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2020 Pro Cycling Thread: Spreading Corona with La Caravane du Tour

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Whitewater Horn

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1 minute ago, Captain Ron said:

And while he wasn’t the big loser on the day, Lopez was easily the #2 loser today 3rd to 6th. And congrats to Porte for getting on the Podium, the second biggest winner. 

Stoked for Porte. After what that guy has been through in the Tour the last couple of years, standing on the podium in Paris will be a sweet reward. 

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Knoxtnhorn

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I was pulling for the Slovs myself, but am I the only one that questions the ability of a relative newcomer beating the top professional cyclists in the world by a minute and a half?  The oddsmakers didn't even have him on the Stage podium today.  (Rogalic was the odds-on fav.)

Maybe I'm over-analyzing this, but I'd think that, if there was any semblance of a chance that Pogacar would perform that well in the TT, then I would think Jumbo Visma would have been adding more time over the past week seeing as how Pogacar didn't have much of a team in the Alps.  

 

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Whitewater Horn

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10 minutes ago, Knoxtnhorn said:

I was pulling for the Slovs myself, but am I the only one that questions the ability of a relative newcomer beating the top professional cyclists in the world by a minute and a half?  The oddsmakers didn't even have him on the Stage podium today.  (Rogalic was the odds-on fav.)

Maybe I'm over-analyzing this, but I'd think that, if there was any semblance of a chance that Pogacar would perform that well in the TT, then I would think Jumbo Visma would have been adding more time over the past week seeing as how Pogacar didn't have much of a team in the Alps.  

 

Pogacar beating Roglic in the TT by the margin he did was certainly unlikely,  because even though he was able to get the best of Roglic in a couple of finish line sprints, Roglic had been able to keep it very close and not show an amount of weakness to cause concerns for his GC chances. Plus, Jumbo was riding with the kind of dominance of the old Blue Train and Sky teams of the past. Unlikely, yes, but not to the point of being too suspicious in my opinion.
 

Pogacar had ridden the TT course many times and knew it was a place to make up time if it came to that. He rode a very smart race without having the arsenal of support that Roglic has, kept it close all the way up to the ITT, and then the perfect storm of him destroying the entire field and Roglic shitting the bed. That being said, I just assume there are always some shenanigans happening at that level of sport, especially cycling, so I guess it depends on your notion of questioning the ability to Pogacar to beat Roglic. While Roglic was the odds on favorite going into the Tour, this isn’t his first poor TT.  It was the only real question. I’m sure most people figured 57 seconds would be enough, but what happened today was not out of the realm of reasonable probability. The main reason I watched live today was because of this possibility, even though I thought Roglic would do enough to comfortably keep yellow.  It was surprising, but not shocking if that makes sense. 

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G650

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On 9/19/2020 at 12:40 PM, Whitewater Horn said:

Stoked for Porte. After what that guy has been through in the Tour the last couple of years, standing on the podium in Paris will be a sweet reward. 

I'm more amped about this than pretty much anything else this Tour. So happy for him.

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G650

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On 9/19/2020 at 4:36 PM, Whitewater Horn said:

Unlikely, yes, but not to the point of being too suspicious in my opinion.

To be honest, I'm 100% he blood doped. And I like the kid and don't condemn him, but there is no fucking way he took that much time out of Tom Dumoulin in a TT.

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G650

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13 minutes ago, Knoxtnhorn said:

I had suspicions, but I wrote them off to the COVID stuff.  Assumed some don't train well on trainers.  But, it really is suspicious when the likes of Quintana, Sagan, Uran, etc... are getting absolutely blown out of the water by cyclists in their first Tour.

Quintana is actually the one that is the subject of this search. Which is hilarious given how bad he fared post crash.

Tbh, this sounds like a big to do about nothing but in cycling I'm never surprised anymore.

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G650

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1 hour ago, Knoxtnhorn said:

Stupid ? but I get confused...

Is the event coming up - Worlds - the one in which the US did very well last year? Came a spot or two away from beating The Netherlands (or was it Belgium?).

