Bicycle Racing 2012
- Thread starter The Boy
- Start date
Nigel Irritable
Five, Ten, Fifteen Years
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/12/o...f-sports.html?_r=1&ref=opinion&pagewanted=all
Jonathan Vaughters unambiguously confesses to having doped (although he's long made it pretty clear in more cryptic ways). He has also shown up in an extremely interesting thread on the cycling news forums, where he goes into all kinds of stuff which is probably of interest to people here, the performance benefits of doping, the correlation between declining blood values in the peloton in recent years and declining climbing performances, how he runs Garmin, why riders (like Talansky on his own team and Wiggins) make statements defending Armstrong. He even throws in a tidbit about Wiggins physiology - apparently he produces a very unusual amount of his 4km track output through his aerobic metabolism (rather than anaerobically), which may explain why other pursuiters haven't turned into good stage racers.
Lots of interesting stuff, although the thread is long and filled with all kinds of digressions:
http://forum.cyclingnews.com/showthread.php?t=18079
Or you could skip to his posts by searching for JV1973 using the advanced search function.
Jonathan Vaughters unambiguously confesses to having doped (although he's long made it pretty clear in more cryptic ways). He has also shown up in an extremely interesting thread on the cycling news forums, where he goes into all kinds of stuff which is probably of interest to people here, the performance benefits of doping, the correlation between declining blood values in the peloton in recent years and declining climbing performances, how he runs Garmin, why riders (like Talansky on his own team and Wiggins) make statements defending Armstrong. He even throws in a tidbit about Wiggins physiology - apparently he produces a very unusual amount of his 4km track output through his aerobic metabolism (rather than anaerobically), which may explain why other pursuiters haven't turned into good stage racers.
Lots of interesting stuff, although the thread is long and filled with all kinds of digressions:
http://forum.cyclingnews.com/showthread.php?t=18079
Or you could skip to his posts by searching for JV1973 using the advanced search function.
Was always likely. He was only really there to win the Olympic RR as a Sky Rider, imo. OPQS will be the likely destination I would imagine.
Nigel Irritable
Five, Ten, Fifteen Years
I suspect that Sky did not expect anyone on their books to be in with a serious shout of winning the Tour, or probably any Grand Tour. So his contract negotiations were being carried out in the expectation on both sides that he was going to be the primary focus of the team. Then last year's Vuelta happens and suddenly Sky have two guys on their books who look like potential GT winners, and then they get the Tour parcours of their dreams, and then they finish 1-2 on GC... and at each step, Cavendish looks more and more surplus to requirements.
Sky could hold him to his contract, but that would probably lead to serious internal morale problems. It's best for all concerned that Cavendish go somewhere where his interests will be supported. Cavendish was more than reasonable about taking second place last year, but he's too talented to do so in the longer term. And Sky don't need to be using up two GT spots on a sprinter and bodyguard, or the negative publicity that would come with an eventual falling out. I mean they'll look a bit silly if Wiggins gets slaughtered at the Tour and Froome doesn't live up to expectations, but that's a risk they have to take in the circumstances.
Nigel Irritable
Five, Ten, Fifteen Years
Armstrong's court case seeking to prevent USADA from proceeding to arbitration in its case against him has been dismissed!
edited to add: Here's USADA's succinct statement. Note the word "public"!
“We are pleased that the federal court in Austin, Texas has dismissed Lance Armstrong’s lawsuit and upheld the established rules which provide Congressionally-mandated due process for all athletes. The rules in place have protected the rights of athletes for over a decade in every case USADA has adjudicated and we look forward to a timely public arbitration hearing in this case, should Mr. Armstrong choose, where the evidence can be presented, witness testimony will be given under oath and subject to cross examination, and an independent panel of arbitrators will determine the outcome of the case.”
edited to add: Here's USADA's succinct statement. Note the word "public"!
“We are pleased that the federal court in Austin, Texas has dismissed Lance Armstrong’s lawsuit and upheld the established rules which provide Congressionally-mandated due process for all athletes. The rules in place have protected the rights of athletes for over a decade in every case USADA has adjudicated and we look forward to a timely public arbitration hearing in this case, should Mr. Armstrong choose, where the evidence can be presented, witness testimony will be given under oath and subject to cross examination, and an independent panel of arbitrators will determine the outcome of the case.”
Nigel Irritable
Five, Ten, Fifteen Years
Holy shit, it turns out that Tyler Farrar is still alive. He won the first stage at the stupidly named Colorado race.
Nigel Irritable
Five, Ten, Fifteen Years
Farrar won again. It turns out that all he needed was a few races with no other fast sprinters.
Nigel Irritable
Five, Ten, Fifteen Years
The Cavendish transfer saga has got a bit murkier with these two stories:
http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/cavendish-not-coming-to-katusha-says-piva
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/cycling/19493522
A lot of the speculation about Cavendish leaving Sky was based on the assumption that Sky wouldn't demand a release fee. Now it seems that they are demanding a fee "hefty" enough to scare off Katusha, who may well be the only team richer than Sky. Sky have a contract, and they are certainly entitled to demand that it be bought out, but I hope that this will just end up with them extracting money from another team rather than with a seriously unhappy Cavendish stuck on a team that won't support him.
If the cost (salary plus buy out) is too high for Katusha, there can't be all that many teams in the running. OPQS still seem the most likely option.
http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/cavendish-not-coming-to-katusha-says-piva
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/cycling/19493522
A lot of the speculation about Cavendish leaving Sky was based on the assumption that Sky wouldn't demand a release fee. Now it seems that they are demanding a fee "hefty" enough to scare off Katusha, who may well be the only team richer than Sky. Sky have a contract, and they are certainly entitled to demand that it be bought out, but I hope that this will just end up with them extracting money from another team rather than with a seriously unhappy Cavendish stuck on a team that won't support him.
