Pro-cycling thread

Yep reading the articles early versions were thousands of pounds but now are cheap. I imagine it was initially developed to aid weight.

I guess it depends on context but £30 a drink and sounds like you’d have three a day

When was the last time the King of the Mountains winner was a serious GC contender?

(It’s a rhetorical question, Froome won it in 2015, but effectively by accident).

Haha but there is an irony there for sure. King of the Mountains is rarely won by the best climber. Froome excepted.

Hyperthetical but cheaper than most doctor based doping no? Or you can go full Ricco and piss black urine.

Maybe just gutted to have come second?

🇫🇷 #TDF2019
we have to confirm that after all medical checks @MaxSchachmann suffered a metacarpal 3, 4 and 5 fractures of his left hand. He will be transfered to Germany for surgical treatment and abandons @LeTour
join us in wishing him all the best and a speedy recovery!

His left wrist looked wrecked he couldn't grip the bars. Brutal ITT.

Sad to see Tony Martin chilling out and coming in over five minutes down in a time trial. It's not his job now, but its sad to see him with his wings clipped.

Is extremely happy at Jumbo and his role in the team.

J.A. Skids to a halt after the T.T. and doesn't even look out of breath!!!!! He can't be clean, I'm amazed the way he's riding!

Thing is you can not point the finger until after the damage has been done . Ie cobo

plenty of finger pointing at nearly every winner. Ie froome

Sagan pulling a one handed wheelie on a tt bike up a 17% gradient was rather amusing in among everything else

Why can't he be clean?

How can he be????!!!

That's his twelfth win of the season, including his second ITT win. The best TT riders in the world, like Dumoulin, Froome, Roglic, Dennis, Campenaerts, etc., are all missing, and the course clearly favoured punchier riders like Alaphilippe rather than big TT powerhouses like Thomas, Dowsett, Kung, etc.

That's how. And not a single exclamation mark.

What if he wins again tomorrow ?

Scepticism is healthy and all but he’s not exactly melting faces on Hautacam circa 1999. He’s not doing that much more than Sagan would be doing if his bones weighed 10kg less.

And if he is on the gear he’s going to the nick if they can prove he did it on French soil once he gets caught which is far worse than most convicted cheats have dealt with so far.

He hasn’t dominated this tour any more than Simon Yates did last year’s Giro, and people didn’t seem suspicious of him? Or did they suspect him last year and then stopped doing so when he spectacularly choked on his own hubris this spring?

If he still swinging in the Alps then his transformation probably will be unbelievable, but until now he’s been marginally better than usual on punchy climbs and he’s been untroubled on flatter/rolling terrain, which for a guy with excellent pedigree on both those terrains who is moving into his prime years, with the huge psychological advantage of being a home darling in the iconic zenith event of the sport, is not really beyond reasonable doubt. Not for me anyway.

Alaphillipe has the same physique and weight as Contador, and although the comparison isn't flattering in terms of doping, he also TT'd amazingly well and climbed like a beast so I'm hoping he lasts the distance tomorrow. At 62kg you'd hope the weight isn't the issue anyways...

Was amazing seeing Alaphillipe and Thomas' form side by side earlier-Thomas looked faster and like he was smashing through every pedal stroke and by comparison Alaphillipe looked like he was taking a pedal down to the shops, really nice relaxed style.

As a postscript to that ^^, I’m not a fanboy saying he’s categorically not doping , I’m just saying if he’s doing it then he’s not alone and almost all of his colleagues at the top of the sport are certainly doing it by virtue of their performances alone as well. You pays your money, you makes your choice.

Maybe riders are also able to actually race, when there isn’t a Team Sky train killing all the joy.

I agree, this has been a remarkable, captivating tour so far with so many ups and downs.

I’m also of the mind that Thomas rides for one of the most nefarious teams in history that’s headed by the king of the snakes, and thus today’s “on the ropes” interview was part of a wider plan to make JA think he can hang on until Paris and go into the red so badly that Thomas can plough a double digit lead into him and have it sewn up before Quickstep can say “how long until Omloop?”

I'm hoping Bernal will get a chance to show us what he's capable of as well-I admire how Thomas has transformed himself but there's nothing more exciting than seeing a really gifted climber forcing a race instead of a bunch of track/tt specialists pacing themselves up a climb and trying to hold on.

Sky also don't seem to have the same engine that they used to with Kiryienka and Sioutsou murdering the pace till half way up every climb.

Also true. Other teams recruiting big rigs for those roles seems to have opened things up a little.

I think it’s clear Bernal has been telling the truth when he’s said he’s there to learn and he’s not quite the finished stone he’ll no doubt become. So the prospect of him fulfilling team duties until Thomas’s title is in the bag and then being aloud to fly is exciting.

It’s not particularly likely given his team’s history, especially if the race stays this open, but if it happens I’ll be cracking beers and watching with glee

andyp, I don't want to annoy anyone on the forum, I've been a member for years. If you think JA is clean you think it, I'm really dubious of the performances of most pro riders, I've been racing myself since 1985, saw my first Tour that year, I can't see how they're not "assisted" I think the "Omarta" is as strong now as its always been, going back to Anquetil and before him.