Tour de France Spoilers thread 2014

dhope

EKE_38BPM wrote:

dhope wrote:

Anyone else getting a bit bored of Wiggins soundbites?
Competes on the track, suddenly he's done with the road and the track feels like family. It's the sort of snarky stuff I expect from Lewis Hamilton when he has a bad day, rather than BW

I seem to have missed Wiggo's soundbites. What has he said?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/commonweal ... s/28476411
They didn't have the link to the video interview there originally, just some BBC quotes about it being cut throat and him having 'done' road racing. Still think the interview is a little bit dour having watched it but not as bad as I made out

cjcp

PBlakeney wrote:

It is is like watching a replay from the 90's,

I stand by all my earlier posts, slanderous or not.

Good race for second though!

I must admit, I've been watching the highlights with not-so-slightly raised eyebrows.

Btw, in case anyone's interested, there is some spectacular riding to be had in the area around Plat d'Adet. I hate that climb with a passion*, but everything else around there is stunning. I recommend a visit.


*Because I died a million deaths during it, did it in the sweltering afternoon sun on my own, got loose gravel between the frame and the tyres so had to stop a couple of times and generally had a right hissy fit about the whole thing. I'm sure it's a lovely climb, but not that day, it wasn't.

elbowloh

I rode yesterdays stage on Sunday and I certainly didn't ride up Hautacam like a whippet. This is clearly evidence of Nibali's cheating....

I'm also a bit miffed that the pros were riding in sunshine, while I had to content with heavy rain, low cloud and freezing temperatures. Don't know they're born these pros.

jonny_trousers

I'm sure people have been saying this for the last 15 years, but is it actually possible to get away with juicing and winning at such a high level these days?

How about that stupid bint trying to take a selfie with Nibali in it and causing him to hit her? What a tw@!

jonny_trousers

Jonny_Trousers wrote:

I'm sure people have been saying this for the last 15 years, but is it actually possible to get away with juicing and winning at such a high level these days?

How about that stupid bint trying to take a selfie with Nibali in it and causing him to hit her? What a tw@!

Ok on seeing it again it wasn't a selfie, but she was trying to pose for the camera at Nibali's expense.

How about Valverde's descending?!?

rick_chasey

cjcp wrote:

PBlakeney wrote:

It is is like watching a replay from the 90's,

I stand by all my earlier posts, slanderous or not.

Good race for second though!

I must admit, I've been watching the highlights with not-so-slightly raised eyebrows.

How come?

He still made the biggest chunk of time on the cobbles. The time he has gained on all the mountains are all fairly small. 1 minute here, 1 minute there. Bare in mind he's competing against guys who, before Contador and Froome quit, would have been delirious with a top 5 position.

Nibali should be beating these guys. If he wasn't, it'd be weird. Just because he's arriving on his own doesn't mean he's on the juice.

I mean, the guy in 2nd, Pinot, is 24. The guy behind him is, Peraud is 37. You would expect Nibali to be roughly 5 minutes ahead of these guys after the most mountainous Tour in recent memory, and he made a good 2-3 minutes of that 7 he has on the cobbles anyway.

FWIW had Froome been there Nibali probably wouldn't be in Yellow, moot though it is.

rick_chasey

Macaloon wrote:

Before the Alps started, Pinot and Péraud were 3:30 down on Nibali. Over two mountain ranges, they've lost an additional 3:30 or so. Valverde and Bardet lost 4:30+. Not bad.

Quintana helped himself to a (chaos-assisted) 4:11 win over Uran on Val Martello, and 1:30 more in the MTT.

DonDaddyD

Conclusions:

1. Team Sky are detrimental for the sport as a whole but a benefit for Cycling in this Country.

2. The Tour is better on juice. Honestly, watching this 'clean Tour' is how I'd imagine it would be for a recovering alcoholic-heroin-sex addict to be at a party where there is no alcohol, drugs or sex. BORING.

3. Contador, the greatest rider of his generation, would have won. Froome and Nibbles would have ganged up for two-three days. Conti would have 'gone nuts in the mountains' leaving Froome and Nibbles to battle it out against each other.

