Jaysus cycling! (3 Viewers)

:Lobs 10 grands worth of bike off bridge into rocks:

"Without a bike I'm nobody".

....mate.

How did he even get home.

The lad's THIRTY NINE YEARS OLD, and he's still on contract with a world tour team... and the cunt gets selected to ride the TdF.

And as a response to this enormous failure, he has a grump at the dinner table and he decides he needs to step things up a bit?

Is this Chris Horner's biopic?

No. It can't be Chris Horner's biopic, because he doesn't start running a transfusion bag the moment he gets off the bike. And not he's plugged into a robocop machine that regenerates all his organs when he gets back to his room.

Although they do say it's about a professional loser.
 
on the 1997 Tour penultimate stage (Futuroscope TT won by Olano) broadcast
on Eurosport David Duffield (1931-2016 RIP) was interviewing a Failte Eireann / Bord Failte
guy promoting the following years Grand Depart in Ireland.

then 1996 winner Bjarne Riis (who has made a miserable defence of his title) has a
mechanical and Duffers breaks back into commentary.

Riis has to stop and then when getting going again his chain falls off:
poor 'Mr 60%' loses the rag and picks up his bike and hurls his beautiful pink Pinarello
into the grass verge.
the mechanics and the DS (Godefroot ? Pevenage ?) gets out of the car but is terrified to go near Riis.
Riis proceeds to ship many minutes and finishes 7th on GC.
after this all calms down Duffers goes back to talking to the Failte eejit who is a bit shocked
and now doesn't know what to say.

never forgot that after all these years.
so I think there has to be some reference to Riis in The Racer movie considering both are
wearing pink jerseys ?


unfortunately Riis is back in cycling as manager and co-owner of the NTT team.

I've always enjoyed watching NTT's Pozzovivo he has had a few bad crashes (quitting
a Giro after landing on his face, breaking his leg just before a Vuelta)
But yet another catastrophic crash last year seemed to have ended his career (broken leg,
arm, collarbone...) and then he crashed out of the Tour.
anyway at 37 he's flying at the Giro at the moment, but he's always been good.

also have to criticise NTT was for sidelining the African ethos of the team.
not one black rider was selected for the Tour and only one white (South) African.

Ghegbreizgabhier (now at the Giro) and Dlamini are the only black riders on the squad now.

I think the last two years you could argue things have gone backwards for African
and black pro cyclists.
 
here's Riis in action in 1997:
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actually it was a guy from Stena (who supplied 2 or 3 ships to get
the race back to Brittany in 1998) who is promoting the 1998 start with
commentator Stephen Roche also playing a blinder plugging Ireland.
even better than I remember.

Riis went into the TT with chances of moving up the GC but as there was
nearly half an hour between the top 10 he managed to hold on to 7th place.

Riis was worse than Wiggo, Froome or Thomas.
 
:Lobs 10 grands worth of bike off bridge into rocks:

"Without a bike I'm nobody".

....mate.

How did he even get home.

The lad's THIRTY NINE YEARS OLD, and he's still on contract with a world tour team... and the cunt gets selected to ride the TdF.

And as a response to this enormous failure, he has a grump at the dinner table and he decides he needs to step things up a bit?

Is this Chris Horner's biopic?

No. It can't be Chris Horner's biopic, because he doesn't start running a transfusion bag the moment he gets off the bike. And not he's plugged into a robocop machine that regenerates all his organs when he gets back to his room.

Although they do say it's about a professional loser.
gas, Horner wins the Vuelta at 39 just as his contract is expiring. No one will touch him with a barge pole. I think he ends up at Lampre, then fades into the obscurity, where he always should have been.
 
gas, Horner wins the Vuelta at 39 just as his contract is expiring. No one will touch him with a barge pole. I think he ends up at Lampre, then fades into the obscurity, where he always should have been.
I don't completely understand my horror of Chris Horner. He's the sort of guy you don't even accuse of doping, because it's clearly implicit. There's no question he's doping, a lot, so let's just spare the awkward questions.

What's making it worse is the fact he's picking up work some of the US TV networks as a cycling pundit, I get reminded of him regularly. Bad buzz altogether.

He manages to continue his shitty cycling career with a shitty punditing career.
 
Chris Horner was actually nearly 42 when he won the Vuelta in 2013.
he was with FDJ from 97-99 and I barely noticed him.
apart from his balding ponytail.
whatever happened he never started a grand tour with them.

Alaphilippe broke two bones in his hand after colliding with the motorbike
in Flanders yesterday. could have been a lot worse.
 
I don't completely understand my horror of Chris Horner. He's the sort of guy you don't even accuse of doping, because it's clearly implicit. There's no question he's doping, a lot, so let's just spare the awkward questions.

