Seem to be a few others following the cycling on here, interested to get your views on the Froome doping allegations? For me, I think that the accusations are bordering on a witch hunt. I do not recall people asking these questions of Nibali last year, though i recognise one of the contributing factors to the accusations relate to how Froome went from average to very good over a short space of time. I can't help but think that it's a jealousy thing on behalf of the French who are in the main kicking off the accusations and are not happy with potentially 3 of 4 TDFs being won by a Brit. I confess that my knowledge of cycling is not great, but one person whose opinion i do trust is that of David Walsh, who wrote the book '7 Deadly sins' about his investigation into Armstrong's doping (an excellent read btw) and his comments below say for me everything there is to be said at the moment: "I've also spent a lot of time looking at the people around Chris Froome, looking at what's going on in Team Sky. We're now three years into the Froome story. At the three-year point into my investigation into Lance Armstrong I had six people in his team who told me he doped. "I haven't had one person, who works with Sky now or who was sacked by Sky, who has given me anything to go on or investigate. In fairness to Chris Froome my conclusion has to be that I've seen nothing that indicates he dopes and I'm inclined to believe him when he says he doesn't. It doesn't mean I know, but I certainly believe his claims"
For what its worth I dont think he dopes either, though have to say that Sky are not always as pure as they make out, eg their use of TUEs ( basically therapeutic drug exemptions, including steroids With a sport with a drug history like cycling has and a team with Sky's apparent superiority, you're bound to get questions. If Froome was a french cyclist riding for a french team, don't tell me that the british press wouldn't be all over it.
Yeah, pretty **** time to be a top cyclist at the moment, the wounds over Armstrong are still very deep and hurting a lot. It's defo affected the French attitude to the Tour, Walsh made another comment about the size of the crows on the mountain stages being a lot smaller than they used to be as he feels people are starting to not believe. One major problem is that a lot of the pundits and twitter users spouting off about doping are ex dopers themselves! Cheeky twats. I hope something can be done to prove innocence, but like Brailsford says, proving a negative is not really possible
Cracking finish among the GC contenders - Froome crosses the line with Quintana; Valverde is next and then Nibali; Contador has lost at least 2 mins on Froome; Van Garderen has retired.
Stage 17 - Top Ten: 1 Simon Geschke (Ger) Team Giant-Alpecin 4:12:17 2 Andrew Talansky (USA) Cannondale-Garmin Pro Cycling Team 0:00:32 3 Rigoberto Uran (Col) Etixx - Quick-Step 0:01:01 4 Thibaut Pinot (Fra) FDJ.fr 0:01:36 5 Mathias Frank (Swi) IAM Cycling 0:01:40 6 Steven Kruijswijk (Ned) Team LottoNL-Jumbo 0:02:27 7 Nicolas Roche (Irl) Team Sky 0:03:02 8 Jonathan Castroviejo (Spa) Movistar Team 0:03:04 9 Serge Pauwels (Bel) MTN - Qhubeka 0:03:05 10 Adam Yates (GBr) Orica GreenEdge 0:03:21 General classification after stage 17 1 Christopher Froome (GBr) Team Sky 69:06:49 2 Nairo Quintana (Col) Movistar Team 0:03:10 3 Alejandro Valverde (Spa) Movistar Team 0:04:09 4 Geraint Thomas (GBr) Team Sky 0:06:34 5 Alberto Contador (Spa) Tinkoff-Saxo 0:06:40 6 Robert Gesink (Ned) Team LottoNL-Jumbo 0:07:39 7 Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Astana Pro Team 0:08:04 8 Mathias Frank (Swi) IAM Cycling 0:08:47 9 Bauke Mollema (Ned) Trek Factory Racing 0:11:47 10 Warren Barguil (Fra) Team Giant-Alpecin 0:13:08
please log in to view this image A disappointed Tejay van Garderen (BMC) visited the start of the stage in Gap this morning to speak to the media one day after abandoning the Tour through illness while lying in third place overall. "The hardest part was when I was getting in the bus. I got there before my teammates and I was sitting there and decompressing and thinking ‘okay that just happened’ but when my teammates came on the bus and I had to look them in the eye, that just killed me," van Garderen said. http://live.cyclingnews.com/
But the British press aren't really interested in cycling. And the press having the biggest impact around the tour while it is on is likely to be the local press which is French.
Stage 19 today - and it could be interesting. The ascent of La Toussuire (1705m) is where Froome was leading in 2012, when he was pulled back to preserve 'Sir' Bradley Wiggins' Yellow Jersey. It could well be different today, as Quintana and Valverde will have to attack, if they want to make up their respective time deficits.
Depends what papers you read - there's a lot more coverage of the tour than there used to be, though I'm sure that's mainly fuelled by Sky's success. So if next year a French or Dutch rider/team were to be as dominant in the GC as Froome and Sky are this, then I still think the British press would have quite a lot to say about it!
Stage 19: Top 10 1 Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Astana Pro Team 4:22:53 2 Nairo Quintana (Col) Movistar Team 0:00:44 3 Christopher Froome (GBr) Team Sky 0:01:14 4 Thibaut Pinot (Fra) FDJ.fr 0:02:26 5 Romain Bardet (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale 0:02:26 6 Alejandro Valverde (Spa) Movistar Team 0:02:26 7 Bauke Mollema (Ned) Trek Factory Racing 0:02:26 8 Robert Gesink (Ned) Team LottoNL-Jumbo 0:02:26 9 Alberto Contador (Spa) Tinkoff-Saxo 0:02:26 10 Samuel Sanchez (Spa) BMC Racing Team 0:02:26 General classification after stage 19 1 Christopher Froome (GBr) Team Sky 78:37:34 2 Nairo Quintana (Col) Movistar Team 0:02:38 3 Alejandro Valverde (Spa) Movistar Team 0:05:25 4 Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Astana Pro Team 0:06:44 5 Alberto Contador (Spa) Tinkoff-Saxo 0:07:56 6 Robert Gesink (Ned) Team LottoNL-Jumbo 0:08:55 7 Mathias Frank (Swi) IAM Cycling 0:12:39 8 Bauke Mollema (Ned) Trek Factory Racing 0:13:22 9 Romain Bardet (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale 0:14:08 10 Pierre Rolland (Fra) Team Europcar 0:17:27