If the cost (salary plus buy out) is too high for Katusha, there can't be all that many teams in the running. OPQS still seem the most likely option.
Nigel Irritable
Five, Ten, Fifteen Years
There's a reasonable chance that he won't have raced a Grand Tour for almost two years when the Tour rolls around. That can't do his chances any favours.
Was thinking that perhaps Rabo might be interested in him? He could team back up with Renshaw (who isn't cutting it as a sprinter) and he would be an improvement on Theo Bos. They also might be getting fed up of the constant failure in GC. And they probably have the budget. And they don't have Ibarguren which a poster on another forum insists would be a deal breaker for OPQS.
On the plus side he won't be worried about where Franck is. Well I guess he will in some sense, but he won't be looking over his shoulder every five seconds...
Nigel Irritable
Five, Ten, Fifteen Years
Rabo would be an interesting option, I agree. I'm not sure that they would want to go all in behind a foreign sprinter though, given that they have a team full of promising young or youngish Dutch GC riders, though. And while Cavendish would clearly be an improvement on Bos, Bos has actually been doing pretty well recently - four wins in the last month.
If only they could merge Bos and Renshaw into one sprinter they'd have someone who could legitimately hope to challenge Cavendish. Renshaw is smart, enormously skilled at positioning and can hold his speed for ages, but just isn't fast enough. Bos has great acceleration and top speed, but is absolutely terrible at all of the parts of sprinting that involve skill or a brain.
OPQS is still the obvious choice. They have money, very strong riders and they don't care about GC. I'd be impressed though if Cavendish was unwilling to move there because of their medical staff.
Shit; small races
Therein lies the rub. And he's not getting any younger. I know he comes from a track background and all, but I'd be less inclined to put all my sprinting eggs in one basket if said sprinter is still a rough diamond at just shy of 30.
Especially since he's been at Sky with their dodgy medical staff
. Then again, don't think Cav was ever part of the Tenerife crowd.I think Cav's PR have earned their money here:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/ot...firm-he-wants-a-move-away-from-Team-Sky.html#
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/ot...firm-he-wants-a-move-away-from-Team-Sky.html#
Nigel Irritable
Five, Ten, Fifteen Years
Yes, it's a pretty helpful piece from his point of view.
That said, his point of view is hard to argue with. He was remarkably reasonable about Sky's priorities this year, but a team that's seriously trying to win GC is not a good team for the fastest sprinter. I'd be really pissed off if he ends up stuck on a team where he isn't properly supported.
That said, his point of view is hard to argue with. He was remarkably reasonable about Sky's priorities this year, but a team that's seriously trying to win GC is not a good team for the fastest sprinter. I'd be really pissed off if he ends up stuck on a team where he isn't properly supported.
Termite Man
zombie flesh eater
If Sky can't challenge for Yellow and Green they are better off letting Cav go really. He doesn't add that much to the team apart from getting the stage wins and green Jersey and if that isn't Skys priority then surely there are other domestiques that can come in and support a yellow jersey push better than Cav can.
Frumious B.
Well-Known Member
I object to Brailsford not helping to enable Cav's move. He has a realistic chance of doing something historic - beating Merckx' record for Tdf stage wins. Brailsford should look at the bigger picture.
Nigel Irritable
Five, Ten, Fifteen Years
His bigger picture is what benefits Sky. He's a team boss. To be honest, I was more surprised by reports that Sky were being reasonable about the Cavendish situation than by later reports that they aren't, and not because I think Sky are unusually nasty. Cavendish is a big asset. You wouldn't find a football club giving one of the best players in the world a free transfer, just because he's surplus to requirements - they'd get what they could for him.
I hope Cavendish gets out of Sky, because I think it would be an appalling waste of his talents to be stuck on a GC team. But if I was running Sky, I'd want to take some flesh out of the hide of whatever team he was going to.
I hope Cavendish gets out of Sky, because I think it would be an appalling waste of his talents to be stuck on a GC team. But if I was running Sky, I'd want to take some flesh out of the hide of whatever team he was going to.
Nigel Irritable
Five, Ten, Fifteen Years
On another note, there is apparently a new human growth hormone test which can detect the substance for weeks after use. If that's true, it's the biggest technological break through in anti-doping since the EPO test.
Nigel Irritable
Five, Ten, Fifteen Years
From that Finnish dude who does power estimates for big cycling races. Here are his estimates for average final climb outputs for this year's Grand Tour winners:
vetooo @ammattipyoraily
Grand Tour GC winners in 2012. Giro: Ryder Hesjedal 5.60 W/kg - Tour: Bradley Wiggins 5.98 W/kg - Vuelta: Alberto Contador 5.88 W/kg.
Hesjedal's one is notably low in historical terms. Neither of the other two are outlandish, but neither are particularly low either.
vetooo
Grand Tour GC winners in 2012. Giro: Ryder Hesjedal 5.60 W/kg - Tour: Bradley Wiggins 5.98 W/kg - Vuelta: Alberto Contador 5.88 W/kg.
Hesjedal's one is notably low in historical terms. Neither of the other two are outlandish, but neither are particularly low either.
Agree with all of this, although I was still *slightly* surprised to see them asking for a transfer fee. Or rather, I wasn't surprised when the rumours were that they would just let him leave. Just because they obviously go way back, and will presumably still be working together at BC.
