Tour de France 2017

What do people think about Wellens dropping out because he wouldn't use a TUE? Not sure if it's a good thing or not

Probably didn't want Cycling News writing made up stories about him for the rest of his career.

I think it's fucking ridiculous. There are clear rules on the TUE process, which is there to assist the riders. Why the fuck should the press have any influence on that?

Perhaps he forgot that TUEs are allowed... he should have gone for it and made it to the rest day.

Using a TUE isn't suspicious, using a TUE and then winning the next stage probably would be. But then we wouldn't know about the TUE until later...

I think Sir Dave is a bit of a tit, but he's gone up in my estimation there. When that article was published I thought it was a hatchet job, I'm glad he told Ryan to shove it up his fucking arse.

He said it was for 'ethical reasons' apparently. Clearly wants to ride clean regardless so fair play.

Either that or it's a bluff and he's full of pig blood.

What's ethical about refusing a treatment to address an allergic reaction? That's not going to give him any competitive advantage, it'll just alleviate his suffering.

I'm reminded of when Vaughters was at Credit Agricole and got stung by a bee on his eye. It swelled up so much he couldn't see, but the team wouldn't let him have a cortisone injection to reduce the swelling, which is a standard treatment in real life, and he had to abandon the Tour.

Elements of the media are making riders think about taking common medicines, it's ridiculous.

Prickly heat. On point.

I think we're only really scratching the surface of what the actual issue is.

on point!

You can treat most allergies without needing a TUE.
But if you need it, go for it. Silly decision.

I'd guess it was a TUE for prednisolone.

Silly.

Monday,
Took her for a drink on TUE-sday
We were making time by Wednesday
And on Thursday and Friday and Saturday
Froome chilled on Sunday

Maybe Wellens is just really tired, now also ill, and ready to pack it in after 2 weeks. That news article makes it sound like he uses the TUE drugs and everything will be good as new again but that isn't how medicine works.

Sorry.

For an allergic reaction, it more or less is.

But perhaps you're right about it being a good cop-out for him.

this video sums up the rest day for many avid tour de france followers

http://road.cc/content/news/225564-video-too-cute-words-dog-helps-owner-pedal-bike

Its like disney did a remake of Aliens.

It's not just be who thinks it's a absurd;

https://twitter.com/drmarkburnley/status/886879424334974976

Because the treatment might not just fix whatever the issue/allergy/illness was, but also potentially confer a performance advantage, over and above being brought back to full health?

Just a guess.

And with this, isn't there stuff that's available/legal without a TUE out of competition? So him leaving may mean he can get treatment?

Or maybe if it's heat rash or whatever they saying, the alternative to a steroid or whatever the TUE would be for is to not be riding a bike in the sun for 6hrs a day?

All just guesswork and assumptions on my part.

Well, he's squired Froome up every climb and has still had the legs to follow him when he's been on the attack despite expending the additional energy. Suggests to me he's stronger, hence the media overdrive about who should be leading Sky. Not that contentious an observation to make? He's definitely outperformed Quintana at any rate and Valverde wouldn't be faring much better unless he was full of the edgar allan, would he?

I didn't see much of Landa at Belle Filles or on the Chat. Froome took the yellow on the former, defended it on the latter.

For an allergic reaction, it more or less is.

At least for me it is less. I usually have my allergy under control with Ceterizine.
But once the allergy really kicks in Ceterizine does nothing and i have to use Cortisone, Salbutamol and Promethazine.

Yeah that's what I'm saying, prednisolone will pretty much stop allergic issues very fast.

Landa's finished ahead of Froome on two mountain stages, despite turning himself inside out to ride at a ridiculously high tempo day in day out.

I think Landa was also taken out by Thomas's crash on the Mont du Chat, or am I confounding that with blokhaus at the Giro?