---

From what I can tell, the majority of the legitimate GC contenders could beat the majority of the guys contesting the polka dot jersey. Generally speaking the GC contenders are their teams best climbers/allrounders. Why they don't contest the polka dot jersey is because they are in a different race, yes its the same course but how you ride it is different and depends on the jersey you are going for - i.e. do you drop your load mid point (almost each day) to collect the points for the polka dot or save yourself for the final climb for yellow?

Now then, there is an exception when you get a guy in yellow who is dominant over the rest of the field, this is normally because he has no direct competition and his jersey isn't being contested. Put it this way, if Nibbles, Contador or Froome said they were going for the Polka Dot jersey, would anyone be surprised to hear that they won it by a sizeable margin of points?

I don't think Nibbles is juicing to be honest, but then I don't think Lance Armstrong took drugs and never will.

Pufftmw

cjcp wrote:

*Because I died a million deaths during it, did it in the sweltering afternoon sun on my own, got loose gravel between the frame and the tyres so had to stop a couple of times and generally had a right hissy fit about the whole thing. I'm sure it's a lovely climb, but not that day, it wasn't.

It's not a great walk either - walked 7k of it on the day of the Tour (to the 3k mark), which is fine until you realise that you have to get down again "without" the aid of a bike :roll:

Next time I will plan my TdF viewing a bit better. 2hrs up the hill, 45 mins where I stopped, then 90 mins walking down the hill and 2 hours to get out of Saint Lary Soulan...

Stag on

This Tweeter has some interesting data on Nibali's Hautacam climb. Compared to the 'doped to the eyeballs' era he is well down on the top times, albeit that the best times were posted relatively early in the respective tours without the riders having been attrited by 2.5 weeks of riding.

https://twitter.com/ammattipyoraily/sta ... 96/photo/1

Nibali's time yesterday was 4 mins faster than his time in 2008 but you cannot read too much into that, clearly he is hitting his peak.

The best bit of this year's tour has been observing the downcast MAMILs as one by one their heroes have either missed out on the race or withdrawn: Millar (MAMIL God - what, he used to dope?), Cav & Froome. A lot of XXL Astana kits with beer belly extensions being bought on Gold Amex cards inthe last few weeks

jonny_trousers

I bet Quintana's gutted.

tgotb

Stag on wrote:

A lot of XXL Astana kits with beer belly extensions being bought on Gold Amex cards inthe last few weeks

Evans have lots of "Va Va Froome" T-shirts on special offer...

cjcp

Rick Chasey wrote:

cjcp wrote:

PBlakeney wrote:

It is is like watching a replay from the 90's,

I stand by all my earlier posts, slanderous or not.

Good race for second though!

I must admit, I've been watching the highlights with not-so-slightly raised eyebrows.

How come?

He still made the biggest chunk of time on the cobbles. The time he has gained on all the mountains are all fairly small. 1 minute here, 1 minute there. Bare in mind he's competing against guys who, before Contador and Froome quit, would have been delirious with a top 5 position.

Nibali should be beating these guys. If he wasn't, it'd be weird. Just because he's arriving on his own doesn't mean he's on the juice.

I mean, the guy in 2nd, Pinot, is 24. The guy behind him is, Peraud is 37. You would expect Nibali to be roughly 5 minutes ahead of these guys after the most mountainous Tour in recent memory, and he made a good 2-3 minutes of that 7 he has on the cobbles anyway.

FWIW had Froome been there Nibali probably wouldn't be in Yellow, moot though it is.

Dropping Spartacus and other Classics riders on the pave (has he even ridden on pave before?) was some effort.

He's been dropping people like hot rocks. A complete rider?

And for those who always cited the Ferrari-Armstrong link as evidence of Armstrong's mis-deeds, how do they deal with the Vinokourov link?

itboffin

i having nothing against doping in any sport, make it legal get proper doctors with real data and you have an improvement in the field of sport. Let the riders make safe choices about how they prepare and ride events.

If anyone here has ever been to or read about bodybuilding competitions from the 60s, 70s & 80s those men & women took huge health risks to win, is cycling doing the same?

I think it is
Well its 2014 we can do this safely now, then how is it any different to special clothing, bikes, attitude training etc etc etc.

but NIbbles ...WTAF :shock:
they found something new havent they

EKE_38BPM

DonDaddyD wrote:

...but then I don't think Lance Armstrong took drugs and never will.

