2012 Pro-cycling season thread

It strikes me that the level of professionalism in cycling, even at pro tour level, isn't massively high. Doping aside, I think you probably can rise head and shoulders above a lot of teams if you are professionally organised and I think that is what we are seeing with Sky this year.

This. Talking of doping is idiotic in my opinion, but I suppose predictable, given cycling's history. This is what Brailsford says:

"If it came out of the blue people would be entitled to raise their eyebrows but it's not new, they should look at our record on the track where we went from nothing to dominate an Olympic Games. We've taken the same approach, the same methodology and we are seeing improvements."

Considering Bradley has had a fourth place in the Tour, and won this race last year there should be no doubt over him. As for the rest of the team in the Dauphine, Shy basically unleashed pratically their first choice roster. Froome was second in the Vuelta, Porte won the Tour of Algarve and both represent potential GC winners in Grand Tours in the future, and Micheal Rogers is an ex-World Champion time trialist. It was a show of strength that was unmatched by the other teams and it magnified the performance in contrast. Everyone will bring their A game to the tour and Sky won't be able to boss it like they did this race.

Fucking shame success in cycling will always bring doubts these days