2013 annus anus
Bicycle Racing Thread 2013
- Thread starter The Boy
- Start date
2013 annus anus
Figured I had to have at least one low ranking Europcar rider in my fantasy team for today. Was a toss up between Veilleux and Berhane with the latter winning out due to costing half as many points as well, as his ride in Turkey. Veilleux currently has 5 minutes on the peloton with 25km to go. And a healthy tailwind by the looks of things. Still some climbing to go but he's looking good.
Interesting ride by Tony Martin too. Tried to bridge to the breakaway earlier on and is in the first group of chasers atm. Final climb shouldn't be beyond him (though he did spend a lot of time out on his own) which *might* make him an interesting outsider for the GC.
Interesting ride by Tony Martin too. Tried to bridge to the breakaway earlier on and is in the first group of chasers atm. Final climb shouldn't be beyond him (though he did spend a lot of time out on his own) which *might* make him an interesting outsider for the GC.
Nigel Irritable
Five, Ten, Fifteen Years
It's pretty fucking bizarre stuff for two reasonably big name riders on the same team to get popped for EPO these days. The funny thing about it is that they were two of the most suspicious guys in the field: First, the king of the recidivists and then a dude who suddenly became a top climber at 28. There were quite a few remarks on this thread about their sketchiness before the positives.
Actually no, the funniest part is that the positive was an in competition one from the first stage of the race: This means that he can't count. This isn't even doping like it's 2003. You had to be able to count in 2003 too. It's like these lads decided to pretend that it's 1993.
It's going to be tough for Vini Fantini to survive this. It's not just that it's two riders in quick succession, it's their two "stars" at the central event of their season (or just before it one case).
Nigel Irritable
Five, Ten, Fifteen Years
Just thinking about what this tells us in terms of the cleanliness of the sport:
1) Presumably these two getting done is the result of targeted testing, which is a good thing.
2) Santambrogio's change in fortunes seems to indicate that putting a mediocre pro on a full-Gabrovski programme is enough to catapult him from the grupetto to the heads of state group in a GT. Which is supporting evidence for the argument that however many sane, controlled-risk, dopers are still out there, there almost certainly aren't many out there doping like they used to.
1) Presumably these two getting done is the result of targeted testing, which is a good thing.
2) Santambrogio's change in fortunes seems to indicate that putting a mediocre pro on a full-Gabrovski programme is enough to catapult him from the grupetto to the heads of state group in a GT. Which is supporting evidence for the argument that however many sane, controlled-risk, dopers are still out there, there almost certainly aren't many out there doping like they used to.
Just trying to think who was the last high profile rider to test positive for EPO. It does just seem bizarre that a team could get it so wrong as to have two riders pinged in the same race. I mean, Scinto got a pass from me for Di Luca seeing as he didn't even really want him on the team, but Santambrogio was his signing and it's not like he wouldn't have known he was linked to Mantuva or anything.
Nigel Irritable
Five, Ten, Fifteen Years
Rumours that there are more EPO positives from the Giro still to come. If that turns out to be accurate, then it would look like the testers managed to get a more sensitive test going without the peloton knowing. So Santambrogio might not be as lacking in basic numeracy as it would otherwise appear.
Nigel Irritable
Five, Ten, Fifteen Years
It predates Di Luca's arrival. Santambrogio came 5th at Lombardia at the end of last season, which was a huge result in terms of his career, and has been great for the first half of this season. Di Luca only arrived part way through this season and only had one or two race days before the Giro. I don't know anything on the doctor side of things.
Whatever change Santambrogio made (getting on the sauce / getting on a better doping regime) seems to have happened in the last few months of the 2012 season, at least going by his results.
Nigel Irritable
Five, Ten, Fifteen Years
Good question. He wasn't a big name at the time, so I don't really remember the announcement. And anyway, the announcement could well have come months after the deal had actually been done.
I'm a bit dubious about the idea that he'd never been near the hot sauce before, given that he was one of the Lampre riders linked to the Mantova investigation. It looks to me more like someone who'd dabbled before getting serious about it, or at least deciding to throw caution to the wind.
(Also, I know that there's a lot of amusing but completely unscientific bullshit thrown around about people's heads changing size due to various forms of dope, particularly HGH and cortizone, but fucking hell does he look like a completely different person than a few years ago. What the hell happened to his cheeks?)
