I never said that i'm just arguing with MITO as his logic is how shall i put it illogical. Everything we know suggests that doping has decreased in top level cycling though still occurring obviously as it does in all sports bar the wonderfully clean sport of football
i just think they've moved onto new methods to get away with it. my question would be: as the tours got a) easier b) slower c) shorter i don't think so...i might be wrong so either theres nobody decent left OR they are still doing what was rife just in a new way. I don't mind one bit about you saying football has to be dirty as well... I think you are right. Its not just an endurance sport and theres a large element of ability and team work involved but there is a huge element of endurance required to recover and play again twice a week for most of a season at a top club. IMO there has to be some clubs at it.
First point - perhaps we should have waited & see if Froome actually wins before having this convo seem to remember the average speed of TdF did drop after the clampdown but i think is right back up there. The main reason for thinking Froome may do it this year is many of the other GC contenders did the Giro then TDF. Froome races very sparingly & has the most depth in domestiques to call on. On the new doping method i actually raised that possibility earlier in this conversation. PS cycling was , i think, the first sport to bring in specific rules to deal with EPO
In fairness there is no man born or unborn who could race all 3 and compete so yeah... thats fair enough... He still smells off to me. at least his samples will be on ice to be retested over time.
oh i'm never that surprised when any athlete tests positive and not at all with cycling which has a very long doping history in fact one could argue the demands of an elite cyclist is such that at times it is difficult to see how it can be done without chemical help.Still love watching the Vuelta , Giro , TdF and the monuments.
They are real races though, not like the day trips. The mountains and stuff add to the racing greatly... but they also drive the drugs and blood swapping etc.
have you actually watched much of the one day races ? winning Paris-Nice or Milan- San Remo counts as high for those specialists and the Points Jersey for Peter Sagan just as much as winning/podium finishes for the GC contenders its just different horses for courses. Not sure you fully appreciate the team element in the grand Tours ever since the template was set by Indurain i doubt you saw him race but his Banesto team are normally considered to have perfected the grand tour winning system (note you have to be very good at time trialling) though he is viewed with huge suspicion as regards doping.
Yeah but there is always the element of.... not luck but a big of randomness in a one day like the Olympics racing. You can't pick a winner there but yes some target each race. I think I remember indurain and remember a well dodgy result way back in the day. I do get the team element for sure in the big races and what goes on etc.
As an aside on the doping issue i remember laughing when someone was surprised at Paralympians doping . I felt obliged to point out a sizeable percentage of them were fairly used to taking drugs on a daily basis though there the real trick is to cheat the classification system.
F1 Belgian GP Quali underway ... one of the best and the OG tracks Hamilton looking strong, but Ferrari going well this weekend
Hamilton looking supreme here and ready to equal Schumacher's pole record at what was one of his favourite and home tracks Raikkonen also very fast today Red Bulls at the top end but mediocre Alonso misses out on Q3 with another engine problem
Hamilton on pole with a belter Vettel pulls out a strong one for 2nd after looking adrift in 4th Bottas with a good one too for 3rd
