Tour de France poll: Who will win?; Froome shows of his new single-leg training regime; "Just let them all do it", says Landis on doping; Peter Sagan slams the CPA over failure to act heatwave at Tour +more in the Live Blog

Xenophon2 wrote:

For the heat, imo Sagan's comments are valid.  It's a real scorcher there, heat records are being broken left and right.  Imagine riding 177 km at average speeds of at least 40 kmh in that.  Sh*t, I rode 25 km commuting from work to home today, temps of 37.6 in the shade, like riding through a hairdryer...went 2 minutes slower than usual and it felt 50% harder.  Garmin says my zones were off too, due to the heat. And that's nothing compared to what those riders need to do, i doubt an ice pack compensates for that.

For the doping:  I'm not and never was a pro rider but what I do see even on my amateur level are that people get caught left and right (we have a system of unannounced doping controls for sporters here, even if non-competitive).  Why they do it is beyond me, bit like riding a Strava segment on an e-bike and grabbing KOM-status while the rest of your stats don't work out.

 

 

I have to disagree, a e bike uses a outside scource of  power . Taking PED’s is only advancing your athletic potential . Take Froome for instance ,before he joined sky and Dr Leinders he was a nowhere man , look how quickly he transformed into a tour winner . He happens to be a good responder there are more talented riders who don’t respond as well “ recover as quick “ then you have riders like pantani or Armstrong, gifted genetics who responded well ,in Armstrong’s case I would say he was never pushed to the limits on any of his tour wins . He had a few issues but no one could compete at his level it would have been good to have seen him come up against some competitors who would have pushed him . Maybe Contador  if they peaked at the same time . You can’t compare Froome in any way ,because his team are such a important factor . No way he could win a tour  with no team mates around him. Drugs do work and the stigma needs to be taken away and let them get on with it and those who live in fairy land won’t have to wonder anymore .

make them legal and the same people will be winning and the times  ,well look at some of them . Porte and Froome both quicker up the madone than a juiced up Armstrong. Some of Froomes times up cols were in the top ten times matching and beating that of caught doped riders .he may have had team mates wheels to suck but other known climbers couldn’t hang on most of the time .i mean at times we had 5 or 6 sky riders in the last 1 -2 kk of mountain top finishes. Armstrong or Bertie would be alone most of the time . Dr Leinders knows his stuff . I want some . 

mike the bike wrote:

 

And those hills, some of them are, like, really steep.  Surely we can make do with just the slightly steep ones?  And think how much less stressed the riders would be if the bikes had a little motor. 

Why has nobody thought of this before?

But not a big one, because I've see the IOM TT and people are killing themselves all the time there. So maybe just a little motor, one you could fit into on of your tubes and use when you are super 'stressed.'

AlsoSomniloquism wrote:

40-50 years ago, footballs used to be made from heavy leather and lots of ex pros suffered from brain diseases as they got older which is generally percieved to be at a direct link. And Ex American Footballers were also suffering from effects of mutilple impacts of the head which lead to a ban on certain tackles.

Just because riding large distances in 40 degree temps was seen as being "manly" in the old days doesn't mean it shouldn't be looked at as OK these days. 

A bit like burning to death in cars used to be part and parcel of motorsport because nobody stood up to those on charge.

AlsoSomniloquism wrote:

40-50 years ago, footballs used to be made from heavy leather and lots of ex pros suffered from brain diseases as they got older which is generally percieved to be at a direct link. And Ex American Footballers were also suffering from effects of mutilple impacts of the head which lead to a ban on certain tackles.

Just because riding large distances in 40 degree temps was seen as being "manly" in the old days doesn't mean it shouldn't be looked at as OK these days. 

you've clearly not read what I've said, things have improved already, massively so and rightly so, which makes your comparison bunk. It would have been relevant if things hadn't changed but they hae as I mentioned.

So riding in hot temps now is not remotely the same to riding in hot temps BITD, in fact he can lounge around out the back when he likes so he's got enough left for the days he might have a chance. He gets far more help in that respect than the pros that went before by a long long way.

Clearly one rider in the pelaton thought he was being a bit OTT, maybe you should explain it to them as to why having drinks on tap, supplements, salts, food, cool packs etc etc isn't enough?

BehindTheBikesheds wrote:

So riding in hot temps now is not remotely the same to riding in hot temps BITD, in fact he can lounge around out the back when he likes so he's got enough left for the days he might have a chance. He gets far more help in that respect than the pros that went before by a long long way.

Clearly one rider in the pelaton thought he was being a bit OTT, maybe you should explain it to them as to why having drinks on tap, supplements, salts, food, cool packs etc etc isn't enough?

Sagan was saying the heat is OK on the flats but they should consider things as they head into the mountains - not unreasonable to think about things given during multiple days over 100F, the different efforts involved, the elevation (and the combination of the heat with that), the slower speeds on exposed slopes and the fact that we're heading into hotter days in what is already record breaking temperatures for Europe in general, and France in particular.

He may less happy with the heat than others, but it's no unreasonable to ask the organisers to look at what coming up and see if anything could / should be done even if that decision is to carry on (which it probably will).

BehindTheBikesheds wrote:

Maybe Sagan could ask the CPA to tell the UCI they no longer want to wear/forced to wear a polystyrene hat that overheats your head in a ridiculous fashion and go back to wearing cotton caps that protect you from the sun whilst not frying your brain, it would seem to be the simplest solution with regards to overheating whilst also increasing safety in the pelaton?

Yeah, I mean replacing a ventilated, lightweight helmet with a non breathable cotton cap is the ideal solution you irrelevant, boring, repetative, old fanny.

Any opportunity to get your opinion across on helmets, eh

leqin wrote:

overweight fat tub of sh1t wrote:

Let me clarify that: there’s never been a rider that was talented enough to win the Tour that didn’t win because they didn’t take drugs. 

Is that a overeager piece of typing by road.cc, or did the overweight fat tub of sh1t wish to imply that nobody, who has ever won the TDF, did so without making use of drugs.

define drug/s?

Honestly don't care what Landis says. We have a system that tests, cyclists in the pro ranks are the most tested with respect to participant numbers. If we are to accept Landis on his word then we can pretty much say the same thing across all other sports. Tennis, Gold and soccer do get a lot less heat with regard tests, there's too much money in it for the system to catch the dopers.

"A total of 32,362 football samples were analysed across WADA-approved laboratories.

This compares with 30,308 in athletics and 22,652 in cycling. 

Aquatics is next on the list with 12,973, followed by weightlifting with 10,262 and rugby union with 8,451.

Given the numebrs of pro soccer players globally that 32k tests is a drop in the ocean and even the number of pro/competition athletes across all disciplines massively dwarves pro cyclists.