Yeah, that was Quinn Simmons edit:Actually he won gold in juniors, I forgot about that. Ian Garrison is the one that was second in U23.

 

Simmons rides for Trek now, Garrison on Quick Step (Alaphillipe's squad)

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G650

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The French are all in on doping accusations.

https://www.leparisien.fr/amp/sports/cyclisme/tour-de-france-stephane-heulot-a-eu-envie-de-vomir-devant-les-performances-de-pogacar-21-09-2020-8388645.php

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Stéphane Heulot, who wore the yellow jersey in 1996, said he was very disturbed by the performances of Tadej Pogacar, whose UAE team is managed by Mauro Gianetti, who has a very sulphurous past.

It is one more paving stone in Tadej Pogacar's pond. If the Tour de France 2020, which arrived in Paris this Sunday evening, resisted Covid-19, the suspicion is still there after the extraordinary performances of the young Slovenian rider (who celebrates his 22nd birthday this Monday), crowned during his first participation in the Grande Boucle.

Wearing the yellow jersey in 1996, Frenchman Stéphane Heulot said he felt uncomfortable about the victory of Pogacar, a member of the UAE team, managed by the sulphurous Mauro Gianetti, whom Heulot knows well from being his team mate at the Française des Jeux in 1998.

At that time, the Swiss man was in a coma for three days after having taken PFC (a substance used experimentally in hospitals, close to EPO). He then became manager of the Saunier-Duval training, excluded from the Tour in 2008 after the positive control of the Italian Riccardo Ricco.

Honestly, I haven't watched the Tour since Sunday (September 13) and the ascent of the Grand-Colombier (victory of Tadej Pogacar)," he said in Ouest-France. I can't do it anymore, in fact... There are some things that are quite easy to evaluate, though, in terms of performance. I find it hard to understand how a 75 kg runner can climb a pass at breakneck speed and then maintain his climb afterwards. In terms of climbing speed, we've seen things that were not possible for some people either... "

"We may be on chemical doping, but we may also be on electrical doping..."

Following the example of Romain Feillu, another former French yellow jersey who said this week that "those who know the bike know that it is not normal", Heulot confides that he has "serious questions". I think we've taken it up a notch again," he says. You see the emoticon with the desire to vomit, and well I feel that, it disgusts me ..." he continues by targeting, according to him, the real evil that still eats away at this sport.

That people like that (Gianetti), or like others, are still in cycling today, it's unthinkable," he chokes. It's a real mistake. In my opinion, we will never be able to change the system if we don't change people! Doping will be there as long as people are unstoppable. It's as if tomorrow, Al Capone was Minister of Justice... How to get out of all this when 80% of the staff of Jumbo-Visma comes from Rabobank and the then Michael Rasmussen (Editor's note: who had to leave the Tour in 2007)? No, it's not possible... Fortunately, some guys have changed, a lot of guys have changed, but there are still cheaters unfortunately, and you have to be aware of that. »

 

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Napoleon

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On 9/19/2020 at 3:03 PM, Knoxtnhorn said:

I was pulling for the Slovs myself, but am I the only one that questions the ability of a relative newcomer beating the top professional cyclists in the world by a minute and a half?  The oddsmakers didn't even have him on the Stage podium today.  (Rogalic was the odds-on fav.)

Maybe I'm over-analyzing this, but I'd think that, if there was any semblance of a chance that Pogacar would perform that well in the TT, then I would think Jumbo Visma would have been adding more time over the past week seeing as how Pogacar didn't have much of a team in the Alps.  

 

On 9/19/2020 at 3:36 PM, Whitewater Horn said:

Pogacar beating Roglic in the TT by the margin he did was certainly unlikely,  because even though he was able to get the best of Roglic in a couple of finish line sprints, Roglic had been able to keep it very close and not show an amount of weakness to cause concerns for his GC chances. Plus, Jumbo was riding with the kind of dominance of the old Blue Train and Sky teams of the past. Unlikely, yes, but not to the point of being too suspicious in my opinion.
 

