Pro Cycling Discussion Thread 2015

^ madness! Couldn't work out what was going on or who was helping who, who got who's bikes, wheels or what :eek:
 
That mechanic video is brilliant!

Moses said:
It was horrible! Makes me feel like a knob for not wearing a helmet... :o
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We should all wear helmets, too dangerous not to, i crashed at 30mph last year and although my head didnt hit the ground hard, it would have been worse without a helmet.
 
Vonhelmet said:
I'm not convinced by the plan B argument. Can you really afford to divide your resources supporting two riders? How many of the other teams have 2 strong contenders? Maybe Movistar with Valverde and Quintana, but even then it's clear from the talk that Quintana is the main man. Any others? I've not studied the team rosters so I can't say myself. Maybe I'll take a look.
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I'd agree that in a GT you need to nail your colours to the mast and have one protected rider that everyone else works for.

My thinking of Plan B for Sky would be try to get into breakaways more. Rowe should have a good chance in a small group sprint (ie a breakaway survives to the end of a stage). Likewise Stanndard, G and Kennaugh could do well in a break on a rolling stage.
 
Sky for sure have no "plan B". If Froome is not topping GC/winning the tour for Sky, nobody else in Sky will be. I think that will apply for the teams with the main GC guys, although there was almost a sketchy situ in the Giro for Astana which came about due to their dominance in the mountains and leading up with so much guys in their train. Which funnily enough is how I think Sky will deliver Froome on the mountain stages, exactly like they done at Dauphine.

Chris5 I think you are spot on, those 3 guys on a rolling stage could dominate and make a good break work with no catching. But when we get to the mountains you won't see many situations at all with a Sky rider in a breakaway, Sky train of 3/4 till late stages delivering Froome which they have the absolute best all round team to do on the climbs.
 
xdcx said:
Chris5 I think you are spot on, those 3 guys on a rolling stage could dominate and make a good break work with no catching. But when we get to the mountains you won't see many situations at all with a Sky rider in a breakaway, Sky train of 3/4 till late stages delivering Froome which they have the absolute best all round team to do on the climbs.
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Agree entirely that Sky won't be looking at breakaways. That was just my thoughts for a Plan B ie no Froome like last year (which killed my Velogames fantasy team!)
 
Body fat in the single figures, serious vascularity is to be expected. Look at the back of upper arm for goodness' sake, there's nothing to him.
 
George Hincapie said:
Shall we leave the can of worms closed please? I'd just like to dream :)
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I'd like to think he's clean but as we all know you can never be sure there is suspicion around everyone in the sport and anyone who stands out like Froome does is going to be even more in the spotlight! That photo is in no way conclusive proof of anything these guys have crazy low body fat percentages and circulatory systems that are trained to the max.

Great stage for sky yesterday and it is good to see Froome on the front foot from the of this year last year he seemed to be playing catchup from the outset and never looked comfy.

The plan B stuff was all a smoke screen last year for people who were annoyed that Wiggins wasn't on the team, no team has a direct plan B replacement look at the loss of Cav last year there was nobody to replace him either. I do think Sky have some better options this year not in terms of a GC contender but if they loose Froome I would expect them to score a decent number of stage wins and make life really uncomfortable for the GC teams which would be a big improvement on last year when Porte just showed he wasn't ready to lead the team in pursuit of the GC.
 
Vonhelmet said:
Body fat in the single figures, serious vascularity is to be expected. Look at the back of upper arm for goodness' sake, there's nothing to him.
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I agree.
A very strong CV system, crazy low body fat and little to no arm muscle.

I dont think ignoring this stuff just because it'll open a can of worms is a good idea, but I think we should leave the accusations to the drugs testers rather than basing assumptions on a photo of somebody's arm.
 
touch said:
I agree.
A very strong CV system, crazy low body fat and little to no arm muscle.

I dont think ignoring this stuff just because it'll open a can of worms is a good idea, but I think we should leave the accusations to the drugs testers rather than basing assumptions on a photo of somebody's arm.
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Obviously not proof of anything, let alone conclusive, it's just an indicator. They can barely even test for EPO effectively, so how anyone can have trust in the drug testing is beyond me. Let alone the substances that aren't even banned yet.
 
In terms of the photo, there's nothing to ignore. CF is favourite to win and has dieted and trained accordingly. I see nothing wrong with that photo that cannot be easily explained to anyone not wearing a foil hat.

I just would prefer the 'doping' can of worms to stay closed, at least until there is an insane performance that can't rationally be explained any other way. But hey, it's a free forum, I can't stop it.
 
Thomas. PLease. said:
Obviously not proof of anything, let alone conclusive, it's just an indicator. They can barely even test for EPO effectively, so how anyone can have trust in the drug testing is beyond me. Let alone the substances that aren't even banned yet.
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You just have to believe otherwise there is no point in watching, I believe when Froome, Quintana and Nibali say they are clean and I have seen little/no evidence to suggest otherwise, I'm terribly suspicious of Contador given his history but if I didn't believe and just thought they were all doped up the sport would loose most of it's attraction.
 
I don't have to beleive to keep watching, I still love watching because its about bike riding. Its so much more than just the raw performance. Its the drama, the tactics, the bike handling, and all the other things that make it interesting to me.
 
Thomas. PLease. said:
I don't have to beleive to keep watching, I still love watching because its about bike riding. Its so much more than just the raw performance. Its the drama, the tactics, the bike handling, and all the other things that make it interesting to me.
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We're all different.

For me it's the lore, they mysticism. I just want to enjoy the race without the silliness that inevitably crops up.
 
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