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He served a two year doping ban earlier in his career. Flawed testing system? Of course it's flawed. It catches people but you think it catches 100%? Good for you.
It just "looked" dodgy. He flew up that final climb like it was nothing. I've read a few books on what it feels like when you're juiced. The look on his face, speed he turned over the pedals, seemingly skipping up the mountain, commentators blown away. It had all the trade marks of the olden days. Just my opinion though. If he keeps it up all season and doesn't get popped, I'll reconsider.
Scrabble-
you think it catches 100%? Good for you.
no, I don't. and I understand your sentiment perfectly. he kept it up last season, and the season before, etc. and did not get popped (yet). we'll see.
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I think you have to be really careful to look at performance as a form of proof of doping. That is what the shitheads at the clinic do, and trolls on Twitter, and use, for example, ascent times from twenty years ago against ascent times today and draw definitive conclusions from that.
So ignoring every other variable, from bike weight, bike technology, weather conditions, state of the road, and how many km they have raced getting to that climb.
I mean Gilbert rode away from an elite field and soloed to a Flanders win from 55k out. At 35 years of age. On the surface that sounds unbelievable, but Gilbert has said he didn't intend to and two significant crashes hampered the chasing efforts, taking out four main contenders in the process.
Mind its very hard to look at Valverde and not feel suspicious
peter_v
Jimmy_Fingers
dragging it back to facts not suspicions: as yet, there have been no positive samples from el imbatido. you think it's because of a flawed testing system?