Tour de France 2012

I don't think Martin's up to it yet. Although he should be fairly rested after sitting on the back for most of the race so far, he's still got a bust wrist. He'll have to change his TT position to accommodate it, and I think that will compromise him.

Don't want to sound all, 'Come on Tim!' but I reckon Wiggo will nail it.

While I cannot prove anything, I remain convinced that Wiggins does not dope and would be hugely surprised if it emerged that he did.

1. His performances on the track show that he is a supremely talented athlete.
   2, His reaction to the Cofidis affair.
   3, His being part of the Sky set up and British Cycling which are, as far as I can tell,
   Focused on marginal gains that do not involve drugs. If Wiggins dopes then presumably the whole set up is a sham which I find hard to believe.
   
2. His performance in the 2010 Tour. Did he get his doses wrong or, more probably, did his training regime go wrong. The latter is far more credible.
   
   

There is an interesting piece in Ned Boulting's book about the 2011 Tour where a tour official says to him that they were very relieved that Voeckler failed to win. For an outsider to win would create suspicion of doping even if no doping was involved. This is a bizarre position. Was it better to have Armstrong and then Contador's winning time and time again?

I understand Wiggins' anger. He has done all he can to win clean and because he has tried so hard he is accused of cheating.

I also believe inEvans and Froome.

Tony Martin has been struggling ever since that crash. Also isnt his scaphoid broken? I dont reckon hes good for it this year. He has spent the entire time at the back or dropping off the back of the peloton

I don't think he's got the legs to win it but Millar said yesterday that he took things easy yesterday in order to have a good showing in the iTT.

Tony Martin has been struggling ever since that crash. Also isnt his scaphoid broken? I dont reckon hes good for it this year. He has spent the entire time at the back or dropping off the back of the peloton

It is broken, but whether that will make any difference remains to be seen. I think he has struggled up hill because he has bulked up for the Olympic TT as his main priority, (or at least I recall reading that).

Today's predictions;

Cancellara first
Martin second by a small margin
Wiggins around sixth with three seconds into Cuddles and another two in Nibali.

Regards, Bumface, he doesn't get accused of doping because he uses sonic interference to control the minds of his accusers. Obvs realy

Nibali was talking about limiting his loses to 1 min 30. so if he is only 5 seconds back he will think he can win the tour.

My predictions:

1. cancellara
   
2. martin
   
3. wiggo
   evans +22 seconds
   Nibbles + 1 min 15
   
   

froome is the interesting one for me. I hope he nails it. i guess he will be around evans time

Predictions are a mugs game.

COME ON TIM!

Hero.

And as far as the doping debate goes, is anyone else ODing on schadenfreude everytime Valverde hits the tarmac?

Awesome to see lantern rouge Brice Feillu finish with a short 57.. It's going to be a fast day for the TT specialists.

Awesome to see lantern rouge Brice Feillu finish with a short 57.. .

excuse my ignorance. what does a short 57 mean?

57 mins and 33 sec.. in TT parlance this is termed as a "short"... It could almost be considered a "long" 57 as it's over 30 secs but I figure 33 is still pretty short.. If he did 57.52 this would be a "long" 57

how are Froome's performances unbelievable? whats your basis?

Vuelta, 2nd overall last year from nowhere.

Froome was always a good rider. Nothing until you're 26 - normal behaviour with a good team.

And he ain't lighting it up - he just won well a middling hard stage early on. No disrespect to him.

I'm not sure he really "left" Evans and Wiggins either. More they had other concerns.

Where were Froome's other big wins then, before Vuelta 2nd on GC? Someone hasn't added them to wikipedia yet?

After towing the bunch to the finish and attacking a previous winner. 'Just winning' a stage in Le Tour? Oh really.. maybe I'll have a crack.

Meh. They're all on good gear. Doesn't mean I can't enjoy it.

You've completely misunderstood my perspective. I think Wiggins is clean, I think Froome is clean, I think Sky are clean. As I said in that thread. My point is that it's easy to to take the template of lies, evasions and excuses that dopers used to use, fit it, roughly but not actually accurately, over Sky's success and say voila!

Voila!

57 mins and 33 sec.. in TT parlance this is termed as a "short"... It could almost be considered a "long" 57 as it's over 30 secs but I figure 33 is still pretty short.. If he did 57.52 this would be a "long" 57

That's because it is a long 57. 30s is the middle, above that is long, below short.

/trolling

cunt

Predictions are a mugs game.

COME ON TIM!

This.

I think Cobo losing 21 minutes on stage 7 is way more suspicious than Sky riders being consistent.

on my cycle down holloway road into work i assumed a relatively TT position on my whip and told myself if i managed to reacha number of the junctions before the lights changed from green to amber then wiggo would win the TT.

Based on that scientific experiment Wiggins will bosh it.

COME ON TIM

Vuelta, 2nd overall last year from nowhere.

Second to Cobo, one of Menchov's domestiques. Hmmm

For me the Belle Filles was a pretty flat stage with a short, hard climb at the end. EBH ripped into it, with Rogers and the Porte doing about 1k each and then Froome took it over. It was well drilled and they had obviously trained to do it like that. Yesterday people expected them to do the said on the final climb, yet it was Liquigas and Lotto putting the work in, and although Froome was there at the end he looked like he was struggling, and could have kept the polka dots if he has nipped forward and gone over third on the climb, but he went over last. He said before the stage he was feeling tired (incidentally the entire team had been woken early by the testing team, which was one factor).

I'm glad of the support for Bradley, because him doping just doesn't make sense, and Sky institutionally doping casts an entire shadow over GB cycling's entire operation, including all those gold medals. As I said, they train harder and better and have a lot of finacial resources at their disposal. Lots of money tends to equate to good atheletes.

I also think the innuendo comes because of Sky's relative youth, their corporate backing, the fact their top rider comes from the track, and the simple fact that they are British, not exactly a traditional bastion of road cycling.

Anyway, onwards and upwards: if Wiggin's has the same pace over Cadel as did in the prologue he can put a minute into him, if he can manage the relative pace from the Dauphine it could be a minute in a half, and Nibali about 3 minutes back. Martin has come to the tour for ITT wins alone, so we will see how he managed with that injury. Cancellera is probably the favourite.

Hero.

Love this

I think Cobo losing 21 minutes on stage 7 is way more suspicious than Sky riders being consistent.

No-one is going to argue Cobo is clean. He isn't British for starters.

That'll be on the meme thread in one way or another before long. Fantastic picture though.