Do you think it was a hollow victory for Wiggins then? Contador banned, Schleck injured and Froome following team orders in 2012?At least this year the main contenders made it to the start line.
Highlights said he crashed at 65kph and left a 100m skid mark on the Tarmac
Call me an old cynic but we seem to have a Yellow jersey holder who barely seems to get out of breath whilst riding everyone off his wheel. Where have I seen that before.
taking drugs and cycling around france for three weeks sounds a great way of spending your summer
unless someone is caught they are clean.
Quote from: webbo on July 20, 2014, 12:17:53 pmCall me an old cynic but we seem to have a Yellow jersey holder who barely seems to get out of breath whilst riding everyone off his wheel. Where have I seen that before. Last year... though to be fair Froome had a few moments where he seemed human - Nibs hasn't so far - maybe he's not been pushed enough. I'm sure someone somewhere is measuring his VO max blah blah and working out pro and against arguments...
Are other sports stratified to such an extent?
Not that I don't share others doubts, but let's be honest, nibs is riding away from the second tier really, the three people I'd expect to give him trouble aren't here. Anyone seriously surprised nibs is significantly better than, eg, bardet?
OK - so all this implies that there are only 3 or 4 people in the world in the 'elite' group of road cycling grand tour cycling - then the rest are just varying shades of domestique? non? Are other sports stratified to such an extent? In athletics for example is there such a top few and the rest are also rans (but also rans by a distance)...?
Its not that he's riding away from the so called second tier, its that he is doing it barely getting out of breath or breaking in to a sweat.Yesterday he caught the second guy on the road then attacked so fast it made the other guy look like he was not moving. All on a gradient between 7% and 10% which they were on for 30 mins and not once did he appear to be breathing heavily.It all looks like the Armstrong days.Cycling weekly had an article pointing out there is a distinct lack of press questioning around drug use with Nibali compared to the 3 degree that Wiggins and Froome got.
The media coverage is very strange, however I think teams like Sky and Garmin etc, who have a very clear no doping stance take a lot of the flak sometimes...whereas is reality it should really be the teams who don't come out and make clear statements of intent against doping who should be questioned....Astana are a perfect example, along with Tinkov Saxo.