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Tour de France 2017 |OT|

Charles Brandon

Charles Brandon

Member
Could be similar to today, then?

In a way it's a shame because real sprinters rarely win the jersey but I'm so salty about my beloved Mark Cavendish being supplanted by Ivan Drago that I never want him to win.

weremichael said:
It would have been bonkers even if he was in. Or were you rooting for Matthews?
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lol. See above. Although the whole 'bling' thing annoys me about Matthews as well. I also get triggered by Sagan's ridiculous voice. I'm very petty in my likes and dislikes it seems. I guess also, that if Sagan was here, the green Jersey would already have been sewn up and there would be no impetus for Sunweb to do what they did.
 
Charles Brandon

Charles Brandon

Member
Mimosa97 said:
That's the same thing americans said about Armstrong lol

Wake the fuck up. If you think Froome is clean then you need to reevaluate your life.
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If you think Froome is anything like Armstrong then you never watched Armstrong race. There is zero evidence, circumstantial or otherwise, against Froome. No dodgy TUEs, no former team mates or staff members speaking out. There was loads of stuff against Armstrong for years. The only reason people have to doubt him is some reflected dodginess from Wiggins, which is also unproven (but does look a bit bad FOR WIGGINS), and because he's the best rider and because he's boring and because he's British. It's simply sour grapes and is poisonous for the sport.

It's cycling, so we can never know for sure but for now, the only evidence you have is that he's better than your favourite cyclist and you don't like that. Boo hoo hoo.
 
J

Joelstinton14

Member
Mimosa97 said:
That's the same thing americans said about Armstrong lol

Wake the fuck up. If you think Froome is clean then you need to reevaluate your life.
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You're the one with the (bitter?) obsession. Maybe you should evaluate yours?

At the end of the day, no one knows. He is, or he isn't. Considering the scrutiny the guy , and other pro's are under these days, i would be very surprised if he was. I would imagine Froome, Contador etc are tested more than others because of their profiles especially on the lead up to big tours. He has released everything from his biological passport through to power meter readings.

With lance, it was blatantly clear he was, although i do agree that people were blind to it, and didn't want it to be true, especially amongst media types other than David Walsh and a few others.

It is what it is.
 
W

weremichael

Member
Geoff said:
lol. See above. Although the whole 'bling' thing annoys me about Matthews as well. I also get triggered by Sagan's ridiculous voice. I'm very petty in my likes and dislikes it seems. I guess also, that if Sagan was here, the green Jersey would already have been sewn up and there would be no impetus for Sunweb to do what they did.
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I totally see where you're coming from, I think we all judge people off of strange peculiarities. How could we not judge professional cyclists by those reasons too?

I would think Sagan would be in Green; however, we can never know. The stage was sweet today regardless.
 
Charles Brandon

Charles Brandon

Member
it's been a much better tour than recently where the last week has been all about racing for the podium. Green and Yellow still up for grabs. Froome looking like the winner but not invulnerable.
 
H

His Majesty

Banned
Joelstinton14 said:
You're the one with the (bitter?) obsession. Maybe you should evaluate yours?

At the end of the day, no one knows. .
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As long as there is no real evidence it's useless to start throwing accusations around. Might as well accuse Valverde and Van Avermaet then looking at the season they've had.
 
P

Psychotext

Member
I've had a rather sudden change of heart on Froome.

I still don't like the guy, but I like Armstrong even less... so I'm kinda hoping Froome goes on to take 7 titles, and gets to keep them. Age isn't on his side, but who knows.
 
S

Shanks D Zoro

Banned
True Savior said:
Froome has struggled in several Vuelta's though.
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Usually after already doing the Tour.

kottila said:
This is just plain wrong. I've seen him struggle tons of times, even just a few stages ago. He hasn't won a single race before the tour this year and blew up on the last stage of the Dauphinee. And in the previous tours, he has been outclimbed in the last week.
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Froome doesn't look in grerat form, but he he still hasn't struggled except for 200 metres, which as I said, he was coming up against better pure climbers.


I don't think he is on anything, but the money behind Sky just allows them to blow everyone else out of the water in terms of their preparation.
 
J

jakonovski

Member
Everybody's microdosing so I think pharmaceutically the playing field is pretty level, barring shenanigans at the national level (eg. Norwegian cross country skiing).

The fun speculation is IMO in motorisation. The UCI claims to do checks using an iPad app, but we all know how much of a shitshow it can be when non-tech savvy executives try to tackle a technological problem. So I have a testable hypothesis on Froome; if he's in bad shape and compensating by using a motor, the tell is in the excessive amount of mechanicals he's been having. If he starts going backwards today and is dirty, he will either change bikes or a rear wheel and then miraculously catch up.
 
Charles Brandon

Charles Brandon

Member
jakonovski said:
Everybody's microdosing so I think pharmaceutically the playing field is pretty level, barring shenanigans at the national level (eg. Norwegian cross country skiing).

The fun speculation is IMO in motorisation. The UCI claims to do checks using an iPad app, but we all know how much of a shitshow it can be when non-tech savvy executives try to tackle a technological problem. So I have a testable hypothesis on Froome; if he's in bad shape and compensating by using a motor, the tell is in the excessive amount of mechanicals he's been having. If he starts going backwards today and is dirty, he will either change bikes or a rear wheel and then miraculously catch up.
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Ha! When he got that mechanical a few days ago he got a new wheel from Kwia(?) and not a new bike so how does that fit in? I assume you're being entirely serious.

Shanks has it right, the reason Sky win is financial doping, it's boring but also effective. That and picking riders who are TT masters. Take the TT away and give Froome Astana riders for teammates and it's hard to imagine he would be in Yellow.
 
J

jakonovski

Member
Geoff said:
Ha! When he got that mechanical a few days ago he got a new wheel from Kwia(?) and not a new bike so how does that fit in? I assume you're being entirely serious.

Shanks has it right, the reason Sky win is financial doping, it's boring but also effective. That and picking riders who are TT masters. Take the TT away and give Froome Astana riders for teammates and it's hard to imagine he would be in Yellow.
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Fits in when you read my post again and realise I said "or a rear wheel". Rear wheel motors have been one of the hot topics of the motorised doping rumour mill. I'm not saying it's likely, but that that is how it would go down. Cool part is that we'll find out soon enough.
 
C

captscience

Member
I'm not sure when that break formed but it would have been nice for Sunweb not to drive there. Though I suppose Kittel was going to be dropped crash or not.
 
G

Gandie

Member
Shanks D Zoro said:
Shit, doing some laundry. Gonna be another 40 minutes till I get home. What happened?
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Big crash in the peloton while a group was forming. Kittel's shoulder seems damaged. Barguil was in the crash too but seemed fine.

Group with about 20 riders formed. Matthews is in it, kind of weird he went while Kittel was down, oh well.
 
H

His Majesty

Banned
Castroviejo, Gogl and Pantano should drop out from the front group to help Contador and Quintana. Unless Contador and Quintana can bridge the distance relatively quick on the climb.
 
oipic

oipic

Member
What a shame, for Kittel and his team, obviously, but for the race, too - would've been terrific to see the green jersey battle head into Paris.

Having said that... I'm very happy now that Matthews has (or had) such a firm grip on second place. Stay safe out there, Bling!
 
T

TarpitCarnivore

Member
Not to downplay the situation, but does this make the sprints at least moderately more interesting now? Watching Kittle shoot up from 4 or 5 back is fun, but not when he always gets a bike length lead before the line.
 
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