Tour de Cleans?

[AustCyclingFan]

Re: Re:

"He got off the bike and wasn't even puffing"

There is a new drug out there, and because it is so good, maybe people aren't taking the old stuff being wary of it. Is all I can think.

Losing the Friday stage had an impact also. Maybe teams had their run planned for then and Saturday and had been holding off all the way up until then?

Leaving your best doping protocols until the last 2 days of the Tour would be an extremely risky gamble...don’t you think?

How many late nights have I spent in yawn mountain stages where they don't attack. And it's left to the last climb, or 2nd last day ITT?

 

[86TDFWinner]

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Kind of sucks that certain riders 2nd and 3rd places in prevoius years would absolutely destroy this mob.

Contador, Shleck, Evans, (2013,15) Quintana would be laughing at Pinots attack the other day and put minutes into him.

Haven't ALL the guys you've mentioned, been busted for doping too?

No.

I mean, not even close.

Contadoper was, so I was right about pne of them.

 

[Scarponi]

Re: Re:

Kind of sucks that certain riders 2nd and 3rd places in prevoius years would absolutely destroy this mob.

Contador, Shleck, Evans, (2013,15) Quintana would be laughing at Pinots attack the other day and put minutes into him.

Haven't ALL the guys you've mentioned, been busted for doping too? So those roided up guys would beat these roided up guys?

Also funny that "Quintana would be laughing at Pinots attack the other day and put minutes into him". Is that the same Quintana that was dropped every time the road went up a bit more this year?

But apart form that actually only one of those 4 was busted for doping...

I mean what part of the post did you not understand? The level was ridiculously low and riders who
Came 2nd to 5th ON THAT FORM would be laughing at Bernals race winning attack

 

[HelloDolly]

Re:

Bernal the best climber in the race rocking and rolling top of the Iseran, almost stopped pedaling to stand up to accelerate over. Very poor
Climbing this tour especially with short stages every where

How is this poor ?
You want riders to be on dope to entertain you ...these are human being and this is what is achievable by a rider like Bernal or Pinot the 2 best climbers in the race

Can get over some of the rubbish posters spout on here

On one hand its no doping please and on the other its so and so could blow them out of the water on a climb...well yes and those you speak of doped like Contador & Schlek

 

[HelloDolly]

I think there was an issue with the lack of Tramadol for some riders this year ...so many riders dropped very early when the going got tough ...means they cannot push themselves after a hard spring
Also teams like Quickstep and Lotto Visma benefited from ketones which are not used by some other teams like Ag2R and Sunweb

There was a distinct difference between few of the top teams and all the rest

The thing is the Tour was very hard to start with and the final week the climbs were hard...
Riders without their pain killers maybe cannot push themselves like before
Might mean cleaning up the sport may have to make it a bit easier so guys are fresh and can attack ?

However rumors are rife about aicar in use esp in one team.
There was still alot of *** in the peloton and there were a few 'super men' who were on something and it was not yet a level playing field

The difference between some top performances and others was far apart and I would say alot of riders and teams are rattled...

 

[Scarponi]

Re: Re:

Bernal the best climber in the race rocking and rolling top of the Iseran, almost stopped pedaling to stand up to accelerate over. Very poor
Climbing this tour especially with short stages every where

How is this poor ?
You want riders to be on dope to entertain you ...these are human being and this is what is achievable by a rider like Bernal or Pinot the 2 best climbers in the race

Can get over some of the rubbish posters spout on here

On one hand its no doping please and on the other its so and so could blow them out of the water on a climb...well yes and those you speak of doped like Contador & Schlek

Not once did I state that I wanted them to dope, my point is these blokes are probably glowing and taking drugs and it was boring. It was just extremely poor tour.

 

[proffate]

Re: Re:

It was just extremely poor tour.

you are literally the only cycling fan in the world who thinks this was a "poor" tour, whatever that even means.

 

[Cookster15]

Re: Re:

Kind of sucks that certain riders 2nd and 3rd places in prevoius years would absolutely destroy this mob.

Contador, Shleck, Evans, (2013,15) Quintana would be laughing at Pinots attack the other day and put minutes into him.

Haven't ALL the guys you've mentioned, been busted for doping too? So those roided up guys would beat these roided up guys?

Strange comment. You have been in the forum long enough to know this statement isn't true. Assume after 1700+ posts you learned something?

 

[Cookster15]

Re: Re:

It was just extremely poor tour.

I'd hate to know how you rated 2018. :lol:

 

[Koronin]

Re: Re:

Now imagine next year... Brailsfraud comes with four best GC guys (with Carapaz and full genius Froome) in the peloton and will have to decide not just who wins, but who won't be on the podium. And they will not have to do anything extraordinary, just keeping their high SKYborg tempo, and nobody will even dare to attack as they know there are FOUR guys that can respond.

Will be even more boring but may look like even more "cleans" than this year (which is probably THE priority numero uno for Brailsfraud and his only worry - how to keep it looking real... looks like he realizes now they cannot keep doing these extraterrestrial alien attack in the infamous "washing machine" 200 rpm style).

Good points. The two major issues with Sky/Ineos have always been suspected doping and their significant financial advantage. I feel like the doping as an issue has taken a bit of a back seat - which isn't to say that it's gone away, but they've been riding in a more measured, plausible manner, based around a genuine high quality young climber. It doesn't suddenly make them saints, but it definitely largely takes the heat off them on the doping front.

But if anything the financial side is only getting worse. It's absurd that one team will boast 4 recent GT winners/top contenders all at once, besides retaining a number of very high quality domestiques, whereas other teams have 1 if they're lucky and 2 at most and probably 2-3 max top helpers to go with them. Movistar is the closest on this front and they're still miles off. It's not healthy for the sport. Nor is it really Ineos' fault - they've got the cash and they're allowed to spend it so they'd be silly not to. It's been said before that cycling has a history of dominant teams - that it's almost the norm - and that's certainly true. But I'm not sure it makes it right, or desirable. It's not a good selling point for the sport when we can say 12 months out that Ineos will almost certainly win next year's Tour again, it's simply a question of which rider.

It does appear they've toned it down on the doping side for one reason or another. However, another team has ramped it way up on that same front. However, the budget issue, as there is no cap of any kind, they can do whatever they want. We can complain but they are well within the rules. However, having one or 2-3 teams about spend 3 times what the rest of the teams can spend will lead to lower and lower viewership and lead to more problems.