I do believe that post is the very definition of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.
Nibblywibbly may be doping, but then again he may not. I don't know and neither do you, but the world knows Lance Pharmstrong doped because he admitted it. DD (yes, I've taken one if your Ds away again) just can't accept it (much like he can't accept Batman is "in a relationship" with Robin.
Damnit, I've just fed a troll.

jonny_trousers

EKE_38BPM wrote:

DonDaddyD wrote:

...but then I don't think Lance Armstrong took drugs and never will.

I do believe that post is the very definition of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.
Nibblywibbly may be doping, but then again he may not. I don't know and neither do you, but the world knows Lance Pharmstrong doped because he admitted it. DD (yes, I've taken one if your Ds away again) just can't accept it (much like he can't accept Batman is "in a relationship" with Robin.
Damnit, I've just fed a troll.

And I was just about to congratulate everyone on not biting

jonny_trousers

itboffin wrote:

i having nothing against doping in any sport, make it legal get proper doctors with real data and you have an improvement in the field of sport. Let the riders make safe choices about how they prepare and ride events.

If anyone here has ever been to or read about bodybuilding competitions from the 60s, 70s & 80s those men & women took huge health risks to win, is cycling doing the same?

I think it is
Well its 2014 we can do this safely now, then how is it any different to special clothing, bikes, attitude training etc etc etc.

but NIbbles ...WTAF :shock:
they found something new havent they

But can we, though? I don't suppose we know what the long term effects of doping are? And just supposing we discover that EPO is perfectly safe, for example, there will always be people who want to give themselves a further edge by trying something else, no matter how hazardous it might be for their health.

tailwindhome

Tour Results 2012 with 2 and 3 best riders removed.....

Winner 87h 34' 47"

The rest @ 10' 15″


It looked easy for Nibali because it was. It was a 3 horse race and the other 2 horses fell.

First.Aspect

When I was at school, a D wasn't even a pass. So he should now be DDDD. I think DDDD should start a media training company. Sportmen are so dull these days and he could really brighten things up.

ITB, the problem with your thesis is that with correct supervision, you can "dope" safely (the line having been somewhat arbitrarily drawn anyway). However it will always still be possible to dope unsafely and get some sort of advantage. Hematocrit levels of 60 or 70 maybe? Great for the Tourmalet, but not so great when you drop dead at 40 on the toilet. All your proposal does is re-draw the line closer to where it is unsafe.

In recent years, the GC guys have gone hard once or twice for a few hundred yards, or gone for broke 1-3km out. Nibali has been going 6-8km out, and more sustained. the last couple of mountain stages looked a bit Landis to me, the way he blew past other riders.

However, its worth pointing out that once he was more than about 3-4 minutes up, riders like Valverde (who himself is not at his best because he's not doping now either) haven't been responding to Nibali's attacks because they are racing for second.

It was more exiting in th 2000s though, DDDDD is right. Then, it was Transformers. Now its robot wars. Meh. Most boring TdF ever?

jonny_trousers

But if Nibali was juicing wouldn't he have the sense to intentionally not make it look so easy when his win this year has pretty much been assured since Contador exited?

roger_merriman

tony martin whoosh!

jonny_trousers

So did Sky use that posey Jag in the TT yesterday? It must have been embarrassing for Jaguar if they did.

rubertoe

Maybe they lent it to opqs....

rick_chasey

3 weeks from Leeds to Paris.


Bloody hell they're slow.

rubertoe

After Bertie crashed it was a pretty dull gc race imo.

roger_merriman

rubertoe wrote:

After Bertie crashed it was a pretty dull gc race imo.

fairly dull before that but yes.

Paulie W

PBlakeney wrote:

It is is like watching a replay from the 90's,
!

It really isn't.

jonny_trousers

Not the most exciting Tour, but it's a special event and it's always a shame when it's over.

vimfuego

Face it, it's all just filler until the Spring Classics roll around again anyway

DonDaddyD

I wasn't trolling earlier. And honestly, the last Tour/s were 2009 - 2011. 2009 being my favourite.

I also have found that the Vuelta, while not receiving the same level of attention, far outweighs the Tour for excitement. Contador's attack in the 2012 Vuelta - the one that started before the cameras started rolling at the start of the race, which lasted until he won the stage solo - being a truly memorable moment.