Giro Stage 15 Castelrotto -Alpe di Siusi (ITT) 10.8k

rick_chasey

Yeah - more people in Netherlands watch the Tour than the French and they have been cheering Gesink and watching heart wrenching documentaries about him and his father for a decade.

He's more box office than Kruiswijk is, who is as dull as his shoulders are wide.

That'll obviously change now, but that's the thinking.

Shadowrider

The Giro used to be my favourite GT, but in recent years I haven't liked it as much as the tour. Think 2012 was the last one I really enjoyed.

argyllflyer

ugo.santalucia wrote:

SheffSimon wrote:

Didn't Contador ride both Giro and Tour, just last year? Much as I dislike him, he could certainly have been described as a big GT contender.

Contador belongs to a different age, when bicycle riders were bicycle riders and not posers on wheels who race 30 days per year. He is by far the most talented GT rider of his generation and it's a shame his career has been partially ruined by testing positive for picograms of a substance others (less talented) got away with. I don't have a single bad thing to say about Contador

More fool you then. He tested positive for a weightloss drug people take in the off-season, not on the 2nd rest day of a GT when he'd be running on fumes and have zero need to lose weight in such a way. Why would an off-season weightloss drug appear at that time? The UCI and WADA (with main witness Michael Ashenden) were not allowed to use strong evidence that he blood-doped because the initial charge was related to clen, not doing a bag of off-season sucked blood. Once the clenbuterol charge went in, that in itself was an anti-doping violation, and the strong evidence supporting a transfusion could not be tagged on afterwards.

http://nyvelocity.com/articles/intervie ... -ashenden/

Vino'sGhost

argyllflyer wrote:

ugo.santalucia wrote:

SheffSimon wrote:

Didn't Contador ride both Giro and Tour, just last year? Much as I dislike him, he could certainly have been described as a big GT contender.

Contador belongs to a different age, when bicycle riders were bicycle riders and not posers on wheels who race 30 days per year. He is by far the most talented GT rider of his generation and it's a shame his career has been partially ruined by testing positive for picograms of a substance others (less talented) got away with. I don't have a single bad thing to say about Contador

More fool you then. He tested positive for a weightloss drug people take in the off-season, not on the 2nd rest day of a GT when he'd be running on fumes and have zero need to lose weight in such a way. Why would an off-season weightloss drug appear at that time? The UCI and WADA (with main witness Michael Ashenden) were not allowed to use strong evidence that he blood-doped because the initial charge was related to clen, not doing a bag of off-season sucked blood. Once the clenbuterol charge went in, that in itself was an anti-doping violation, and the strong evidence supporting a transfusion could not be tagged on afterwards.

http://nyvelocity.com/articles/intervie ... -ashenden/

Racism and hating should have no part in sport. theres plenty of it in this thread.

bobmcstuff

Sorry how's that racist?

No_Ta_Doctor

And as for hating not having a part in sport, you what?
It's all part of the fun.

norvernrob

argyllflyer wrote:

ugo.santalucia wrote:

SheffSimon wrote:

Didn't Contador ride both Giro and Tour, just last year? Much as I dislike him, he could certainly have been described as a big GT contender.

Contador belongs to a different age, when bicycle riders were bicycle riders and not posers on wheels who race 30 days per year. He is by far the most talented GT rider of his generation and it's a shame his career has been partially ruined by testing positive for picograms of a substance others (less talented) got away with. I don't have a single bad thing to say about Contador

More fool you then. He tested positive for a weightloss drug people take in the off-season, not on the 2nd rest day of a GT when he'd be running on fumes and have zero need to lose weight in such a way. Why would an off-season weightloss drug appear at that time? The UCI and WADA (with main witness Michael Ashenden) were not allowed to use strong evidence that he blood-doped because the initial charge was related to clen, not doing a bag of off-season sucked blood. Once the clenbuterol charge went in, that in itself was an anti-doping violation, and the strong evidence supporting a transfusion could not be tagged on afterwards.

http://nyvelocity.com/articles/intervie ... -ashenden/

Bit of a strange world we live in when excuses are made for a convicted doper, yet someone wins a stage and is instantly branded a cheat.

The_Boy

Looks like someone is auditioning for role vacated by frenchie...