Le Tour de Pharmaceutical 2015

To quote myself (because I'm not at all a narcissistic c*nt)

tricycle wrote:Dont know.  He certainly rose suddenly in 2011, but his career has been far from the conventional path. I wouldn't say any top cyclist is certainly clean, but given the controls they have, I'd say that the average top division cyclist is far less likely to be doped than almost all other sports. To give Froome his due, he is also the most upfront about doping questions that I have seen.

What a ride by Yates. Both of the twins are going to be stars. Apart from that.... snoozefest of a race. When's the Vuelta?

But the behaviour of the fans in this year's tour has been indefensible. Anyway, the accusations from the real media remains bollocks till they start concentrating on the footballers and on other sports with minimal testing.

tricycle wrote:To quote myself (because I'm not at all a narcissistic c*nt)

tricycle wrote:Dont know.  He certainly rose suddenly in 2011, but his career has been far from the conventional path. I wouldn't say any top cyclist is certainly clean, but given the controls they have, I'd say that the average top division cyclist is far less likely to be doped than almost all other sports. To give Froome his due, he is also the most upfront about doping questions that I have seen.

What a ride by Yates. Both of the twins are going to be stars. Apart from that.... snoozefest of a race. When's the Vuelta?

But the behaviour of the fans in this year's tour has been indefensible. Anyway, the accusations from the real media remains bollocks till they start concentrating on the footballers and on other sports with minimal testing.

Frogs turning green with jealousy?

This remains my favourite though



Jalabert was an EPO machine sprinter turned GC ride, who ironically, was out of this world on the Mende climb (they even named it after him).

So, Geraint Thomas this year's Gap descent fall guy, punted into a telegraph pole by an over-committed Barguil... should be a stop-go penalty for the Frenchman, Pastor Maldonado would have been proud of that one. Fortunately Thomas managed to get up and lose less than a minute.

Back into it after the rest day. Good technical stage today. Can a breakaway win it? Time will tell.

Yeah, will be hard to catch anyone that gets to Col d'Allos in a breakaway.

Some movement near the top today with Van Garderen being forced to abandon through illness and Contador losing more time to a crash. Geraint Thomas moves into the top four for UK Postal Service, as some have dubbed them... Froome and Quintana effectively the only contenders standing.

As expected, there were plenty of breakaways & attacks. Should be more of the same today:

A great display of descending saw Bardet hold off the challengers to take the stage. Froome is looking totally untroubled by the attacks on his lead. Should be a similar story today.

Don't know much about cycling but why do people think Froome is doping? What's the reason?

Lara Lara Laughs wrote:Don't know much about cycling but why do people think Froome is doping? What's the reason?

Its because he has been so dominant....almost untouchable. Some people (mainly the French media) think he can't do it without some 'help'.

That along with interpretation of power/performance data, and the prominence of some of his team-mates in supporting him and controlling stages, hence the "UK Postal" tag...

Obviously someone has to win, just as someone had to win a decade ago when they were nearly all seemingly doping massively. Last year Nibali was miles ahead, Astana were under suspicion (and unlike Sky, actually have some form for misdemeanours as a team) so was he doping then and not this year when he's several minutes down? Unlikely...

Even "mechanical doping", the old mini-motor in the frame of the bike idea, has been mentioned in passing... as long as there's a Tour, there will be suspicion surrounding whoever's winning. The late 90's and 00's era has made sure of that.

Mechanical doping shows the lengths media go to whip up a scandal. It's not even undetectable and there has been testing for it for four years now, at least, and it's not exactly undetectable like epo was.

I saw the original expose by l'equipe on motorised doping and it was shit. But it was a scandal in what had been a quiet year....

They interviewed a Hungarian mechanic and he claimed that he sold bikes with motors for 150k euros each. His website claimed to sell the product and had a paypal portal. The paypal portal didn't work and the image of the battery quite clearly was a photoshop of another battery just taken off the internet. But all this was just lapped up and accepted, and is being spouted out. A bit like acting on bucky's fixed coin toss

Yeah, I don't think there's much reason for concern about that one, at least not until Valentino Rossi wins Le Tour for Yamaha...

