Vuelta Stage 20 *Spoiler*
Comments
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By scrutiny people are talking about in the media. Froome and, to a slightly lesser extent, Wiggins were being accused outright in some papers of doping and that's just the official media. It was even worse with a few influential voices on social media.0
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Fook me, just read some more posts and found myself agreeing with crankbrother lol0
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oldwelshman wrote:
First of all it was the Vuelta and not the Giro :-)mike6 wrote:I have huge doubts about this win. Its a three week GT and a 42 year old, who is classed as an all rounder, kicks the a***s of some of cycling's best climbers, not once but over and over again. In a mountain heavy Giro.
They say, ah well the rest are tired, Horner is fresh. Its a three week Tour, it is murder for all the riders, surely, and a 42 year old would not recover as quickly as much younger adversaries.
Horner an all rounder? are you serious, he is tiny and a pure climber and I would hardly describe the Vuelta riders as worlds top climbers, Froome, Contador and even Wiggo are far better than those lot and some other pure climbers not there either so hardly the best climbers to beat.
As for being 42, is there any difference between him and Voight/ yet everyone on here aarse licks him.
At 42 his endurance will still be the same, if not better than when he was 35, it is fast twitch and explosiveness you loose with age, not endurance, look at marathon runners.
Three things,
1. yes I meant Vuelta, typo, as most would have realised.
2. He is 5ft 11in tall, hardly tiny.
3. Endurance athletes peak between 27 and 35. Voight is an inspiration, but I don't remember him winning a GT recently. Or even a classification jersey.0 -
Gee whiz welshman you have spouted so much incorrect thoughts above that I don't know where to start in order to correct you. I suggest you look at the palmares of Valverde, Joaquim and Nibali first.Contador is the Greatest0
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Horner has been racing for over two decades (and is two decades older than the rider that finished first on the stage...) and so he has racing smarts. Nibali would have beaten a more inexperienced rider with exactly the same legs etc as Horner.Give me more wrote:Vincenzo Nibali @VincenzoNibali 14h
Today I gave heart and soul to fight like a Lion! Sometimes you win sometimes you lose but it's more important to ride honorably to the end!
Fuoriclasse.Contador is the Greatest0 -
If you meant Vuelta then say Vuelta, easy to use the edit button ;-)mike6 wrote:oldwelshman wrote:
First of all it was the Vuelta and not the Giro :-)mike6 wrote:I have huge doubts about this win. Its a three week GT and a 42 year old, who is classed as an all rounder, kicks the a***s of some of cycling's best climbers, not once but over and over again. In a mountain heavy Giro.
They say, ah well the rest are tired, Horner is fresh. Its a three week Tour, it is murder for all the riders, surely, and a 42 year old would not recover as quickly as much younger adversaries.
Horner an all rounder? are you serious, he is tiny and a pure climber and I would hardly describe the Vuelta riders as worlds top climbers, Froome, Contador and even Wiggo are far better than those lot and some other pure climbers not there either so hardly the best climbers to beat.
As for being 42, is there any difference between him and Voight/ yet everyone on here aarse licks him.
At 42 his endurance will still be the same, if not better than when he was 35, it is fast twitch and explosiveness you loose with age, not endurance, look at marathon runners.
Three things,
1. yes I meant Vuelta, typo, as most would have realised.
2. He is 5ft 11in tall, hardly tiny.
3. Endurance athletes peak between 27 and 35. Voight is an inspiration, but I don't remember him winning a GT recently. Or even a classification jersey.
66kg is tiny in my book, climber physique not allrounder.
I did not claim endurance peak is 35 I just said your fall from peak for endurance is slower compared to sprinting, i.e endurance is still very good for endurance athletes until early 40's0 -
Feel free to correct me ;-)frenchfighter wrote:Gee whiz welshman you have spouted so much incorrect thoughts above that I don't know where to start in order to correct you. I suggest you look at the palmares of Valverde, Joaquim and Nibali first.
I know the palmares of all of them. How many of them won the TDF? Nibali is the best of those for sure, but he will not win the TDF, he is a more of all rounder but does not have the ability of Wiggo and Froome or dare I say it, Alberto in a TT so his best shot is the Giro and Vuelta which he clearly targets.
I like J Rod but unfortunately don't see him winning the TDF either though Giro and Vuelta is good for him.
I don't see Valverde ever winning a GT.