What's making it worse is the fact he's picking up work some of the US TV networks as a cycling pundit, I get reminded of him regularly. Bad buzz altogether.

He manages to continue his shitty cycling career with a shitty punditing career.
remember Levi as well. When Discovery announced Lance wouldn't ride La Vuelta, they decided not to even invite the team. Anything US Cycling related at that time was a laughing stock. Remember the 'Let Levi Ride' campaign on twitter, and the even more popular, 'Let Levi Cry' campaign!
 
remember Levi as well. When Discovery announced Lance wouldn't ride La Vuelta, they decided not to even invite the team. Anything US Cycling related at that time was a laughing stock. Remember the 'Let Levi Ride' campaign on twitter, and the even more popular, 'Let Levi Cry' campaign!
I don't remember that but.... the American golden generation born in the 70's were dodgy as fuck.
Vaughters is by far most the credible of that lot.

nearly all their major riders of that era were team mates of Lance at some point
w/ Motorola, US Postal, Discovery and Astana.

until then the 90's North Americans had a very good reputation actually.

one thing I do remember is looking for cycling books to read and until the late 2000's
there was little available in English that wasn't about the Tour or Lance.

also I got sick of buying magazines in the 2000's that continually had Lance, Hamilton,
Hincapie, Landis etc on the cover.

when the Cavendish generation came along the UK magazines started to shift their
focus to the UK market.
 
I don't remember that but.... the American golden generation born in the 70's were dodgy as fuck.
Vaughters is by far most the credible of that lot.

nearly all their major riders of that era were team mates of Lance at some point
w/ Motorola, US Postal, Discovery and Astana.

until then the 90's North Americans had a very good reputation actually.

one thing I do remember is looking for cycling books to read and until the late 2000's
there was little available in English that wasn't about the Tour or Lance.

also I got sick of buying magazines in the 2000's that continually had Lance, Hamilton,
Hincapie, Landis etc on the cover.

when the Cavendish generation came along the UK magazines started to shift their
focus to the UK market.
ah my bad, it wasn't Disco, it was Radioshack

 
RadioShack ? totally forgot about them !
haha, I did too. Thats why I said Discovery. But it was all the 'shack in Lance's comeback years. They were such a nothing team really. Can't really blame La Vuelta for not wanting them. I think that might have been what was partly responsible for the ProTour, where all teams at that level had to be invited to top-level races.
 
no Roubaix next Sunday but the Vuelta is starting tomorrow, so it will be a hectic week regardless.
I wonder if two Grand Tours have ever been on simultaneously before ?

La Vuelta ciclista a España 2020 | Startlist

Sam n' Dan are racing in Spain.
Ackermann is the only major opposition in the sprints.

also after the lack of many black riders at the Tour and Giro
Manzin, Grmay, Berhane, Kudus and Dlamini will be in action.
 
no Roubaix next Sunday but the Vuelta is starting tomorrow, so it will be a hectic week regardless.
I wonder if two Grand Tours have ever been on simultaneously before ?

La Vuelta ciclista a España 2020 | Startlist

Sam n' Dan are racing in Spain.
Ackermann is the only major opposition in the sprints.

also after the lack of many black riders at the Tour and Giro
Manzin, Grmay, Berhane, Kudus and Dlamini will be in action.
yeah, back in the day I think La Vuelta and the Giro ran at the same time. Thats why Kelly could never really ride (or properly compete in) the Giro. His (mostly) Spanish bosses wouldn't have it.
 
Vaughters is by far most the credible of that lot.


Vaughters is a weird one. He's on The Tweeter like a mofo, he clearly has opinions and designs for the future of cycling. I think he's broadly speaking chaotic good for the sport. Probably?

Despite the fact the LA is clearly a lunatic in lots of regards, he does know about cycling. His podcasts with Johan Bruneel (who's probably an even more distasteful person than LA) and Hincapie are insightful, and I watch them.

But LA barely gets through an hour talking about cycling before he mentions how much he thinks Vaughters is a twat. Normally I'd ignore this, but there appears to also be a large body of other people in cycling who also think Vaughters is an absolute gobshite.

I feel like I've missed a few pages in the story. Vaughters, to me, is on the reasonably radical reforming of cycling front. As is LA, as are loads of sensible people.

But somehow Vaughters simultaneously gets singled out for massive amounts of shit from almost everyone, from all sides. Does anyone know what everyone's contention with Vaughters actually is?
 
I was almost certain you were wrong but...
between 1979 and 1994 there was one exception alright:
apparently the Giro started in 1986 on May 12th - the day before the Vuelta finished.

when Merckx did the Vuelta double in 1973 there was a five day turnaround
and when Giovanni Battaglin won both in 1981 it was only three days (10 and 13 May).


