Cycling thread

Bruce Wayne said:
Pog at the moment reminds me of Pantani in the 99 Giro. He was taking the mick out of everyone else and just winning everything. If the rumours are true, had he been a bit more modest and shared the wins around he wouldn't have been kicked out.
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I sincerely hope that that's the only camparison with Pantani.
 

spectateur said:
I sincerely hope that that's the only camparison with Pantani.
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Yeah I dunno. Last year at the Tour his attack on stage 8 was the likes of which haven't been seen since the Armstrong days. To put well over 3 minutes into the rest on what was effectively one mountain is absurd. To then back that up by winning Lombardi and winning Strada Bianchi solo with an attack from god know's how far out, to be well in the mix at MSR, and to be probably the strongest rider in Flanders. I just don't know. I haven't seen anyone be that dominant on that many different terrains all year round since Hinault.

The "normal" approach to these races wouldn't be to attack from way out on the cobbles or to deliberately put yourself into yellow yesterday when there are question marks over your team. He just doesn't care. I fully expect him to utterly annihilate people this afternoon. Oh, and he's 23. This is literally breaking every mould the sport has over 100 odd years.
 
Bruce Wayne said:
Yeah I dunno. Last year at the Tour his attack on stage 8 was the likes of which haven't been seen since the Armstrong days. To put well over 3 minutes into the rest on what was effectively one mountain is absurd. To then back that up by winning Lombardi and winning Strada Bianchi solo with an attack from god know's how far out, to be well in the mix at MSR, and to be probably the strongest rider in Flanders. I just don't know. I haven't seen anyone be that dominant on that many different terrains all year round since Hinault.

The "normal" approach to these races wouldn't be to attack from way out on the cobbles or to deliberately put yourself into yellow yesterday when there are question marks over your team. He just doesn't care. I fully expect him to utterly annihilate people this afternoon. Oh, and he's 23. This is literally breaking every mould the sport has over 100 odd years.
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He's too good to be doping in some respects. PEDs are almost exclusively old drugs, often very old, and what known substance could give him this exceptional advantage, allow him to evade attention, and no one else is taking it? EPO is a dynamite PED but the whole peloton / UCI knows that inside out.

I mean Occam's razor and all that, and something completely new is not out of the question. The Balco case in the US was one amateur, but very knowledgeable, steroid chemist making a new substance that could not be detected because analysts didn't know what to look for. Marion Jones won 3 gold medals on the back of it but that is a very unusual case.

Pushes one billion dollars to develop a legitimate pharmaceutical with the majority of that back-loaded onto the cost of human clinical trials. Taking a PED someone's made in their garage is a pretty wild risk, even in the distorted world of elite sport.
 
Black Belt Jones said:
He's too good to be doping in some respects. PEDs are almost exclusively old drugs, often very old, and what known substance could give him this exceptional advantage, allow him to evade attention, and no one else is taking it? EPO is a dynamite PED but the whole peloton / UCI knows that inside out.

I mean Occam's razor and all that, and something completely new is not out of the question. The Balco case in the US was one amateur, but very knowledgeable, steroid chemist making a new substance that could not be detected because analysts didn't know what to look for. Marion Jones won 3 gold medals on the back of it but that is a very unusual case.

Pushes one billion dollars to develop a legitimate pharmaceutical with the majority of that back-loaded onto the cost of human clinical trials. Taking a PED someone's made in their garage is a pretty wild risk, even in the distorted world of elite sport.
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Theres plenty of willing victims prepared to risk going from the gutter to the stars. Even just for a fleeting moment.

Edit: And I guess the 'garages' will have some knowledge of state program somewhere. At the root thats where it all comes from, either medical breakthrough or the latest super soldiers.
 
Black Belt Jones said:
He's too good to be doping in some respects. PEDs are almost exclusively old drugs, often very old, and what known substance could give him this exceptional advantage, allow him to evade attention, and no one else is taking it? EPO is a dynamite PED but the whole peloton / UCI knows that inside out.

