Tour de France 2021

47.9km avg speed so far today. Anyone know what the avg speeds were back in the steel frame, box-section rim days? Just wondering about aero influence.

I don't think a few stimulants are comparable to oxygen vector doping.

How so? He was likely using the best shit available to him at the time and both are blatant cheating.

Is someone more of a cheat because they take a car to the finish line rather than a train? No, they're both cheats.

http://www.bikeraceinfo.com/tdf/tdfstats.html

80s appears to be a few kph slower than now.

But if you talking aero - clothing is much bigger factor than bikes and wheels.

Stimulants can't turn donkeys into racehorses, whereas O2 vector doping can. Morally I suppose they are equivalent, but from a performance perspective, they aren't.

Cheating is cheating and I think you're seriously underestimating the benefits to endurance riders of stimulants.

As I said in here week or so ago, it can only be a good thing for the sport if the record holder has never failed a test. Not taking anything away frm merckx's achievements. He's the GOAT imho. It's just that cycling needs to move on from that era.

It's just that cycling needs to move on from that era.

Yeah, good luck with that.

merckx is extremely irreverent to the powermeter generation pidcock, pog, remco etc

same for their fans I'd assume; he is to me

lance is more relevant

Go on a bike ride after snorting a fat line. No offense meant, just try it.

Don't want to get into this too deeply but the effect depends on the individual drug. Not all stimulants are created equal. Same for most drugs. The same way that most opiates are detrimental to sporting performance but Tramadol has mild to moderate ability to reduce perception of effort.

I’ll supply the .GPX if …

Maybe the "I only watch the TdF" lot should go back to watching tennis or football.

Football is incredibly boring most of the time. Basketball is a lot better

I'll pass on both, but suggest ice hockey.

1) Cycling - best sport to do IRL
2) Baseball / cricket - best sport for stat wonks
3) Basketball - best sport for clothing / shoes
4) Football - best sport for social division, furthering the patriarchy, and fuelling male violence
5) Snooker - best sport to watch on TV
6) Darts - best sport for substance abuse
7) Skateboarding - skateboarding is not a sport
8) Tennis / Ruby / anything at the Olympics - most people are out of energy for these niche pursuits except for once a year max
9) Ice hockey - IRL is great but still after all these years of improved resolution it's still impossible to see the goddamn puck on the telly

Dis tru

Fastest ever tour stage was 99 (Cipollini at 50.3km/hr for 194k)

still impossible to see the goddamn puck on the telly

:) trufax!

5) is bullshit though.

I’d argue singles tennis is a great sport for psychological drama. Djokovic vs Tsisipas at Roland Garros was incredible, and I’m not usually a tennis fan.

Good list, though.

I wouldnt want to go anywhere near a long distance cycle at high tempo after snorting a big fat line. I presume you mean coke.

Some base or something, ok maybe it would work. But coke would be a disaster.

"His name was on the list of doping tests published by the French Senate on 24 July 2013 that were collected during the 1998 Tour de France and found positive for EPO when retested in 2004" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mario_Cipollini

"let me tell you about my Jane Plan"

Go fuck yourself.

Yeah, I guess you'd have to go back to the 50s?

Nice. Can't decide if bowls goes in with 5 or 6.

Yeah I love tennis, althought my enjoyment of watching it has strangely faded over the years. Maybe only with age do I realise what a headfuck it is. They all have the knowledge and confidence to execute any possible shot with perfection, but doing so against a different opponent and on different days makes it a case of internal warfare. As a player I can see it's unbelievably easy to tunnel into a world of self-hatred and anger when shots that have been made hundreds of thousands of times begin to seem impossible to make in the face of a clever opponent (or a bad day).

It's totally different kind of mental resillance to cycling I think.

Isn't bowls more like Monopoly or metal-detecting? I might be thinking of pétanque though.