Positives

Clean

Portuguese, Italians, UK, Dutch, Flandrian, Japanese and others don't AD don't take blood samples in competition???

The Italians do. They have two different agencies. One is CONI and the other the Ministry of Health. The Ministry take car of most testing, but they don't do IC blood tests, CONI does those.

Edit: I don't think the Ministry of Health is allowed to take blood tests.

 

[No_Balls]

Re: Re:

With 6.7 under your belt it seems so futile peaking for the Volta. No doubt a lovely race in its own right but still

 

[Benotti69]

Re: Re:

With 6.7 under your belt it seems so futile peaking for the Volta. No doubt a lovely race in its own right but still

Yes, but he can only reach 6.7 in Portugal. He'd be glowing everywhere else if tried that. And you know what all the big teams would be outraged that a small team came and whooped them at their own game. Look at Kittel bitching about Sayer, but says nothing about Danielson, Froome, Nibali, Piti etc etc

The hyprocrisy in sport is sometime too big to swallow.

 

[BigMac]

Sky chasing Horner. 15km's left.

http://www.rtp.pt/play/direto/rtp1

 

[BigMac]

LOL.