Cunego's ongoing comments

iainf72

What do we think? Some in cyclingnews today

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news.php?id= ... /may21news

Should he shut it until he can tell the truth? Or is he right to talk?

Kléber

Let him talk, it's good to debate things. However, he is entering a minefield and will have to be prepared to answer deeper questions about other riders and possibly his past too.

markwalker

Hes going to find himself in trouble in the bunch.

le_patron

Just read that, several articles down in CN and had a double take....wasn't expecting such forthright comments.

Kléber

He made similar comments a week ago to an Italian paper and some of the CN quotes are lifted (without reference/credit!) from these sources.

blazing_saddles

Well, the numbers don't lie. The Giro usually has a few tranquillo stages, especially when they are long. Not so, this year.

frenchfighter

alanmcn1

Anyone who doesn't think DDL is riding a la chicken/vino/schummacher is deluded!!

Gary Marshall

yes, i was quite depressed watching him shooting away in the mountains the other day.

colint

alanmcn1 wrote:

Anyone who doesn't think DDL is riding a la chicken/vino/schummacher is deluded!!

Maybe, but you do know Millar was convicted of doping don't you ? Why the double standards ?

CyclingBantam

Forgive my ignorance but is Cunego squeeky clean? For some reason I was under the impression he wasn't whiter than white?

Surely it is a good thing he is speaking out however are we back to the stage where all the 'top' boys are on something and the clean riders are nowhere to be seen? Sastre is up there though and he has never been suspected of anything has he? Mr Clean and all that.

alanmcn1

colint wrote:

alanmcn1 wrote:

Anyone who doesn't think DDL is riding a la chicken/vino/schummacher is deluded!!

Maybe, but you do know Millar was convicted of doping don't you ? Why the double standards ?

Is that a debate on Cunego's comments??? Strange response, but in reply, there are no double standards. Millar, Delgado et al were taking drugs which gave a mild boost, maybe give you a stage win (exact quote Paul Kimmage). Nowadays there are PEDs which turn a good one day classics rider into a grimpeur par excellence and GT winner......laughable that DDL is outclimbing Sastre.

dulldave

Yeah but it's the Spanish that call him Mr Clean. That's like being called Mr Polite in France.

frenchfighter

alanmcn1 wrote:

Millar, Delgado et al were taking drugs which gave a mild boost, maybe give you a stage win (exact quote Paul Kimmage)

If you haven't already read 'Put me back on my bike', I would highly recommend it. VERY informative and interesting about doping back then. (Note that I am not disputing that drugs are more potent nowadays).

colint

alanmcn1 wrote:

colint wrote:

alanmcn1 wrote:

Anyone who doesn't think DDL is riding a la chicken/vino/schummacher is deluded!!

Maybe, but you do know Millar was convicted of doping don't you ? Why the double standards ?

Is that a debate on Cunego's comments??? Strange response, but in reply, there are no double standards. Millar, Delgado et al were taking drugs which gave a mild boost, maybe give you a stage win (exact quote Paul Kimmage). Nowadays there are PEDs which turn a good one day classics rider into a grimpeur par excellence and GT winner......laughable that DDL is outclimbing Sastre.

It's just a comment on general attitudes to doping, you can't bleat on about a rider doping and then promote another doper for knighthood because he only doped a little bit. Is there a level that you'd let DDL dope to ? Are you saying doping to win the odd stage is OK ? Kimmage is another doper, so I wouldn;t put too much credence on his comments either.

Pro dope or anti dope, you can't be both

Tom Butcher

Didn't DiLuca win the Under23 Giro as a young rider ? It's not as if he has no form for this kind of ride - if he was riding off the front on long mountain top finishes and putting a minute plus into the field as Ricco did and Basso and others before him then I agree that would be unbelievable. His first Giro stage win was an uphill finish where he outkicked Garzelli and Simoni - given the names I'm guessing it was quite a tough finish.

Yes DiLuca has to be suspect given his record - but then so do at least half of the GC contenders who lined up at the start of the Giro.

