[Ghedebrav]

Hello mountains! 😀

Getting in early with this as I’m out on a ride tomorrow AM. I’ve enjoyed the Tour up to now, but this stage is the first one I’ve put a big circle round in the calendar.

So does anybody dare reveal their plans? Who has saved their transfers? Who are we tipping for the win?

I won’t say who I’ve picked, but I will say that I’ve gone for a spread of a few mid-20 guys rather than a big GC feller. I reckon Contador will go for the win, but fancy Rolland to crest the first HC climb in the lead. I’m basing these predictions on absolutely nothing, by the way.

Topic

[enrique]

stumps wrote:… he doesn’t

stumps wrote:

… he doesn’t like me because i’m a Police officer…

I used to be a Police Officer, albeit a Military Police Officer! 🙂

northstar wrote:

It has nothing to do with you being a police officer, get over yourself…

You talking to me?… You talking to me?…

stumps wrote:

…I assume its a game to him, if not then he needs help :D

northstar wrote:

… You’re the one who needs help…

I’m the one who needs help! But who’s offering it? A tenner anybody? 😀

I can’t believe I missed all this fun! 🙂

(Sigh!) (|:

[daddyELVIS]

Let’s see how the 2nd best
Let’s see how the 2nd best time trial rider flies up Ventoux on Sunday. He might be instructed to hold back for fear of ending-up with a ridiculous winning margin in Paris.

[dave atkinson]

daddyELVIS wrote:
Forget the

daddyELVIS wrote:

Forget the competition – look at Froome’s numbers on that climb; it doesn’t matter who was behind him, his numbers were in super-human territory.

you have his numbers? what are they?

unless you back up a claim like that with the numbers, and explain them, it’s nonsense. you have every right to be sceptcial and the sport’s past means the modern riders have to accept they’ll be suspected. but you don’t do yourself any favours by claiming someone’s performance is ‘superhuman’ based on the fact that they won.

[drheaton]

This is a fantasy cycling
This is a fantasy cycling forum and not the place to be having these kind of discussions.

Its clear what everyone’s opinion is but at this stage that’s all it is, opinion.

No one here can prove anything, we’re all working off assumptions and guesses, we know nothing concrete. As such there’s no real point continuing this discussion because nobody’s opinion will be changed as there’s no information out there that will change it.

[daddyELVIS]

chrisdstripes wrote:Logic –

chrisdstripes wrote:

Logic – that’s why we all love sport so much. FF bloody S.

I’ve never seen Boardman, Cancellara or Martin fly up mountains like Froome. Of course logic comes into cycling.

Lets wait until Wednesday – if he’s not top 3 on that time trial, then perhaps my suspicions have little validity.

[chrisdstripes]

Logic – that’s why we all
Logic – that’s why we all love sport so much. FF bloody S.

[daddyELVIS]

stumps wrote:After the race

stumps wrote:

After the race Froome could hardly speak from the effort and you have to look at the competition he faced as well:

Evans – to old
Schleck – completely lacking in everything
Valverde – poss to old
Contador – not the same rider after his drugs ban
TJ – nursing an injury
Quintana – burnt himself out on the earlier climb

Then look at todays stage, Sky lost all their team even Porte yet Movistar still have 3 in the top 10 so does the finger start pointing to them now :?

Hardly speak? – sure he was dripping wet, but he spoke OK, and certainly didn’t look like he was due to collapse or anything. And Porte looked like he could do it again (which makes his stage 9 performance very strange).

Forget the competition – look at Froome’s numbers on that climb; it doesn’t matter who was behind him, his numbers were in super-human territory.

Sunday’s stage – could Sky possibly have had a warning from ASO to calm down, because questions are being asked. Look at Froome’s answer to the doping question after stage 8 – he never once said that he has never doped.

Cadel Evans, after stage 9 called it ‘bizarre’ that a team could blow-up like that so early on in a 3 week race – it just doesn’t happen (and shouldn’t happen to a team that apparently trains harder and better than the rest – ha-ha, Brailsford even regurgitates the US Postal explanation, he’s just wrapped it up in a new sound-bite – ‘marginal gains’).

Let’s see how Froome goes in the first time trial – logic says that the guy who gets up the mountains the quickest, and has got his weight down to skeletal levels, shouldn’t power over a 33km time trial (rolling – flat) the quickest, but I’m willing to bet he’ll be top 3.

[northstar]

Keep telling yourself that.
Keep telling yourself that.

[meursault]

Froome suffered from a
Froome suffered from a parasitic illness that was undiagnosed for a time. Explains his inconsistent results at that time.

[Stumps]

After the race Froome could
After the race Froome could hardly speak from the effort and you have to look at the competition he faced as well:

Evans – to old
Schleck – completely lacking in everything
Valverde – poss to old
Contador – not the same rider after his drugs ban
TJ – nursing an injury
Quintana – burnt himself out on the earlier climb

Then look at todays stage, Sky lost all their team even Porte yet Movistar still have 3 in the top 10 so does the finger start pointing to them now 😕

[daddyELVIS]

stumps wrote:northstar

stumps wrote:

northstar wrote:

stumps wrote:

northstar wrote:

Pure class? lol.

I take it you disagree ? Never mind there’s always one.

LOL, none to blind as those who don’t want to see.

You’re in the minority if you think that was normal it seems.

Blinded much?

Oh dear, how sad, never mind. Lets hope he goes on and wins by a massive margin just to really wind you up =))

A rider who was not even rated by Sky 2 years ago (proof: Sean Yate’s comment in the Eurosport Studio yesterday after the stage), who was hardly able to blow a paper bag apart (never mind a whole top-class and probably partially doped peloton) before he joined Sky, flies up a an 8km, 8%+ gradient climb at near ‘EPO-era’ speed, and ‘EPO-era’ Watts/Kilo levels (according to early estimates), and will also likely crush the field in the time trials – remind you of anyone? I don’t think it’s sad to have suspicions, in fact, I think anyone who wants cycling to be clean needs to be very suspicious about that performance – made more suspicious by the fact that his domestique glided over the finish in 2nd place (by some margin). Was nobody reminded of the US Postal years by that performance – or, can everything be explained away by the fact that Sky are a British team, therefore must be clean?

[drheaton]

Froome’s ride was very
Froome’s ride was very impressive but it hardly came out of the blue, he’s been doing that for two to three years and Contador is nowhere near the rider he used to be.

Your comments of ‘that was good wasn’t it *nudge nudge wink wink*, are helpful without something to back it up. Doping is an issue in cycling and will always be an issue but at some point you have to accept what you see.

Either you accept that Sky are just ahead of the curve when it comes to coaching and legitimate race preparation (which I do, cycling was crazy previously with individual riders responsible for their training in a totally unstructured way) or you think that Sky are running a US Postal style doping system for their top riders because that’s surely the only way Sky and Froome could be that good right?! (sarcasm)

For what its worth I don’t like Froome. Wiggins was nowhere near the rider Froome is and that as why I liked him, he made the best of what he had whereas Froome is a bit like Contador, very very good to the point of it being unfair on the rest of the peloton.

[northstar]

Ok, attacking is perhaps the
Ok, attacking is perhaps the wrong word but he is very defensive over team sky / chris froome for whatever reason.

He won’t address the issue, just thinks it is all about himself it seems.

[STEVESPRO 79]

I hardly think that stumps is
I hardly think that stumps is attacking you…. :/

[northstar]

Quote:And what about

And what about Quintana? Is he doping too?/

Go and ask Movistar, why do you think I know? I just have my opinions like everyone else.

[Author]

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