I mean Occam's razor and all that, and something completely new is not out of the question. The Balco case in the US was one amateur, but very knowledgeable, steroid chemist making a new substance that could not be detected because analysts didn't know what to look for. Marion Jones won 3 gold medals on the back of it but that is a very unusual case.

Pushes one billion dollars to develop a legitimate pharmaceutical with the majority of that back-loaded onto the cost of human clinical trials. Taking a PED someone's made in their garage is a pretty wild risk, even in the distorted world of elite sport.
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Yeah, no idea if he's legit or not. Obviously having Mauro Gianetti involved at UAE doesn't help matters, especially given the absurd lengths Ricco went to, but it's more just that he's "so" much better than everyone else on seemingly every terrain. This feels different to the Merckx era as the sport is more global now so you'd think the depth of competition is greater. Even Hinault didn't face riders from around the world to this extent. Yet he manages not just to beat them but often absolutely humiliate them.
 

Just how strong is the UAE team?.
Can they chase down all the attacks or will pog have to deal with them alone.
Ineos alone have the 3 brits who could do 1 2 3 attacks.
 
Bruce Wayne said:
Yeah, no idea if he's legit or not. Obviously having Mauro Gianetti involved at UAE doesn't help matters, especially given the absurd lengths Ricco went to, but it's more just that he's "so" much better than everyone else on seemingly every terrain. This feels different to the Merckx era as the sport is more global now so you'd think the depth of competition is greater. Even Hinault didn't face riders from around the world to this extent. Yet he manages not just to beat them but often absolutely humiliate them.
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You could say, in his defence, that the sport back in the seventies was Belgium's and Italy's first sport and very popular in France. These days, cycling never makes the first page of the Gazetta anymore and Italy is losing interest. The old classics in France meanwhile are, Roubaix aside, relegated to second string classics.

I read an article about how blood doping is still possible without detection. And of course gene doping or specialized steroids.
It's just strange that 3 superstars (Mohoric, Roglic and Pogacar) rise from Slovenia, a small country not even interested in Pro cycling.

Or he's just better than everybody else. Van Aert and VDP are also very good but at least they appear human from time to time.
 
FrenchDarrenBent said:
You could say, in his defence, that the sport back in the seventies was Belgium's and Italy's first sport and very popular in France. These days, cycling never makes the first page of the Gazetta anymore and Italy is losing interest. The old classics in France meanwhile are, Roubaix aside, relegated to second string classics.

I read an article about how blood doping is still possible without detection. And of course gene doping or specialized steroids.
It's just strange that 3 superstars (Mohoric, Roglic and Pogacar) rise from Slovenia, a small country not even interested in Pro cycling.

Or he's just better than everybody else. Van Aert and VDP are also very good but at least they appear human from time to time.
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I suppose neither Italy or France have the best riders anymore. The best Italian rider is probably Ganna, and while he's great in the time trials he doesn't win the Giro or Tour. They haven't had anyone at that level since Nibali and Basso, and neither was consistently challenging in the Tour. France have been even worse, with only Alaphalippe to really rally behind.

WvA and MvdP do seem to be the nearest in terms of ability, but as you say, not only do they have off days but they also aren't up to the high mountains, whereas Pogacar seems able to do absolutely everything and be among the very best at it.
 

Is the tour over bar the shouting.
Pog looks as if he could win the lot.
Already has the yellow and white jerseys now just a point behind for the spots and he's in second place for the green.
 
spectateur said:
Is the tour over bar the shouting.
Pog looks as if he could win the lot.
Already has the yellow and white jerseys now just a point behind for the spots and he's in second place for the green.
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I see he wore special shoes today to commemorate the opening of a cancer centre in honour of his mother in law. Someone tell him, don't, whatever you do, release a wrist band :hayee:
 

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