Did I miss something? What has Tony Martin done?
He's a nob! Incredible rider (in his day) but total and utter bell-end. Tour of Flanders was just a prime example of his attitude and what he gets up to all the time. Megalomaniac.
The MPCC only exists because the UCI and WADA have shown themselves to be barely credible repeatedly (with rules which seem to curiously vary depending on how good you are).
Not going to dispute that but at the end of the day the UCI own the races, they appoint WADA and they have their own rules.
Do I think the French are manufacturing controversy around Sky, yes absolutely. There have been notable people stoking up the press all summer building up the the race.
Totally agree. When before have we heard from Hainalt calling out riders and teams. Even when there where positive doping convictions he remained silent (as far as I'm aware)?
I do think there’s a misconception that mountain stages in the Tour historically have been the preserve of sub 60kg mountain goats. The longer stages have historically suited the rouleur types who have greater reserves to negotiate multiple cols. However, with the exception of Indurain, none of these GC riders have been winning/podiuming the Worlds TT until the last 5 or so years (Wiggins, Froome, Dumoulin). Something has changed to make that possible.
The change I think just comes from all the sports science and very complete medical knowledge of the modern age/era. The majority of these guys are on the absolute pinnacle of what is physically possible, back in the early years it was only the handful of riders who came close. Just look at some of the speeds the classic climbs are ridden at through the ages. Data is pretty much king these days so things favour teams controlling the racing and power climbing (ala the 'Sky train'). The explosive lightweight climbers like the Yates, Quintana, Alaphillipe etc just cannot ride as consistently hard as the big TT guys, they just don't have the reserves, teams or recovery required over 3 week GT's.
Personally I think cycling is in pretty good health if all that the people wetting themselves over is an asthma medicine that doesnt have any performance enhancing effects taken in the dosages that have been consumed.
Questionable over the performance enhancing, as some have said it can have a minor boost depending on physiology. The jiffy bag incident was far far far more worrying but equally the UCI have not seen it serious enough to strip Wiggins of his title(s) so something to be said about that. I still think we don't know the full story, wasn't Dr Freeman releasing a book and hinted about a huge exposé?
I'm with you here. It's 50/50 as to whether this blows things to pieces and is very entertaining.... or it'll be a complete borefest and nothing will materialise of it.
With only one proper mountain stage left tomorrow.... Bardet, Quintana, Dumoulin have to do something today. Yates looked strong yesterday and this sort of thing may tickle the fancy of Dan Martin and Alaphillipe to crack on as well. So it certainly does have the capability to be mental.
Incredible stage! Just goes to show we don't need 200km stages to decide races and make things exciting.
Alaphillippe has been amazing, have really enjoyed his racing, attacking and then that bit on the stage when he acknowledged Yates, patted him on the shoulder and shook his hand really showed his measure. I'd initially doubted he'd held back a bit for Yates (as he said in the post race interview) but after that I trust he did (a little)! Dan Martin has grown on me as well, had really hoped he could catch Quintana! Incredible ride by Movistar just a shame we're only seeing it this late in the Tour.
