And about Evans. He finally won a Tour de France when he was more aggressive. No coincidence there.
Tour de France
- Thread starter Rupert
- Start date
And about Evans. He finally won a Tour de France when he was more aggressive. No coincidence there.
I hope so. That was my rationale for making this stage my bonus stage.
Also because I am a bit of a romantic and I really like the thought of the Tour winner winning on Alp d'Huez.
I'm hoping it turns out for both of you this way, because Rupert help me to select this stage as my bonus, and Grater help with a trade in a couple of days ago.
Fingers crossed for this greenhorn and his rag tag bunch of riders.
I will elaborate on this. When Floyd Landis was in Melbourne in 2010 for the World Championships, I looked after him for the week. I had dinner with him and other every week. I also did an interview with him which was published. Anyway, the stuff he was telling me was quite insightful. I knew at that stage who the riders were that testified against Lance Armstrong. Yet it only came out to the media and everyone else in 2012. So it was old news to me when the story broke.
Anyway, Landis was telling me how after a Tour de France stage a team mate would hand him a blood bag and he would put it in his jersey and ride back to the hotel and no one would notice. He also told me a lot of stuff and he and everyone else did and how open everyone was.
Up until 2009 (this was confirmed by more than one rider) all the cyclists would talk about what drugs they were on and what they were doing during stages. Ever since people started testing positive, everyone has kept quiet about what they are on because they don't trust anyone and don't want to get caught. To this day nothing has changed. No one will be talking to other riders about this because the mood is somewhat dull. Basically this is common knowledge, cyclists have a code where that if you get caught, you never ever break omerta. You wear your punishment and you'll be signed again after your ban. If you talk and dob people in, you will never get a professional contract again. So that's why riders don't talk when they are caught.
Landis was also set up that year he won because he told me that he was on EPO, HGH and everything under the sun. He was tested for those things all throughout the tour and they all turned up negative. The only thing he wasn't on was testosterone and he 'got caught' for a positive testosterone test. Unless the other things he was on raised his testosterone level, it doesn't make sense that all drug tests turned back negative and the thing he tested positive for was the only thing he wasn't on. It was quite insightful.
No don't think so, i was lucky enough not to. But i'm sure you weren't the only ones.
I had Ablett as captain in Supercoach. I have 2 trades left in Supercoach so Ablett's injury doesn't hurt me ahead of finals, but, now I have to burn a trade so if I get more injuries, i'm screwed. But this is how I play every year. I go a high risk approach. I usually burn trades by round 16/17 and then hope for the best.
Yep me too, Beams was another that was out today,but i had Lambert cover him with a 100+ so wasn't so bad. VC'd Ablett and put the C on Goldy.
Just on your post regarding the Tour, it just still erks me that in a professional sport this type of thing happens. It really isn't a test of who is the best but who has the best stuff!
God, Grater - I knew they were on drugs and have seen all the documentaries but I was starting to think that they had finally started to clean the sport up.
Pisses me right off.
I wish they would just ban them for life. None of this 2-years and then you are allowed back in stuff. The risk of getting caught is worth it if you know that you can get back in again after 2 years. And that's only if you ARE caught.
Later:
Not surprised about Landis being set up. That's pretty much what was claimed in one of the documentaries I saw. Armstrong didn't like him leaving USPostal so set out to get him.
Pisses me right off.
I wish they would just ban them for life. None of this 2-years and then you are allowed back in stuff. The risk of getting caught is worth it if you know that you can get back in again after 2 years. And that's only if you ARE caught.
Later:
Not surprised about Landis being set up. That's pretty much what was claimed in one of the documentaries I saw. Armstrong didn't like him leaving USPostal so set out to get him.
Yeah, I had Lambert as emergency too, so all is not lost there.
Well the thing is, is that cycling is a sport where it's physically hard to do what they do all the time without assistance. Some things they do is physically impossible even if you have the best dietitians, exercise physiologists, masseurs etc. You still need some sort of other assistance.
If the UCI get their way and reduce Grand Tours to two weeks and lighten up the racing calendar like they want to do, then you will be able to ride without the assistance.
It just begs the question, why make something that really is beyond any human ability without some kind of artificial assistance? Makes no sense.
This rider is going to remain nameless, as this was told to me in confidence, but I know of a professional rider over the last few years who rode professional and gave up because what he had to do was against everything he believed in.
Regarding what I said about how riders don't talk. One rider that got caught sung like a canary. Patrick Sinkewitz. He was caught for testosterone and he asked his sport director at the time what to do. That person told him to tell the truth. So Sinkewitz interpreted it as he should sing like a canary and he started to dob a lot of people in and he never got a professional contract again because of that.
You remember Linus Gerdemann? Won a stage of the Tour de France in 2007. Anyway he was a clean rider. He refused to dope. He didn't believe in it. He had a lot of promise and was going to be a star. Most of the reason why he has gone off the face of the map (rode for MTN Qhuebeka last year and rides for a lower team now), is because of that. He is not competitive enough so he basically committed career suicide by refusing to dope.
There are a lot of clean riders nowadays btw. You can tell who they are. They don't get many results. It has cleaned up a bit. It's not as bad as it was prior to 2009. But it's still there.
Ahhh, but that is Le Tour. Have you seen any of the documentaries on the early tours? Some of them were simply ridiculous.
In 1926 there were 17 stages over 5,745km. That's an average of about 338km/stage. Although the stages weren't necessarily single day races.
Until 1930 each rider had to look after his bike himself - get a puncture and repair it yourself. I've seen film of riders carrying their bike up the mtn to the finish line because it was easier/faster than stopping to fix it.
For a while they had to ride the same bike all the way to the finish line, regardless of its condition.
If you can it is worth watching a good history of Le Tour doco.
Thanks Grater.
For your sake I hope Rodriguez gets it but I kinda like Bardet. And I think it is good that the French might finally have a genuine GC contender.
And I remember Gerdemann.
No as i have eluded to numerous times i have no idea when it come to cycling, although i have enjoyed it somewhat this year due to this little sub SCC league.
It has fueled a little fire.