Official pro cycling "WTF are they on?" thread

Soldato
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Say his max HR is 168 and his resting HR is very low 30. This might make the seemingly low HR during that effort a bit less surprising, but then he spends over 20mins above a very high % of his max which makes me re-think it's pretty weird.

All comes down to that HR figure on that video being completely fake, or real. And nobody can know that for sure right now I guess.
 
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Haha, WTF.
Just watching the first few seconds whilst it downloads so i can watch the rest later. A large woman in a pink shirt walks across the road and the commentator says "My goodness, a pink bus just crossed in front!"
Was that allowed in 2013? :p

Haha, totally missed that. :D Carlton Kirby has his moments but I did prefer him as the third man with Harmon and Kelly as the main commentators.
 
Soldato
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Fact is, Sky bang on more than any other team about winning clean and then getting upset when people question their performances and try and cover it up with spurious technological explanations. If you listen to Sky, it's like they invented the derailleur, but the reality is powermeters have existed since the 1980s and the tech arms race has been going on for decades.

As I've said, they should have nothing to hide. Why does it matter if everyone knows Froome does x watts per kg up a climb? Will it make them train harder? If Froome is exceptionally physiologically gifted then no-one will be able to touch him in an out and out drag race anyway.

There is everything to hide when people can analyse your data to better attack you in competition.

But the conspiracy crew will ignore that and harp on about nothing to hide nothing to fear.
 
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Porte dropping everyone bar Froome after doing a massive turn at the start of the climb. Porte that flopped at the Giro. Porte that needs a new contract.

WTF

Porte didn't flop at the Giro he fell off his bike, he has been the best rider in the world for the first half of the year and he doesn't need a new contract he has clearly already signed for BMC racing.
 
Soldato
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I thought his heart rate would be up in the high 180's but it barely touches 160.

Why? What do you base that on? Your own HR? HRmax varies a lot over different people and over the course of a grand tour - across a population it is meaningless in terms of numbers and is only relevant to an individual and even then it has to be taken into context. People speculating about doping due to his HR (not power) really don't understand what they are talking about
 
Soldato
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Why? What do you base that on? Your own HR? HRmax varies a lot over different people and over the course of a grand tour - across a population it is meaningless in terms of numbers and is only relevant to an individual and even then it has to be taken into context. People speculating about doping due to his HR (not power) really don't understand what they are talking about

It's not the actual BPM number which confuses me about the HR data, it's the increase when he attacks.
Power increases by 50% but HR only goes up a few BPM.

(I still didnt watch the full video, just going by summaries written by people who have seen it)
 
Soldato
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Why? What do you base that on? Your own HR? HRmax varies a lot over different people and over the course of a grand tour - across a population it is meaningless in terms of numbers and is only relevant to an individual and even then it has to be taken into context. People speculating about doping due to his HR (not power) really don't understand what they are talking about

If you read his book, he is very open about the fact his HR is very low, and when doing the TT in the 2012 tour averaged about 140, whilst people like BW, TM etc would be pushing 160+. HR is very different for different people, and explains to some extent why his power goes up massively but his HR doesn't increase a great deal.

Froome is due to undertake full physiological independent evaluation between Le Tour and Vuelta, which should be interesting to a) see the results b) see if he is leader for Vuelta.
 
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Indurain is a particularly interesting rider to observe

his dominance came at the height of the EPO era. He was a big rider, hell he was known as "Big Mig".

a 6ft2in 80kg man danced up the climbs like he was Marco Pantani.
 
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If you read his book, he is very open about the fact his HR is very low, and when doing the TT in the 2012 tour averaged about 140, whilst people like BW, TM etc would be pushing 160+. HR is very different for different people, and explains to some extent why his power goes up massively but his HR doesn't increase a great deal.

Froome is due to undertake full physiological independent evaluation between Le Tour and Vuelta, which should be interesting to a) see the results b) see if he is leader for Vuelta.

Yup, all this nonsense comparing his heart rate to power output and going 'ooh, hr looks a bit low for that power - doper!!'.

Even at an amateur level, i can think of riders i know who will do a 3hr race at around 25mph average with a heart rate in the 140s. And other riders in the same race doing similar speeds and averaging in the 160s and higher, even a few in the 180s/190s. Everyone is different and you can't really read anything into that, least of all whether they are doping or not.
 
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From yesterday's stage, we know Gesink managed 5.8w/kg from his published power data with Froome predicted at either 6.1 or 6.2w/kg. Given the time he put into Gesink that seems more than reasonable.

http://sportsscientists.com/2015/07/day-1-in-the-mountains-one-more-pixel-context-mistrust/

He's either the most naturally gifted cyclist ever or a fraud. If it's the former then why are Sky so reluctant to provide any proper evidence?

If the rest of the Tour is like yesterday it's going to be dull dull dull, if you're a fan of competitive sport anyway. Hopefully Contador has had his steak overnight. :p

Indurain is a particularly interesting rider to observe

his dominance came at the height of the EPO era. He was a big rider, hell he was known as "Big Mig".

a 6ft2in 80kg man danced up the climbs like he was Marco Pantani.

I don't think anyone can deny that he doped. Any top rider from that era did. I'm sure I read he'd refused to answer any questions on doping during an interview which ended up being interpreted by most as a tacit admission.
 
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From yesterday's stage, we know Gesink managed 5.8w/kg from his published power data with Froome predicted at either 6.1 or 6.2w/kg. Given the time he put into Gesink that seems more than reasonable.

http://sportsscientists.com/2015/07/day-1-in-the-mountains-one-more-pixel-context-mistrust/

He's either the most naturally gifted cyclist ever or a fraud.

Or a lot of that is guesswork, doesn't factor in a whole load of other unknowns and definitely isn't very 'scientific' - no matter how many times the author (who we all know is a long time leader of the tinfoil hat brigade) tries to suggest it is.

Froome won a mountain stage by about a minute when it's been clear all week he's in fantastic form. On a day when one of his main rivals showed that he isn't quite at the same level but not hugely far off (Quintana) and two others showed that they are just not at the races (and that fact had been pretty obvious throughout the entire first week). In fact, they were blown out the back as much by the work of Quintana's team, as by Froome's. It's hardly mind blowing stuff.
 
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