Tour de France 2007 thread (3 Viewers)

Oh, it'll be the Sunday after a 250km race around flanders too (the world's).

I guess that I'd the one thing, with the world's the previous week in flanders, it isn't a lone event, the classics riders are still looking at the calendar and won't have stopped racing at that point and for anyone still feeling adventurous, Paris tours is the next weekend after that
 
Oh, it'll be the Sunday after a 250km race around flanders too (the world's).

I guess that I'd the one thing, with the world's the previous week in flanders, it isn't a lone event, the classics riders are still looking at the calendar and won't have stopped racing at that point and for anyone still feeling adventurous, Paris tours is the next weekend after that
either that or it'll give someone else who wouldn't normally aim to peak for the northern classics, a chance to make a name for themselves. Lombardy won't be far off around then either so someone planning their season right could give themselves a decent shot at 2 monuments (though the profiles of PR and Lombardy would suggest that the same rider can't win both - maybe except someone clearly juiced off their head like WVA).

Some lads are breaking their holes right now and won't last that late into the season. Sam Bennett, for example. I can see him doing one grand tour and calling an end to his season after that (probably the tour). Looking at the effort he put in last sunday, he'll be ready for a rest come July.
 
I've seen the end of the second part of the ESPN Lance doc. where he blames cycling for people dying when Lance himself was by far the biggest bully I've seen in the sport which shows how deluded he is.
he's a dangerous psychopath and is constantly trying to rehabilitate his reputation.
the documentary needed more critical voices.

one reason why I don't get that angry with the Tour winners in last fifteen years is that compared to Lance they are all relatively harmless.
 
he's a dangerous psychopath and is constantly trying to rehabilitate his reputation.
This is the overwhelming feeling I got from it, even though it seemed like it was doing its damnedest to not convey that sentiment.
Think it must be the same doc too, cause it said there was a part 2 to be shown at some point, I just saw part 1.
 
This is the overwhelming feeling I got from it, even though it seemed like it was doing its damnedest to not convey that sentiment.
Think it must be the same doc too, cause it said there was a part 2 to be shown at some point, I just saw part 1.
yeah - it just went up to 1999 and winning his first Tour and the aftermath.
I never liked Lance but by the start of 2000 he was setting new lows for bringing a corporate American,
celebrity culture mentality into cycling.

Froome is extremely low key - doesn't seem to do personal endorsements/adverts at all which is almost unheard of for someone of his fame.
 
Thats literally the only difference between Lance and the others. He was a dirty, despicable, prick. That was the only reason he was brought down. All your tour champions since, with the exception of Wiggins, have been quiet and unassuming, a lesson they no doubt learned from the mistakes of Lance .

Froome is a horrible prick but the media didn't have a horn for destroying him, the way they did to Lance.

And we're seeing now the evidence of why that was, starting to come to light. I mean, it's hardly a shock to anyone that Froome was juiced off his head. But now it seems British Cycling were an integral part of state-sponsored doping in the lead-up (and beyond) to London 2012. Again, thats not really any surprise.

The only explanation as to why they weren't getting busted left, right and center after 2012, had to have been because it was state-sponsored, including careful control of media reporting.

They really shot themselves in the foot by bringing down Russia. That only ended up drawing more attention to themselves.

Every grand tour victory by a British rider - Wiggins, Froome, Thomas, Geoghegan - is tainted. Every medal they won at London 2012, is tainted.

Remember, they gave these cunts knighthoods for basically being dirty fucking cheats. Though they didn't make that mistake with Froome. No way they'd give him one given how obviously dirty he was.
 
Thats literally the only difference between Lance and the others. He was a dirty, despicable, prick. That was the only reason he was brought down. All your tour champions since, with the exception of Wiggins, have been quiet and unassuming, a lesson they no doubt learned from the mistakes of Lance .

Froome is a horrible prick but the media didn't have a horn for destroying him, the way they did to Lance.

And we're seeing now the evidence of why that was, starting to come to light. I mean, it's hardly a shock to anyone that Froome was juiced off his head. But now it seems British Cycling were an integral part of state-sponsored doping in the lead-up (and beyond) to London 2012. Again, thats not really any surprise.

The only explanation as to why they weren't getting busted left, right and center after 2012, had to have been because it was state-sponsored, including careful control of media reporting.

They really shot themselves in the foot by bringing down Russia. That only ended up drawing more attention to themselves.

Every grand tour victory by a British rider - Wiggins, Froome, Thomas, Geoghegan - is tainted. Every medal they won at London 2012, is tainted.