Forget the cheeks, what the fuck is going on with his hair over the years?
http://www.cqranking.com/men/asp/gen/rider_photos.asp?riderid=700
As regards the Dauphiné, I take it Contador has come down with whatever Chris-Anker Sorensen had? If not that is a terrible TT result for him.
twistedAM
Left Of The Dial
Damn, missed that. This race finishes early in the day.
There'll be a lot of people drawing all sorts of conclusions from that, but people like Taaremae were hanging with that group at the end, and a few riders like Rolland and JRod got held up just prior to the climb - can't imagine they will have been gusting a gut to get back on when the main focus is three+ weeks away*. Nice rides by Kennaugh and Dennis (who looked to me like he got stuck in the wrong gear), and a few of the breakaway riders put in a solid shift - guys like Teklhaimanot, Wellens and Busche. Good day also for Cofidis with two riders up there towards the end. Bad day for FdJ, Europcar and Katusha (although Moreno had another good ride). Didn't really notice any Blanco/Belkin riders either now I think of it.
*Though obviously I'm not about to start laying Froome on Betfair or owt
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*Though obviously I'm not about to start laying Froome on Betfair or owt
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Nigel Irritable
Five, Ten, Fifteen Years
Fucking Sky train boredom. Contador and Valverde tried attacking, but (a) it didn't work and (b) they were out of it anyway after the ITT. Christ I hope the Tour isn't like this on every mountain stage. ie almost as boring as last year but not quite because Froome does actually finish off the tedium train with a final attack, unlike Wiggins. It's a bit of a nightmare from a suspense point of view: The red hot favourite also has the strongest climbing team around him.
Great performance from Rohan Dennis. Third in the Dauphine as a neo-pro isn't to be sniffed at. Good to see Taaramae apparently back from the dead too.
Great performance from Rohan Dennis. Third in the Dauphine as a neo-pro isn't to be sniffed at. Good to see Taaramae apparently back from the dead too.
Coming back to this point, looks like your suspicions were correct. And they're using it to test stored samples by the sounds of things too.
http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/serebryakov-fails-second-epo-test
Nigel Irritable
Five, Ten, Fifteen Years
That makes sense. The Vini Fantini boys would have had to be truly outrageously unlucky/stupid otherwise. Things could get very interesting indeed if they start retesting loads of old samples. It could potentially be carnage, so there will be a lot of pressure not do it in any kind of large scale way.
If anyone gets bored, they can read up about the changes here:
http://playtrue.wada-ama.org/news/revision-to-technical-document-epo-approved/
Interesting to note that the new protocol was agreed back in November, so it is still a minor bollock drop by Vini-F.
http://playtrue.wada-ama.org/news/revision-to-technical-document-epo-approved/
Interesting to note that the new protocol was agreed back in November, so it is still a minor bollock drop by Vini-F.
Sigmund Fraud
893 all the way.
Seeing as every tour for at least the last 5 years has been devoid of any of the contenders taking major risks with fans always dissapointed that 'should be interesting' stages end up with the usual cagey bollocks with someone launching a so called 'attack' in the last 2km I'm suprised you're suprised. Nobody goes for it, to quote Grimaud 'they ride like accountants', trying to eek out 5 or 10 seconds a stage, repeat for two other stages, attempt to pull time in TT. You can criticise Wiggins but this is the real politique of modern GT racing, its attritional bet hedging on a grand scale.
Nigel Irritable
Five, Ten, Fifteen Years
The centre point of the conservative - attacking spectrum has certainly shifted significantly towards conservatism, but there remains a spectrum. Wiggins remains at the absolute most conservative end of it, rivaled only by Valverde and the late, unlamented Menchov. And strong mountain trains remain absolute poison from an entertainment point of view.
Nigel Irritable
Five, Ten, Fifteen Years
Apparently Henao has extended his contract with Sky. It makes sense, assuming he actually gets to be a main leader rather than spending his time herding the likes of Wiggins and Porte. Apparently Garmin wanted him, which would have been a good move too but presumably they just cant offer the same sort of money.
Ponyutd
Greebo likes this....r.i.p.
Will you stop pointing out the obvious for someone like me who doesn't know any better!
Agreed, although it does assume he even *wants* to be team leader at some stage. If he and Uran have GT ambitions, then that leaves Sky with 5 genuine contenders. Only so much you can do to juggle that between 3 Grand Tours. It may be a good problem to have, but it's still one that can cause headaches - see the recently averted Friggins soap opera at the Tour.
I'm sure I heard something about them (Sky) bringing in another Colombian, too.
