Cycling thread

Bruce Wayne · July 11, 2022

Black Belt Jones said:
They all need to covid test today, which could see some DNFs - hopefully not too many.

Rumour is that INEOS' latest marginal gain is to cough on Pogacar at every opportunity.

davids · July 11, 2022

Bruce Wayne said:
Rumour is that INEOS' latest marginal gain is to cough on Pogacar at every opportunity.

Or hide his red Ventolin inhaler?

Bruce Wayne · July 11, 2022

No Covid positive results registered :hayee:

I wonder if Pog registered positive he'd just buy the UCI a swanky Covid testing machine and it would all go away?

FrenchDarrenBent · July 12, 2022

Just Stop Oil-lads and lasses interupting the tour.
This is probably the only sport that's pretty much climate-neutral (once every car is electric, it will be).

Black Belt Jones · July 12, 2022

Great racing today, off GC but that was an enthralling last climb. Would have been awesome to see Kamna get yellow but I guess the peloton were always going to wind it up a little bit.

SerenityNigh · July 12, 2022

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.

I generally disagree but these are fair points. And I would like to think Tadej is clean but even if he’s not, he’s still spectacular.

SerenityNigh · July 12, 2022

Bruce Wayne said:
It does feel as though something is different as the racing in general is not only quicker than ever before but the racing is pretty much go from the gun these days (and still Pogacar is destroying everyone). That's not to say it's definitely cheating (although with the history of the sport you can never rule it out), but we're seeing things I haven't seen in a really long time.

I think training in general in most sports is better than ever though. Talent has to be there to shine through, but in T&F (aka Athletics) you see a depth of competition I don't remember. And talent is cyclical as someone already mentioned--we had Michael Johnson, Usain Bolt, David Rudisha, now Sidney McLaughlin (and too many others to name)--but not all of these at the same time. That said, the level appears to be rising for all competitors, and good training (just like PEDs) favors the talented more than the average or slightly above-average competitors. I'm new to watching cycling and only know a little about its *innovative* history, but I suspect this is at play in cycling as well.

FrenchDarrenBent · July 13, 2022

The press is making a lot of fuss about Pogacar's team. Like he needs them...
I'm interested to see how Pidcock will fare today. Logic dictates he should be good at this.

Black Belt Jones · July 13, 2022

Massive mountain day incoming. Bardet had a very solid first week and might fancy a dig at this.

Lacets der Montvernier is the opening climb - not actually all that big compared to what comes later but looks awesome.