2018 Cycling Thread

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DasNutNock
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Re: 2017 Cycling Thread

Post by DasNutNock »

White Goodman wrote:There should be no TUEs..
Far, far too easy to beat the system when these are still allowed. Witness the number of MMA fighters in the latter parts of their career that suddenly needed TRT to tackle "low test levels" - despite them all pissing hot for steroids in the past.
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White Goodman
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Re: 2017 Cycling Thread

Post by White Goodman »

Like Andy Murray said when the whole Sharapova Meldonium thing was kicking off

"I read that 55 athletes have failed tests for that substance since 1 January,” he said. “You just don’t expect high level athletes at the top of many sports to have a heart condition"
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Re: 2017 Cycling Thread

Post by Clucking Bell »

On the other hand ..... exercised-induced asthma affects a lot of top marathon runners, cyclists and triathletes.

When I lived in the UK, the pollen around the beginning of the triathlon season would set me off and I had a prescription for a mild steroid that was on the banned list. The times I most needed the medicine also coincided with the time that I was coming off my hardest block of training. It's a period when you're very fit but, not particularly healthy.

A load of paperwork had to be done so I could compete at the Nice triathlon in the middle of June but, I'd have been unable to race without it.

Even back then (early 90s) you'd only get permission for a defined period of time so I'd have still been banned if I'd been found with it in my pee in the late season. Incidentally, anyone who did have permission at a certain time, could almost guarantee that they'd be 'randomly' tested at any race outside of that period.
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Re: 2017 Cycling Thread

Post by White Goodman »

Clucking Bell wrote: When I lived in the UK, the pollen around the beginning of the triathlon season would set me off and I had a prescription for a mild steroid that was on the banned list. The times I most needed the medicine also coincided with the time that I was coming off my hardest block of training. It's a period when you're very fit but, not particularly healthy.

.
When I was rowing for a proper club, we had a number of guys in the 8 who were prescribed much the same.

Like you say, at very high levels of fitness , your general health can suffer, I would have a perma-cold in the regatta season but unless you can measure whether that puts you back up only as a far as a level playing field or instead perhaps pushes you slightly past it, then it's a dodgy area for me.

I've taken banned steroids but never whilst competing, so I'm hardly able to chuck too much dirt Wiggins way, I just think he's full of ****.
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Re: 2017 Cycling Thread

Post by Clucking Bell »

..... and Thomas is out of the Tour with a broken collar bone. I think that was the fourth time he's crashed in a week of racing and, unfortunately you can't keep doing that. Sooner or later you're gonna get hurt. I always had him down as one of the better bike handlers too.
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Re: 2017 Cycling Thread

Post by Rio »

Porte out now as well.
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Re: 2017 Cycling Thread

Post by pablo jaye »

Porte's crash looked a bit nasty.

One of the more enjoyable parts of the TDF is the sportsmanship in general - today, when Froome had a bit of a technical problem, the other riders stopped Auru from making a break away. So much more refreshing than the win at all costs attitude of some other sports.
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Re: 2017 Cycling Thread

Post by Johnny Byrne's Boots »

Porte has a broken pelvis and collarbone, although the feeling is he doesn't require surgery at the moment.
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Re: 2017 Cycling Thread

Post by Clucking Bell »

Really bad luck for Dan Martin too. He'd done really well to bring himself back to the group after struggling a bit when Froome dropped the hammer in the last 2k of the final climb. To have your front wheel taken out at 45 mph by Richie Porte flying across the road is so unfortunate. I'm actually surprised Dan was up and back in the race so quickly.
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Re: 2017 Cycling Thread

Post by hammerddh »

Funny thing about Martin was he was given a spare bike off the neutral service car.
Went round the corner and discovered it had no brakes. Crashed straight into rock face again.
Made me laugh.

The thing with this non-attacking though is, it just makes the race a bit sterile in my opinion. For me any Grand Tour is.a test of the whole package. Your bike handling, stamina. General health and your equipment.

We stop for the yellow but ride on when Marrin is put down through no fault of his own.

Only last month in the Giro they rode on when Dumolin was having a Brad, why not stop then
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Re: 2017 Cycling Thread

Post by Clucking Bell »

hammerddh wrote: The thing with this non-attacking though is, it just makes the race a bit sterile in my opinion.
For better or worse, cycling and road racing in particular has a lot of traditions and etiquette.

You start to learn the rules as soon as you start riding in a group and, once you start racing at any level, you realize that you either obey the rules or nobody will work with you and you'll never win anything. At the end of the day nobody is so good that they can still win if everyone gangs up on them.

Aru didn't really have a choice. Once Martin, Yates, Bardet and Porte had 'had words', he either sits up or spends the remaining two weeks of the race being worked over by everyone.
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Re: 2017 Cycling Thread

Post by hammerddh »

Cummings, what a man
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Re: 2017 Cycling Thread

Post by Whitters »

That was a great end to the stage, the last few hundred metres being pretty brutal

On a general point though, the lack of successful or near-successful breakaways is disappointing on the flat stages. I've been watching the Tour since the days of Hinault in the mid-80s, and there always used to be loads of them, but in recent years a lot less.

Time to ban race radios? The tactics and communication seem to make the stages a lot more predictable. As much as I like a good bunch sprint, fortune doesn't seem to favour the brave attackers these days.
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Re: 2017 Cycling Thread

Post by Johnny Byrne's Boots »

Either ban radios completely or make all team communications public and available to everyone in real time.
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Re: 2017 Cycling Thread

Post by Clucking Bell »

There's a safety argument with the radios business. If they didn't have them, there would be a lot more going backwards and forwards to the team cars which would make the flat stages even more chaotic.
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Re: 2017 Cycling Thread

Post by Clucking Bell »

The organizers definitely need to put in more short mountain stages like yesterday's. That was one of the best day's racing I've ever seen.

I think Sky are going to have a problem at the end of this season. Landa and Kwiatkowski could be grand tour winners in their own right and I suspect that they will be leaving sooner rather than later in order to get the opportunity.
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Re: 2017 Cycling Thread

Post by Johnny Byrne's Boots »

Is there a chance one of them could be promoted to top dog within Sky?

The rest of the field showed Froome is vulnerable and indeed beatable in an all out slog up the hill, and it's there the race is won and lost. Has he had his day?
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Re: 2017 Cycling Thread

Post by Johnny Byrne's Boots »

Aru couldn't have got that more wrong. He contrived to find himself at the tail end of the peloton on an uphill finish, gaps opened on the final drag and Froome gets yet another cuddly lion.
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Re: 2017 Cycling Thread

Post by Clucking Bell »

Johnny Byrne's Boots wrote:Is there a chance one of them could be promoted to top dog within Sky?
It wouldn't happen in the middle of a Grand Tour unless Froome was having an absolute 'mare. The other problem is that neither of them are Brits and while I don't think that Sky would have too big a problem with this at the Giro or the Vuelta, I think they'd want a British lead rider at the Tour.

I'd still put my money on Froome this year but, I suspect he'll be hard pressed to repeat the feat in 2018. Sky's problem is then who else? I don't think that Geraint Thomas is quite good enough and he's also only a year younger than Froome. Realistically, Sky don't have a Brit with Grand Tour potential in his mid/late twenties so next year's race is going to be quite interesting.
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Re: 2017 Cycling Thread

Post by Whitters »

^^ maybe they'll try and poach one or both of the Yates twins
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