Kléber

The public accepted doping in the past. Up until the late 1960s in France, Italy and other countries you could buy amphetamines over the counter in a pharmacy, they were destined for people who felt tired. Truck drivers and factory workers were big consumers, a scary thought perhaps to know colleagues at the metal press were frothing on speed and that truck drivers were pushing themselves to exhaustion. A racing cyclist therefore wasn't that far removed from an ordinary worker and add in the fact that they were doing an extraordinary job, many were sympathetic to doping.

Ever since the introduction of EPO, this public attitude has changed. Festina exposed how cycling teams had become roving pharmaceutical outfits conducting Phase III trials on their riders, that the medical solutions used went far beyond a "pep pill" and had mutated into something halfway between a vampire's lair and cutting edge pharmaceuticals, with tales of chilled blood and hormones collected from cadavers.

I don't equate the doping from the 1980s backwards with the schemes today.

mattsy666

DDL is riding the stages as though they were classics ... as are most of the other riders for some reason ... Garzelli is the only one who has tried anything outwith about 10-15km and that was just for a stage win rather than the overall ...

half of DDL's lead in the GC has come from time bonuses ... he is riding smart rather thna superbly ...

Cunego should keep shush ... the racing has been done pretty much to his style and he just doesn't have it ... LA & Rogers are even showing him a clean pair of heels ... if that doesn't indicate his form i dunno what does ... and this is from a Cunego fan ...

My money's now on Sastre for the overall ... he, like Levi, gets better as a GT goes on ... DDL will have one bad day where the other favourites will not be around him to help pull him up ...

skavanagh.bikeradar

I've warmed to Cunego over the last couple of years because I reckon he's now genuinely riding clean. We will never know if this is correct and on the evidence of the last 20 years I could be proven wrong at any second.... What is his true position in a clean peleton - where it is now? Higher? Lower? Who ahead of him is doping? This is the shame of it all, we the fans cannot be sure of the veracity of what we are seeing. This is what is hurting cycling.

Kléber

Exactly skavanagh, it's hard to tell. Is he just off form a bit or is he being done over by the cheats? He's normally an exciting rider to watch, his performance in the Tour of Lombardy last autumn is a good example.

LangerDan

Another problem is that, according to the interview with Cunego in Procycling sometime past, he has changed his training significantly. Not only has he broken his ties with his previous trainers and advisers but he spoke about how he dumped his power meter and was working just from heart-rates. Apart from everything else that is going on, perhaps his new training regime just isn't as effective. He has seemed a little flat all through the Spring, certainly by comparison with Lombardy.

robmanic1

It seems (from my limited knowledge) it's a case of;

His preparation hasn't been that great - everyone else has prepared better

or (in his mind)

He's clean - everyone ahead of him is doping

DanielFriebe

In case you missed them, "controversial" comments made by Cunego to Gazzetta dello Sport last week are translated here...

http://www.bikeradar.com/blogs/article/ ... d-on-21641

Will be blogging in more depth on Cunego later today or tomorrow.

Daniel Friebe
Procycling

alanmcn1

colint wrote:

alanmcn1 wrote:

colint wrote:

alanmcn1 wrote:

Anyone who doesn't think DDL is riding a la chicken/vino/schummacher is deluded!!

Maybe, but you do know Millar was convicted of doping don't you ? Why the double standards ?

Is that a debate on Cunego's comments??? Strange response, but in reply, there are no double standards. Millar, Delgado et al were taking drugs which gave a mild boost, maybe give you a stage win (exact quote Paul Kimmage). Nowadays there are PEDs which turn a good one day classics rider into a grimpeur par excellence and GT winner......laughable that DDL is outclimbing Sastre.

It's just a comment on general attitudes to doping, you can't bleat on about a rider doping and then promote another doper for knighthood because he only doped a little bit. Is there a level that you'd let DDL dope to ? Are you saying doping to win the odd stage is OK ? Kimmage is another doper, so I wouldn;t put too much credence on his comments either.

Pro dope or anti dope, you can't be both

I can be whatever i like thnaks very much!!!

Wouldnt put much credence to Kimmage..................you're not LA are you

Unsheath

Would you rather he shut up like 99% of the peloton? I say mouth off to your hearts content Damiano.. We don't have enough clean outspoken cyclists as it is.

Remember Simoni's reference to Basso's "Superhuman", "out of this world" performances in the 2006 Giro. History shows he was right on the mark.