Pogacar had ridden the TT course many times and knew it was a place to make up time if it came to that. He rode a very smart race without having the arsenal of support that Roglic has, kept it close all the way up to the ITT, and then the perfect storm of him destroying the entire field and Roglic shitting the bed. That being said, I just assume there are always some shenanigans happening at that level of sport, especially cycling, so I guess it depends on your notion of questioning the ability to Pogacar to beat Roglic. While Roglic was the odds on favorite going into the Tour, this isn’t his first poor TT.  It was the only real question. I’m sure most people figured 57 seconds would be enough, but what happened today was not out of the realm of reasonable probability. The main reason I watched live today was because of this possibility, even though I thought Roglic would do enough to comfortably keep yellow.  It was surprising, but not shocking if that makes sense. 

 

On 9/21/2020 at 11:06 AM, G650 said:

To be honest, I'm 100% he blood doped. And I like the kid and don't condemn him, but there is no fucking way he took that much time out of Tom Dumoulin in a TT.

First half of this article focuses on the arrests, but the second part is straight up Floyd Landis-esque.

"STUNNING PERFORMANCE

[STRIKE THREE??*] This year's Tour was won by Slovenian Tadej Pogacar, who produced one of the most stunning performances in recent history in the final time trial last Saturday.

[STRIKE ONE*] The 22-year-old is with Team UAE Emirates, which is managed by Mauro Gianetti and Matxin Fernandez, sports directors at Saunier Duval in 2008 when the team left the Tour in the wake of Ricardo Ricco's failed doping test.

[STRIKE TWO*] The duo were also managing the Geox-TMC team when Spaniard Juan Jose Cobo won the Vuelta in 2011, only to be stripped of the title because of a "violation of the anti-doping rules (use of a banned substance) based on irregularities found in his Athlete Biological Passport in 2009 and 2011".

'I am too young to remember that era,' said Pogacar when asked about his entourage at UAE Emirates. 🤥

'I was 10 in 2008 and it's weird to be talking about this because it goes against everything I believe in.' 🤥

The last notable rider to fail a doping test on the Tour was Luxembourg's Frank Schleck in 2012."

https://sports.yahoo.com/cycling-thrown-fresh-turmoil-tour-090329996.html 

* "STRIKE"s added by me.

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52-80

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Once again a reminder of how strange and weird endurance sports is. 

In skill sports, you can't quantify at what *natural* rate you expect Brees to complete a pass, or Klay to make a shot. 

In endurance sports, the athlete is just a sack of flesh carrying a lung with respiratory capacity used in a known energy equation.  Oh this is your VO2max?  with your weight on this terrain, this is how fast bio-physics allow you to go.  Faster than that, you are cheating.

The near end-state of cycling really DOES seem like it'll be a bunch of guys riding a stationary bike competing on Zwift.  The future end-state will be a bunch of guys in a medical lab with probes and oxygen sensors.  Whoever measures the highest value wins.

 

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G650

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On 9/25/2020 at 3:23 PM, Knoxtnhorn said:

Ugh.  Anyone see Chloe Dygert crash in the women's TT yesterday?  Over the rails @ 30 mph.  She was about to win as well.

Men's TT today, women's road tomorrow, men's road Sun.  No youth or U-23 events.

Yeah, it was fucking gnarly. She seems to be in really good spirits though thankfully

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Napoleon

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On 9/25/2020 at 2:23 PM, Knoxtnhorn said:

Ugh.  Anyone see Chloe Dygert crash in the women's TT yesterday?  Over the rails @ 30 mph.  She was about to win as well.

Men's TT today, women's road tomorrow, men's road Sun.  No youth or U-23 events.

It was MUCH BETTER than if she had hit that guard rail head-on. 

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Whitewater Horn

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Tadej said the other day that it would a fairly tale ending for Slovenian cycling if Roglic won the worlds after he won the Tour. This move may be forcing the Belgians to work harder so he can set up Roclic later. Or he could use those fresh red blood cells, I mean elite time trial ability to possibly stay away. At least it’s getting interesting now. 

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