The US cycling federation does a little bit of testing in amateur races and 'Masters' racers are the biggest cheats by a wide margin.
The US cycling federation does a little bit of testing in amateur races and 'Masters' racers are the biggest cheats by a wide margin.
Cycling is just tested more than other sports. Tennis, Football, Rugby are all doping in one way or another but we don't care as much.
Or actually Federer, Nadal and Djokovic are suddenly much better at recovery now they are 38,33,32 than they were years ago.
You can dope a reasonable amount and remain within the allowed limits. I suspect rugby players do that. Cycling, like Olympic weightlifting which is also absolutely laughable for people being stripped of awards, is just mentally demanding, so I think people have to take the piss or just drop out.
AFL players would still be our biggest dopers.
Will be lol beyond belief if Alaphillipe turns out to be on the juice.
Sagan being caught would kill the sport, for a few years at least.
20 years from now Andy Murray will be collecting his retrospective grand slams and Mahow will still be furious.
This Tour is turning out to be quite tasty.
lol at that 94 kg field getting wiped out. 2008 had similar revisions, and I imagine 2016 will at some point. Ilya Ilyin being papped was arguably the biggest sport story nobody cares about, since he was the absolute don of the sport. He's on the comeback trail now and progressing suspiciously quickly for 2020.
I want some of whatever Mark Cavendish must be on.
(This is now the de facto cycling thread btw, you can blame the terrible search function)
Top Gear ruined his wife for me. "Peta, 23 from Essex."
Looking at Cav today, he does seem very, what's the term, hench?
I guess his legs have probably always been insane but they looked Greipel-esque.
No, not Greipel, that German track cyclist/sprinter who's name I've probably never actually known.
Google tells me Robert Forstermann.
Tesco Value Tyson Fury.
Biggest drug cheat going is Djokovic
I'm a twit
Is it possible that this American sprinter actually failed an in-house test and they're using weed an as excuse for a shorter ban? Dead parent or not, who smokes weed a month before the Olympics?
Add in the fact that they're not taking her to Tokyo despite the ban ending before it actually starts too.
I'm surprised to see Cavendish winning races. I thought that he was done. Then again, Quickstep hired him for a reason. Also, this year's roster is weak as fuck.
Several sprinters went out to crashes on the first week too, or like Sagan are still in it but not able to challenge for stages.
Cav's picked a bad year (to the extent that's possible) to register probably one of the greatest sporting achievements ever by a Briton - what with Sir Waistcoat and Co and then all the Olympic Horse Ticklers bound to overshadow him in the wider public consciousness.
Even if he won the tour, people wouldn't bat an eyelid.
You know what gets me? They never retroactively awarded Armstrong's wins to someone else.
2005: Ivan Basso
2004: Andreas Kloden
2003: Jan Ullrich
2002: Joseba Beloki
2001: Jan Ullrich
2000: Jan Ullrich
1999: Alex Zulle
Would've given Jan Ullrich four tour wins in total.
Oh.However, the race organisers ASO decided not to reallocate the titles won in those years, in recognition of the historic doping problem in the sport at that time - Ullrich himself having been banned for a doping violation. Ullrich, therefore, has a single Tour victory to his name.
Last edited by Shindig; 10-07-2021 at 07:54 AM.
Cycling is a remainer sport, no chance of cutting through in the post Brexit era.
Also he's not British.
Only to the extent that it has siphoned off all the golf wankers from their Big Bertha drivers to their carbon forks and aero bars.
I suppose a certain level of europhilia is required being as everything has to be done in French (like with cheffing).
We're the wrong side of an Olympics for cycling to be in vogue again, and probably 5 years too late for the public to care. Did anyone care that Geraint Thomas won it or even Frome all those times?
I think Thomas registered but no one ever really liked the Kenyan, which was harsh on him, but probably down to his wife.
Golf is a lot more leavey, I'm not sure there's a huge amount of crossover there, even if the 'spend a living wage on equipment and you will still be shit' theme is the same.
Tennis is the real chin-stroker. If I could get into the local tennis club without being shot dead I'd love to do an anthropological study of the inhabitants.
Day-to-day tennis is remain, and then the better off leavers come out of the woodwork for Wimbledon because they can frame it with reference to things they understand (like how the remain bores are doing with England now).
My dad is exactly like that, loves following any of the (suitably white) Brits at Wimbledon every year.
Was Henman the last genuine English hope at Wimbledon? Not counting the imports, feels a bit like 'Irish' footballers.
I'm going to say yes. He had a run of four semi finals in five years. Lost to Sampras twice, Ivanisevic and Hewitt. All eventual winners. Two French Open semi finals on top of that. Nobody's come close.
Cycling definitely wanker sport over here, but I am surprised to know that it is also like that in the UK. In France, it seems to be as working class as it comes.
Our roads are far more twisting, turning and narrow than yours. Cyclists are the enemy of every driver in the country.
Last edited by Spikey M; 11-07-2021 at 06:53 AM.
Anyone else watching today? Curious to see if Pogachar has enough chamber time to claw back a couple of minutes.
I'm hoping Thomas can cling on to make the final tt interesting, but I doubt he will.
Probably not today based on the route. Tomorrow more likely.
Vingergaard looking like he won't falter. Summit finish tomorrow though, so that is Pogacar's last chance. My guess is that Thomas loses more time tomorrow.
Yeah, it was never likely for Thomas. Still, what looks like a solid podium finish is pretty good for him. What is Vingegard like as a time triallist? I heard some commentary the other day suggesting he was better than Pogacar, but don't know if that was accurate.
UAE/Pogacar need to pull the sort of stage Sky and Froome managed in the Giro a few years ago tomorrow.
If they manage that sort of preparation then at least George Bennet isn't likely to be as scathing as he was then.
Impressive ride by Vinegar'd and Jumbo Visma generally. When was the last time a team took both green and yellow jerseys?
I think it might go back to the very clean Telekom in 96/97. Hushovd and Evans must have been close for BMC but I think they were a year or so apart, the Lance years were all won by the various Aussies and then Sagan dominated the Sky era.
Last edited by Disco; 21-07-2022 at 04:37 PM.
Fastest average speed in tour history this year apparently (previous fastest was 2005), could of course be down to the changing profile of the race but it's still pretty lol considering how they dawdled through Denmark at the start.