Team Sky did not do much here, apart from a stage win, EBH coming back to form but not quite there yet. JTL seems a poor investment for the contract he is on.0 -
I love this photo as it shows the ridiculously gradients yesterday!
Contador is the Greatest0 -
Check out this guy's face. He refers to the Angliru as mythical and he sure is right. On seeing this photo in 10 years time you will know immediately what stage it was.
Just like this one:
Contador is the Greatest0 -
That second photo is great, proper race face, his arms are bulging (As much as a pro cyclists arms can bulge) where he is just going for it!0
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FYI.
Henao lost 15mins on that stage and Uran lost 24. They are both 58mins down on GC.
Lightweights.
Also, interesting to note that Arroyo is 13th on GC riding for Caja.Contador is the Greatest0 -
Contador is the Greatest0 -
On that climb Valverde took a coke from a spectator and he handed it to Nibali afterwards.Contador is the Greatest0
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frenchfighter wrote:I love this photo as it shows the ridiculously gradients yesterday!
Great picture. Aside from the out-of-the-saddle struggle to keep the cranks turning, you just don't get a sense of the steepness during the TV coverage. Love the Hansen wig picture too, good to see him enjoying number 7.0 -
frenchfighter wrote:On that climb Valverde took a coke from a spectator and he handed it to Nibali afterwards.
I saw that, nice gesture.
Also I saw some other instances of riders on different teams helping each other, notably a couple of madison style hand swings, Jan Barta gave one to another rider. Whats that all about, just a helping hand to struggling riders?0 -
Pross wrote:knedlicky wrote:
Who said “Horner seems to be guilty of doping because he has;Dolan Driver wrote:
Me too. ... Horner seems to be guilty of doping in the Vuelta because he is riding well and has;Alan A wrote:
I agree with both posts.Pross wrote:
:shock: That's the first sensible post I've seen from you. I have to admit to raising an eyebrow more than once at HornerCrankbrother wrote:Best man won ... Regardless of the petty spite shown by the Bikeradar faithful ...
1. Handle bars that are very wide.
2. A wonky left leg with a turned-in toe position.
Valverde is not a legitimate GT rider and thankfully won't win this race.
1. Handle bars that are very wide.
2. A wonky left leg with a turned-in toe position”?
I don’t remember reading any such accusations.
Somebody gave a link to a website which suggested Horner might have iliotibial band syndrome. Maybe he did have and meantime has now resolved those problems to his advantage, albeit with a ‘turned-in toe position’.
And what basis is there for saying “Valverde is not a legitimate GT rider”?
He served his time and without any other evidence is now as clean as any other rider nowadays, and with very respectable results in tours since his ban.
In the days before his ban, Valverde did well in GTs. And even if one considers it was on an ‘artificial grass’ playing field then - he still had to compete against others taking the same slope ‘advantages’.
Nowadays, like today, his not being able to match the accelerations but plodding on to then later rejoin the Nibali/Horner group, and then eventually drop those who'd over-exerted themselves by initially keeping up with the accelerations (i.e. Rodriguez) shows to me he's a better GT rider than some of those whom several forum people would perhaps instead prefer to see win. And on short climbs he can be canny.
Relax!
I don't think the 'evidence' comment was entirely serious. I read it as a tongue in cheek summary of how little evidence there is to support the doping claims and that basically people on here just don't like Horner because he looks a bit odd on a bike.
Spot on, Pross! The damning evidence I proposed was a joke, mostly. Every time Horner rode well on a stage, the thread for each stage seemed to be filled with plenty of comments saying "This is bad for cycling" or similar. Not sure what motivated these comments as Horner has, as yet, to fail a drugs test on this Vuelta. If, and when, he does, then we can all slate him, but at the moment, the evidence of doping on Horner's part is pretty thin. I'll remain an optimist on his performance until evidence proves it was a dirty win.
My comment about Valverde was more related to his shady past than his current efforts. If he is riding cleanly, and it appears he is, than he is riding far above the level I thought possible but fair play to him.
DD.0 -
People on this thread will be familiar with the argument that Cadel Evans had a racing career blighted by doping cheats, maybe we have just received the evidence that Chris Horner had a similar affliction. The amount of talent required to win this race at such a point in his career would suggest that Horner could have done so much more 'back in the day'.
Earlier in the race I described his performance as 'incredible'. I still think so but in a positive way. Perhaps this is what 'clean racing' looks like. Anyway I believe it until proven wrong.'fool'0
