Nigel Irritable
Five, Ten, Fifteen Years
To be fair, that may be an issue with the cops rather than the organisers screwing up.
The Bicycle Racing Thread 2014
- Thread starter The Boy
- Start date
To be fair, that may be an issue with the cops rather than the organisers screwing up.
Wouldn't the organisers normally be paying the police for road closures and stuff? If so I can't imagine they just hand over a wedge without having a clearly defined contract in place about what needs closed, when and for how long.
I know Italy is a bit special and all.
Anyway, Eurosport showing the fucking TTT from T-A live instead of an actual bike race 
Reasonable looking time from Lampre. Strange how they've had a noticeable upswing in form since the Mantova investigation closed.
edit: fuck it, Cannondale and Orica have since monstered the times. Lampre still smell funny though
Reasonable looking time from Lampre. Strange how they've had a noticeable upswing in form since the Mantova investigation closed.
edit: fuck it, Cannondale and Orica have since monstered the times. Lampre still smell funny though
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Nigel Irritable
Five, Ten, Fifteen Years
At least something finally happened at Paris Nice. The first three stages were true paint drying stuff. This by contrast was good. Nice win for Slagter, nice performance by Thomas. Slagter best Thomas at last years TdU, didn't he?
Nigel Irritable
Five, Ten, Fifteen Years
They used to have a roster with many TT men, sprinters and other big lumps of the sort who can be useful in a TTT. Now their line up is more weighted towards climbers, hilly guys and kids of various sorts. The team which won the TTT at the 2011 Tour would completely smash any conceivable TTT selection they could make now. And their TA line up is by no means their best current selection for the discipline.
Nigel Irritable
Five, Ten, Fifteen Years
Very fun sprint at T-A today. Pity Kittel crashed, but I'm not sorry that most of the Lotto train ended up in a ditch a bit earlier (assuming there were no injuries that is) because it helped set up a near free for all.
Ironically, Kittel is probably the one of the big 3 who came out of today best. He had an excuse. Cavendish just went completely AWOL, while Greipel was there but simply wasn't fast enough. Great to see a "random" minor sprinter, in this case Pelucchi, pick everyone's pocket. Also great to see that Bennett is already capable of mixing it up with the big guns in his first WT race, despite also losing most of his team in the same ditch as Greipel.
Ironically, Kittel is probably the one of the big 3 who came out of today best. He had an excuse. Cavendish just went completely AWOL, while Greipel was there but simply wasn't fast enough. Great to see a "random" minor sprinter, in this case Pelucchi, pick everyone's pocket. Also great to see that Bennett is already capable of mixing it up with the big guns in his first WT race, despite also losing most of his team in the same ditch as Greipel.
Nigel Irritable
Five, Ten, Fifteen Years
Paris Nice is actually turning out to be good now that the sprint stages are gone. The parcours doesn't create big time gaps, but it does create opportunities for fun racing. I love Betancur but still find it funny that he rocked up this year with about half a stone of extra flesh in his cheeks.
Yeah, Bennet has been looking good mixing it with the big boys. Bit gutted for Demare not following through on what was the closest to a sprint train that FdJ have managed to organise since he or Bouhani turned pro, but hey ho.
Agreed. Another good stage today.
Betancur will be super strong once he loses his chrsitmas dinner.
Nigel Irritable
Five, Ten, Fifteen Years
I'd say Demare was even more surprised than Greipel to see Pelucchi come whistling by at the end. He must have thought he had it when Greipel and Bennett couldn't come past him and Sagan faded.
It's a bit weird that FDJ don't have a full sprint support operation now that you mention it. Why aren't they basically a sprint train with a GC man or two fending for themselves? I know that they have Pinot etc to worry about too, but surely if you have two top young sprinters and no other reliable winners, you should put everything behind the sprinters?
Short version: Why aren't they a French Giant - Shimano?
Not Madiot's style, I guess. Though their sprint trains seem to be improving, and I seem to remember reading something about Demare and Bouhani having their own trains which will go some to improving things as they get more experience together. And there are the climbers to consider too.
