Vaughters dilemma?

[Martin318is]

Roger Legeay, always knew he was capable of riding high in GC of a major Tour (go read the latest issue of Pro Cycling Magazine, Legeay says so right there

sorry - have to ask -

is there ANY evidence that Legeay thought or said this to anyone BEFORE this year's Tour?

 

[craig1985]

Very good points on Wiggins transition from track preparation. There are alot of precedents to support it.

As for Gilbert; didn't his results come in a fairly confined stretch of the season? I find stellar results scattered from one end of the season to the other more suspect of a Program rider. Sustaining a peak for a couple of months is a more realistic profile for a clean rider.

He also won a stage at the Giro (last stage before the final TT) and then a stage and the overall at the Ster Elektrotoer, in the space of a two weeks. So if he wins, he tends to a lot in a short period of time. Whether or not that makes him a program rider or not, I don't know. I do recall Sinkewitz saying that he had his program geared around for the Ardenne Classics, the Tour de France, and the Tour of Germany, and then ride clean for the rest of the year (his words not mine).

sorry - have to ask -

is there ANY evidence that Legeay thought or said this to anyone BEFORE this year's Tour?

None that I know of, and if he did, I'm not sure if it appeared in any English language media. I'm sure somebody on here knows. We have a lot of knowledgable people on this site.

Aldag and Holm (AFAIK) knew what he was capable of on the road, judging by his SRM read-outs during his year at Columbia in 2008. But again, that was after the Tour that they said this. I would love to see riders post their SRM read-outs (especially the big name riders), but that would be like Ferrari putting their designs for public viewing on the internet.

 

[blackcat]

What made you change your mind on Gilbert? That he had a great run of form and won 4 races in a row? Gilbert always came across to me as a mad attacking rider, always trying to be in a break, or put in a late attack and try and stay away from the bunch. I wasn't so surprised that he won the Giro di Lomardia, since winning L-B-L has always been a target for him and a race he is suited too (that and L-B-L is his home race).

As for Wiggins, what makes it interesting is that his old boss at Credit Agricole, Roger Legeay, always knew he was capable of riding high in GC of a major Tour (go read the latest issue of Pro Cycling Magazine, Legeay says so right there), even when he was riding for Cradit Agricole, which he was riding on the track at the time. The impression they gave me was, stop riding on the velodrome, focus on the road and drop some weight and then he improves. Either that, or they saw his potential as a super responder on a medical program.

Gilbert was just too winning. Plus his win at Het Volk or whichever one day race early in the spring when he was off the front for 60km.

All of it adds up, if it was any other rider without this squeaky clean rep, you would not believe it.

Re: Wiggins. Roger LEgeay is spouting BS. Why did he never ride him on the Tour squad at CA?

 

[craig1985]

I saw that breakaway, I have the race on DVD, he attacked with 50km to go, Nick Nuyens went to follow, but thought they would get chased down pretty quickly so he sat up, Gilbert bridged up to the breakaway to which he had a man in the break and got his team mate to pull on the front until he attacked again. To date there has nothing incriminating against Gilbert, no dodgy Spanish or Italian doctors to which he goes to for training "advice".

Not sure why Wiggins never rode the Tour for CA, I know he was preparing for the Athens Olympics, and that he got a ride at CA through Chris Broadman. Of course he was living the Scott Socal fantasy life, pro bike rider and spent half the time drunk

 

[Oldman]

He also won a stage at the Giro (last stage before the final TT) and then a stage and the overall at the Ster Elektrotoer, in the space of a two weeks. So if he wins, he tends to a lot in a short period of time. Whether or not that makes him a program rider or not, I don't know. I do recall Sinkewitz saying that he had his program geared around for the Ardenne Classics, the Tour de France, and the Tour of Germany, and then ride clean for the rest of the year (his words not mine).

I was guessing that it would a typical peak for a clean rider. It could also mean it was his target and he was on a program per your Sinkewitz example. On the surface it seems like a normal progression to a result.