Pro Cycling Discussion Thread 2015

I'm ******* outraged if I'm honest with that! That is ridiculous. How can that even have any precedent or a rule. The sport certainly does itself no favours to gain fans! Clearly trying to favour Aru, which is the problem with local commisaires! Down to 2 then. Might lump a fiver on Porte now!
 
It's a very ambiguously worded rule and as we've seen lately the UCI have no problem with not enforcing rules when they don't want to. Very much hope they reverse their decision after the backlash from this, it's so nice to see that they can finally get past the doping thing and focus on the real cheaters - people being nice.

On a more positive note, are they riding on the Imola F1 track tomorrow? That'll be interesting.
 
Well thats my £15 down the swanny then :(

Utter imbeciles and their stupid blinkered crazy decisions. Ignore the drug cheats and punish someone for helping out a mate with a flipping wheel change....saddened by it all really
 
After all the rumours and discussions about actual cheating, this is the utter ridiculous situation we end up with from UCI. It is beyond a joke when we see a rider penalised for taking part in a gesture of good sportsmanship from a fellow coutryman.

UCI would have been better to play on this and show it as a great example of the sport and the competitors rather than do what they have done.

Not even angry or annoyed. Just saddened and tired of the BS.
 
I'd say the eastern teams are more likely to push the limits of what is legal.

Think the Russians at the Winter Olympics...

In Pro Conti the Iranian teams turn up and wipe the floor with everyone, yet I can't think of an Iranian WT rider.... Coincidence?
 
Should Sky have backed Konig instead of Porte....

After all he finished 5th (7th) iirc? In last years TDF and Porte has never had a top ten GC result....
 
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Probably. I wonder how much time he lost waiting for Porte over the last few days.

Porte seems very good over a week but he strikes me as a bit mentally fragile over 3 weeks. I think he'll be at OGE next season, Sky won't back him again.
 
One More Solo said:
Probably. I wonder how much time he lost waiting for Porte over the last few days.

Porte seems very good over a week but he strikes me as a bit mentally fragile over 3 weeks. I think he'll be at OGE next season, Sky won't back him again.
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Porte thinks he's already at OGE...

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One More Solo said:
Just watched today's stage. Contractor super comfortable, this Giro is over barring mishaps.
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Yes, I concur. It could actually be a pretty boring last week. I have had mixed feeling watching this race. The pace of the stages has been very high with Tinkoff and Astana trying to find out who has the biggest dick. It has shades of the early 2000s! Yesterday they were averaging almost 40kmph despite some brutal gradients on the penultimate climb.

The first week was maybe too hard and pushed too many contenders out of the reckoning. Then we had Porte taking himself out of the race after that bizarre ruling. I think they have inadvertently screwed it up. I found myself not bothered about watching it yesterday as the outcome has seemed inevitable.

I also just finished Christopher Bassons book which has tainted my views on the sport again.For Ulissi to be back and winning stages only a year after a ban in no deterrent to doping. Then we have the whole Astana team beasting it for km after km on the front. I even have doubts about Contador.

The Giro used to be my favourite GT but this edition hasn't done it for me.
 
Astana are on the gear so blatantly it's not even funny. Having 5 guys on t front with 10km to go when all the other teams have one...

Contador is ex Astana and has been committed of doping in the past so he's in there with them....
 
As I read somewhere else, Martinelli was DS at Mercatore Uno when Pantani hit the climb to Madonna di Campiglio with 6 teammates in 1999. He's Astana DS now so standards are slipping if they "only" had four riders in support. :p
 
Interesting to watch the stage on the Mortirolo yesterday. 12.8km at an average of nearly 11% and ramps of 18%. Brutal.
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I saw that even some of the pro's were riding 36 *32 in order to get up. Contador puncturing and losing 40 secs prior tot he climb looked like it could make things interesting again but he closed it down and caught Aru who blew on the penultimate climb. Landa for sure is the stronger (or more doped?) rider in Astana and he rode away impressively towards the end.

Hysjedal actually rode a very impressive stage - grinding out a decent finish to get into the top ten. it would be nice to think that Konig could deliver something of a performance like that to secure a top 5.
 
We only saw the main protagonists going up the Mortirolo and I was itching to see the back markers suffering. The big heavy sprinters and domestiques who'd blown their powder earlier in the day.

Kudos to Contador for chasing down the leaders after his puncture but again it seems like its a bit of a procession now after Porte's bad luck/appaling rulings and Aru's failure to keep up.
 
Good last stage. Surprised by the amount contador dropped but don't think it was ever in doubt. Hesjedal had a great last week to get himself back up.
 
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