Kléber

It's a very brave stance to take. He risks getting pilloried for it.

Someone mentioned to me that his comments could be timed for his own consumption, maybe it's contract negotiation time this summer and he's keen to talk up his clean credentials.

timoid.

DanielFriebe wrote:

In case you missed them, "controversial" comments made by Cunego to Gazzetta dello Sport last week are translated here...

http://www.bikeradar.com/blogs/article/ ... d-on-21641

Will be blogging in more depth on Cunego later today or tomorrow.

Daniel Friebe
Procycling

Cunego has changed since becoming a father. He's got someone else relying on his wellbeing now, so is no longer goofed up as he was at Saeco. Must stink for him, someone with a natural HCT of 50 somehting to see Di Luca, Leipheimer, Vienna Denis and now even an old crocked Armstrong sail away into the distance as he's "in the red"

BTW: F Schleck and Vandedvelde will do no better than top ten at best at the Tour. Keep your money in your piggy bank.

alanmcn1

Kléber wrote:

It's a very brave stance to take. He risks getting pilloried for it.

Someone mentioned to me that his comments could be timed for his own consumption, maybe it's contract negotiation time this summer and he's keen to talk up his clean credentials.

Angling for Team Sky with such a stance?

frenchfighter

Timoid. wrote:

BTW: F Schleck and Vandedvelde will do no better than top ten at best at the Tour. Keep your money in your piggy bank.

So doping is worse this year than last?! They got 6th and 5th last year (and Kohl got 3rd...). This year Andy will be up there on the podium possibly.

Amazingly I've just seen that AG2R came 2nd in the team classification!

I've never looked on Cunego as a GT rider (I know he won the Giro once), so am not so surprised to see him struggling. Maybe more than I expected but that could be put down to very normal reasons.

It sounds like some of you are tarnishing most of the riders that beat him, so include LA, Levi and Sastre in there...and Wiggins too, following your train of thought as he passed Cunego.

He is just having a poor tour. It happens.

colint

alanmcn1 wrote:

colint wrote:

alanmcn1 wrote:

colint wrote:

alanmcn1 wrote:

Anyone who doesn't think DDL is riding a la chicken/vino/schummacher is deluded!!

Maybe, but you do know Millar was convicted of doping don't you ? Why the double standards ?

Is that a debate on Cunego's comments??? Strange response, but in reply, there are no double standards. Millar, Delgado et al were taking drugs which gave a mild boost, maybe give you a stage win (exact quote Paul Kimmage). Nowadays there are PEDs which turn a good one day classics rider into a grimpeur par excellence and GT winner......laughable that DDL is outclimbing Sastre.

It's just a comment on general attitudes to doping, you can't bleat on about a rider doping and then promote another doper for knighthood because he only doped a little bit. Is there a level that you'd let DDL dope to ? Are you saying doping to win the odd stage is OK ? Kimmage is another doper, so I wouldn;t put too much credence on his comments either.

Pro dope or anti dope, you can't be both

I can be whatever i like thnaks very much!!!

Wouldnt put much credence to Kimmage..................you're not LA are you

Fair enough, everyone has the right to be a hypocrite

alanmcn1

frenchfighter wrote:

Timoid. wrote:

BTW: F Schleck and Vandedvelde will do no better than top ten at best at the Tour. Keep your money in your piggy bank.

So doping is worse this year than last?! They got 6th and 5th last year (and Kohl got 3rd...). This year Andy will be up there on the podium possibly.

Amazingly I've just seen that AG2R came 2nd in the team classification!

I've never looked on Cunego as a GT rider (I know he won the Giro once), so am not so surprised to see him struggling. Maybe more than I expected but that could be put down to very normal reasons.

It sounds like some of you are tarnishing most of the riders that beat him, so include LA, Levi and Sastre in there...and Wiggins too, following your train of thought as he passed Cunego.

He is just having a poor tour. It happens.

I agree, not everyone who passes DC is cheating, alot of them just simply have more talent. However some , DDL in particular, just look too good to be true. And recent history suggests there is only one reason for that............Basso, Chicken, Kohl, Schummacher, Rebellin...............................................