Sky are clearly doing something different to their rivals, with Dave Brailsford's approach always having been based on "marginal gains"... whether it's doping in the traditional sense, or something else legal or otherwise, or a combination of things... impossible to say really. Although I've heard it suggested that if the Brailsford empire (Team Sky and British track/Olympic cycling for the last decade or so) does turn out to be built on doping, it will be the biggest systematic cheating episode since the Soviet/East German programmes of the 1980s! For now though, it's the biggest British sporting success story for many years, and they've always been vocally anti-doping including refusing to employ past cheats. So I think we have to give them the benefit of the doubt for now, until any such time that clear evidence to the contrary emerges. "Umpire's call", we'll say!

I love the story going the rounds ( in France ) that Froome has a tiny (unseen?!) engine
built into his bike that assists him in the uphill climbs.

The Frog public are clearly extremely sceptical of the Brits' performances ...

Oh well, I guess if Froome wins, then motorists in the UK will have to resign themselves to be further
plagued by an additional million bikes on the roads ridden by the skin-tight lycra clad sweeties,
all riding three abreast on a jolly day out!

Froome & team Sky showed some vulnerability & lost time with Nibali showing he is not yet finished. Today is the big daddy, Alpe d'Huez. Sky will have to re-group to get Froome home.

Didn't look like there would be anything much to play for on this final stage a week or so ago, but just a hint of an opportunity for Quintana to grasp at if Froome/Sky have a difficult stage.

While the yellow jersey contenders concentrate on each other, perhaps a chance for someone new to make a name for himself by winning on the most iconic of climbs. It never quite feels like a proper Tour when Alpe d'Huez isn't on the route, so hope it will deliver drama again today.

Well, the final mountain stage certainly did deliver, with Quintana's impressive attack not quite enough... who would have thought midway through this Tour that Froome's winning margin would be barely over a minute? Well done to Pinot for holding on to take stage honours for France and adding his name to the Alpe corners.

The man in yellow also takes polka dot, largely due to a climb-heavy route and nobody else really making a sustained effort for it... Quintana takes white by a distance (can't believe he still qualifies) and is surely a multiple champion in waiting, fitness permitting. Sky's superior race management in the first week proved the difference on this occasion, but they and Froome have a big job to do to stay at the top in future.

Got to feel for the rogues. That was a heck of a lot of spit, urine and punches wasted on a one minute win.

Turned out to be one of the most intriguing GTs. First since the 2012 Vuelta, I'd say.

Well done Froome. Just too consistent for the rest.

Hopefully the Frogs enjoyed God Save the Queen

I think it was Chris Boardman who said it was possibly the best Tour he'd seen... not sure it outdoes the epics of 2003 (sadly now effectively null and void) and 2011 but certainly getting up there with those in terms of what we saw in the final week anyway, and the general "always something happening" feel to it.

Will be tough for Froome and Sky to keep ahead of Quintana next year, unless the route is much less mountainous in which case the Colombian might do one of the other Grand Tours instead, and wait for his moment in Paris. He's got plenty more chances, anyway. Surely the organisers have realised though that a route big on climbs, summit finishes and unconventional terrain, and lighter on time trials and featureless flat stages, is the way to provide entertainment though. Maybe they will surprise us though and conjure up something like a big mountain TT again, or even the 1989-style race into Paris against the clock (might be a long wait for that one, but who knows, maybe on a milestone anniversary of it!)

Seems like in-fighting between teams and organisers could jeopardise next year's race though... hope we don't get a depleted field as a result.

One more interesting thing to note, Quintana apparently went up Alpe d'Huez in a time only bettered by Pantani, Armstrong, Ullrich, Landis, Kloden, Virenque, Mayo and Azevedo. All those have at least some sort of asterisk against their names... but obviously it's only Froome who's under suspicion, right?

Sky to take part in Tour of Britain, alongside Team Wiggins and Team Big Cheese.