Remember, they gave these cunts knighthoods for basically being dirty fucking cheats. Though they didn't make that mistake with Froome. No way they'd give him one given how obviously dirty he was.
Don't forget Mo "Dr. Salazar's mate" Farah, another of the "If he wins he's British, if he loses he's African" cohort. Ah but I forgot, it's the Russians who are bad, yes that's it
 
the only one of Brits who ever had me fooled was Radcliffe.
I went from liking her late 90's EPO CHEATS OUT stance to really enjoying her hilarious Olympic misfortunes.
she seriously needs cancelling.

up until 2009 I was quite supportive of Wiggins actually. but at the 2009 Giro there was signs he was suddenly becoming a good climber and from the 2009 Tour onward his career was ridiculous.
Wiggo talked a good fight against doping up until then but then rapidly became a total hypocrite.
I saw him as rider who should have won TT's regularly and maybe been good at the northern classics.
He used finish in the top 5 on TT's a lot in the 2000's but rarely won and never had a hope against Cancellara.

Froome was just another solid rider until the 2011 Vuelta so he never had any cred from then on.

nothing that has come out recently about British Cycling has surprised me. surprised more hasn't been uncovered.

Paul Kimmage has given up writing on cycling. he used to be more optimistic than me.
he did an investigation into Dept of Agriculture recently and some horse racing corruption stuff so maybe
working more outside sport journalism is on the cards.
 
Scheldeprijs finished 20 minutes ago - I would be interested to hear what anyone thinks -
my main point is what the hell did the guy who finished 3rd think he was doing ??

Also the abuse Nacer Bouhanni has gotten in the last week is way OOT.
he didn't start the race today citing being affected by racist abuse.

When a FDJ rider took Bouhanni out in the sprint at French road Champs in 2015 was he banned ?

stage 3 in Basque Country just coming into finish now...
 
Scheldeprijs finished 20 minutes ago - I would be interested to hear what anyone thinks -
my main point is what the hell did the guy who finished 3rd think he was doing ??

Also the abuse Nacer Bouhanni has gotten in the last week is way OOT.
he didn't start the race today citing being affected by racist abuse.

When a FDJ rider took Bouhanni out in the sprint at French road Champs in 2015 was he banned ?

stage 3 in Basque Country just coming into finish now...
RE above - at Scheldeprijs Cavendish sat on the back of Bennett's wheel in the Quickstep train and did nothing to help Sam win the race (unless you count stopping rivals getting on Sam's wheel) Cav seemed only concerned with getting a result for himself which was a distant 3rd place - the closest Cav has come to winning a race for 3 years.
Bennett's lead out wasn't the best and Quickstep managed to get 2 on the podium but no win.
a disaster.
in future Cavendish has to do separate races from Bennett or work for him.
I'd be very surprised if this is let happen again.
 
RE above - at Scheldeprijs Cavendish sat on the back of Bennett's wheel in the Quickstep train and did nothing to help Sam win the race (unless you count stopping rivals getting on Sam's wheel) Cav seemed only concerned with getting a result for himself which was a distant 3rd place - the closest Cav has come to winning a race for 3 years.
Bennett's lead out wasn't the best and Quickstep managed to get 2 on the podium but no win.
a disaster.
in future Cavendish has to do separate races from Bennett or work for him.
I'd be very surprised if this is let happen again.
agreed. I don't see the logic of Cavendish being in the same train as Sam. When I saw them in that group in the last couple of km I figured the tactic would be for one of them (probably Cav) to attack, though thats not really his style.

DQS made a bollix of the leadout. They did far too much in the last 10-15km keeping the pace high, whereas they had plenty of riders in the group to leave 1 man with Sam, and mark any attack that went.

They arrived at the line looking tired. Its not usual to see the DQS leadout train not being able to keep their noses in front. In the last 500m I felt Sam was too far back and ran the risk of getting boxed in. With Alpecin still having their own organised train, that was a very risky situation for him, and that cost him. The last Alpecin leadout rider didn't peel off, but instead just slowed right in front of Sam (which I think was a dubious enough thing to to), and he ended up sprinting too late, despite being clearly the fastest rider.

DQS have just given Evanepoel a new, long contract. They are rumoured to be taking Sagan, probably because of Specialized bikes, they won Flanders with a lad who wouldn't normally stand out from the crowd.

Its becoming a case of too-many-cooks at Quickstep. They're obviously a cash-rich team but the makeup of their teams is going to cause them problems if you've more than one lad who think they should be a protected rider.

Still, the victories are coming thick and fast, so there's no real issue just yet.
 
the last climb in the Basque Country today was brutal - the last 3km had probably the most cruel hairpin bends I can remember seeing.
LOVE THIS RACE.
savage stuff. I'm off work this week so finally was able to watch all the cycling that was on.

Its an amazing part of the world and I'm surprised there aren't more bike races up there. Even La Vuelta tended to avoid it for years, up until 10 years ago.

A few years back I went over there, rented a car, and just drove around looking at the place. The gradients there on what'd just be bog-normal roads to them, are absolutely savage.

Watching Carapaz attacking on that >20% section, barely moving, was fantastic. Ultimately only those from that traditional climbing stronghold of, errrrm, Slovenia, could cut it at the end.
 

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