Tour de France 2012

awesome win for you pinot yesterday. wiggo has done well today too. enjoying this immensely.

I don't see the issue - Wiggo is one of the best time trial it's out there, Spatacus was probably not at his peak after the previous stages, and Froome is clearly going to be one of the best over the next generation.

Sky have bought a whole new level of prep and focus to running a Tour team, using Brailsforss Olympic nous.

I think Wiggins needs to be incredibly worried about Evans following the performance that he's just put in.

Obviously cycling nice and slow will be a comfort, but even zombies tend to stay down from a headshot like that. Clearly being reanimated by the evil wizard Bruyneel. Most likely going to try and eat Wiggo's brains in the rest day.

I won't mention it again

Please dont.

It's fucking boring.

Thanks

Please dont.

It's fucking boring.

Thanks

You sound smiffed.

Groan

Do we have to play the "name the last Tour winner who was clean?" game again.

Then all you fucktards who think doping is something we should brush under the carpet might shut the fuck up.

evans?

Do you think Francis was doping?

He shows all the signs... mood swings, unnatural performance spikes. I think WADA need to stomp that fool before he tries going on another tour.

evans?

Hopefully, but some of the company he keeps, especially in team management positions, doesn't exactly fill you with confidence. Plus he's ridden for some extremely dodgy teams in his time, especially T-Mobile, who were running team wide doping programmes.

Do you think Francis was doping?

He shows all the signs... mood swings, unnatural performance spikes. I think WADA need to stomp that fool before he tries going on another tour.
and did you see the way he was smashing it up and down alongside that river??

Do you think Francis was doping?

Repped.

Can't wait to see what Evans is going to try in the hills to get that time back.

Thing is - now he's got Froome to worry about as well. I can see Froome launching an attack to try and put time into Evans and leaving him no choice but to go and tire himself out chasing it down.

^^^They'll never pin it on him, he'll just blame it on the contaminated frogs legs he had the night before the test.

it would be nice to see froome attack but does he need to?

Do we have to play the "name the last Tour winner who was clean?" game again.

Then all you fucktards who think doping is something we should brush under the carpet might shut the fuck up.
i don't think anyone is suggesting that doping should be brushed under the carpet but does bleating on about in a thread about a current race based on fuck all help much?

Looked like Brad was winding up for a good old track spew on the finishing line just as they cut on the highlights. He went deeeep.

On a more positive note Francis is now crying on a mountain somewhere.

Francis probably ran out of ket and can't remember how to get home.

Bradley was probably hungering for that victory pot noodle Brailsford's been promising him for the last 3 months of being fed nothing but pureed lettuce and new secret recipe dry water.

that sky performance was certainly incredible.
I think that peoples problem is that it was so good as to have bllllurrred the line between incredible and un-credible.

I feel shellshocked. Can you imagine how Evans feels?

I think the whole peleton will be out to attack sky on every stage now. If they can keep up.

It reminded me of Wiggins' performance in the last stage of the Paris Nice.

If he can repeat it on stage 19 he will be well set for a glorious finish.

Just makes one wonder what might have happened last year if he hadn't broken his collar bone.

That had to happen last year so that Brailsford could personally install a "Steve Austin" collarbone.

i don't think anyone is suggesting that doping should be brushed under the carpet but does bleating on about in a thread about a current race based on fuck all help much?

+1

None of us are anywhere close to the truth with theories of who is/isn't doping. No matter how many 'sources' we might discover online any suspicions amount to a col de beans.

If you enjoy theorising about doping I think there is a thread for it please. The confrontation and apparent anger (judging by the name calling) is getting in the way of following great racing.

More importantly... Sanddance doesn't have Froome in his Velogames team. Will he be toppled?

I do find the conspiracy theorists rather amusing, but I think it is perfectly legitimate to question performances that are surprising or out of the ordinary. Whether those who wish to quash doping talk like it or not, the fact remains that cycling has had a long standing doping problem that has meant the last 20 years of the Tour have been almost farcical.

Factor in this frankly risible view that British riders don't dope and you can see why there is some contention on this thread.

Personally I think Sky's performance comes down to good planning, excellent coaching and a budget that most teams can only dream of, which means you can have riders who would be leaders on other teams (like Porte, Froome and even Rogers) riding as domestiques.