Kelly finished 3rd in the 1986 Vuelta behind Alvaro Pino and Millar also winning a couple
of stages and the points jersey which he won every time he finished the Vuelta.

I read an interview with Battaglin in the 2000's in Cyclesport.
he had to start the 1982 Giro with major injuries to his torso fearing his team Inoxpran
(pre Carrera) would fold otherwise. so one of his organs (heart I think) is squashed against
his ribs ever since and it's too dangerous to operate on and fix.
they made 'em hard in them days.

when Kelly he rode for Kas (1986-88) I think he wanted to ride the Giro but
the sponsors insisted he kept doing Spanish races.

in 1984 and 1986 he finished 2nd Flanders, then flew to the Basque country that night.
won three stages (both times) during the week and the GC at Pais Basque race on Friday
and then came back up to win Roubaix all in eight days.
 
remember Levi as well. When Discovery announced Lance wouldn't ride La Vuelta, they decided not to even invite the team. Anything US Cycling related at that time was a laughing stock. Remember the 'Let Levi Ride' campaign on twitter, and the even more popular, 'Let Levi Cry' campaign!

Levy has a least fucked off into oblivion. I don't have to look at his stupid bald head and listen to his achingly boring, tedious insights. Levy never really pitched himself as a TV celeb pundit. He was always just a boring, doping, cyclist. I'd managed to semi forget about Levi ever existing.

If Horner brought some insight, or intelligence, I could probably overcome my visceral dislike of him. I listen to Johan Bruneel FFS. But... he does not.

"Let's just check in with Chris Horner, in his little corner of the studio, with his little bulshit prop thing he seems to want to use. Over to you Chris! :)"

"As you can see the men are on the bikes. The bikes they have to ride over the line. They have to ride up the hill. The first person over the line would be the winner. And that's cycling!"

"Thanks Chris! Back to the rest of today's coverage."
 
I so out of the loop I thought Lance and Bruyneel didn't get on for years !
they deserve every other because they can hardly empathise with anyone else in the world.
I've seen Lance and Hincapie (who barely says anything) blog thing and it was really boring.

I have no experience of Leipheimer or Horner as pundits.

Vaughters wrote a bio two years back where he says he was diagnosed with Asbergers
when he was about 40.
his long time big plan seems to be for teams to get some of the broadcast money.

people like Zabel and Voeckler were popular with the media but people who dealt
with both regularly said less flattering things.
Erik was an aloof team mate. Voeckler was the most annoying bossy guy who
you could ever get in a break with (and very successful at winning out of them).

so who knows.
but most team mangers have zilch cred when it come to anti-doping.
and if Lance hates you must be doing something right.
 
I can't remember the exact details but I remember Tyler Farrar coming down in a sprint in an early TdeF stage one year. Vaughters immediately blamed another rider for the crash and marched over to their team bus looking for a showdown. I wish I could remember who the other rider was (McEwan, maybe) but they were so shocked they just apologised for what happened. Then the video evidence completely exonerated him.

Vaughters is a prick. He was a doper when he rode. He runs a team under the guise of clean, but that team is as toxic as any of them out there (relative to their budget). Wiggins came 4th in the TdeF riding for that team when they were Garmin. That long Canadian streak of piss, Hejedesal won the Giro riding for that team. He used to disappear to Hawaii every spring for 'training'. Fucker was off getting loaded. It all came out in the wash eventually.
 
I never made the transition to social media so much of what happens outside
racing passes me now (I got smart phone for the first time two months ago but
I put off having one for as long as I could)

JV was first team mate of Lance to openly make enemies with him so I'll still give him
credit for that but yeah, he's closer to the Dave Millar mark otherwise.
I suppose Landis and Hamilton told the real story in the end (Hamilton's book
written w/ Daniel Coyle is excellent)

one thing I remember which was a sign things weren't well -
Vaughters and Matt White in the Garmin days colluded to sack Aussie rider Trent Lowe
about 10 years ago.
Lowe suffered from chronic fatigue and injuries and he was owed about 15,000
(maybe a months salary ?)
they used many slurs to get out of paying him including that he consulted
Dr. Luis Garcia Del Moral, when in fact Matt White had sent Lowe to visit him.
this led to White being sacked.
there was emails released which were shocking - the first 3 or 4 in the conversation
left Lowe perplexed as to why JV, who he considered a friend, wasn't replying....

Interview With Trent Lowe | CyclingTips



until cycling resumed I never heard of Joao Almeida but his results prior to the Giro
were exceptional for a 22 y.o.

the idea that a riders neo pro year is just for learning seems to have gone out
the window.
something is not right, something must have changed the last few years.
 

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