I imagine it's probably a bit of a culture shock to move from a team of plucky also rans to having genuine contenders in pretty much any type of race. Not tier 1, 5* contenders, but contenders none the less. Probably a delicate balancing act in terms of man management too.
Thomas crashes out of P-N. What is it with him and finding the tarmac? He's almost as bad as Farrar.
Looks like Betancur's to lose today.
Edit: Porte out of Tirenno too. Bad week for them.
edit edit: Bad start to the season for Pinot too. Withdrew from Oman (?) due to illness before turning a pedal in anger. Now he's out of Tirenno with knee injury.
Looks like Betancur's to lose today.
Edit: Porte out of Tirenno too. Bad week for them.
edit edit: Bad start to the season for Pinot too. Withdrew from Oman (?) due to illness before turning a pedal in anger. Now he's out of Tirenno with knee injury.
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DownwardDog
Riding a Brompton with a power meter.
Froomestrong is the one I'm waiting for...
Nigel Irritable
Five, Ten, Fifteen Years
I'm a bit dissappointed by the Henao issue, as I've always liked the guy. The reporting of who exactly carried out the test seems somewhat garbled, but it seems that Sky were bounced into making a statement after Henao's agent told Gazzetta that he'd been pulled.
Even if he gets off, this internal suspension could cause some problems for Sky's Tour team, given that Henao seems to be the current number three climber on the team and was likely to be Froome's chief lieutenant. It certainly screws up their Ardennes week, as he was their main rider for the hilly classics and they are a lot sooner.
Even if he gets off, this internal suspension could cause some problems for Sky's Tour team, given that Henao seems to be the current number three climber on the team and was likely to be Froome's chief lieutenant. It certainly screws up their Ardennes week, as he was their main rider for the hilly classics and they are a lot sooner.
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Nigel Irritable
Five, Ten, Fifteen Years
This could get very messy, depending on the order of events:
The OOC test (carried out by who?)
Sky internally noticing a funky value or two
The UCI finding out
WADA finding out
Henao being pulled from racing by Sky
Gazzetta finding out
Gazzetta contacting Sky
Sky's public announcement
Some possible orders of events actually leave Sky looking good in theory (although that might not stop them from getting crucified in practice). Others would be carnage.
The OOC test (carried out by who?)
Sky internally noticing a funky value or two
The UCI finding out
WADA finding out
Henao being pulled from racing by Sky
Gazzetta finding out
Gazzetta contacting Sky
Sky's public announcement
Some possible orders of events actually leave Sky looking good in theory (although that might not stop them from getting crucified in practice). Others would be carnage.
Pretty sure UCI have confirmed that Sky discussed the values around the end of the Tour of Oman and that Henao being benched is entirely at the behest of Sky.
The only real error I can see them making is not announcing it until Friebe (I think) spotted the comments in Gazzetta from Henao's agent.
The only real error I can see them making is not announcing it until Friebe (I think) spotted the comments in Gazzetta from Henao's agent.
Nigel Irritable
Five, Ten, Fifteen Years
If true that's good news, but a lot of ambiguity remains. Did Sky carry out the test? Or did they read something into a UCI test that the authorities haven't (yet?) read I to it? Why hasn't an official investigation been launched?
The test in question was, so far as I can tell, carried out by WADA, in October, in Columbia (at altitude). What kind of test, I'm not sure, but ABP blood test would seem the most likely imo.
Apparently Sky have had a system in place since the JTL case of reviewing the ABP test results in house, presumably to spot any anomolies before a passport case is opened by UCI. Obviously, if Sky are reviewing all the results for all of their riders then that will be <30 riders as compared to the 100s of riders that the UCI will be monitoring, not to mention that the UCI BP process requires a panel of three experts to agree unanimously that something is amiss.
The thing I am curious to know is what form was taken by the discussions between UCI and Sky. Assuming everything is legit, why did they wait until Henao's agent had a whinge to Gazetto, though? For a team who make much of the the rest of the peloton look decidedly amateurish, it seems a bit silly of them not to announce it back when they took the decision. Controlling the narrative and all that.
Nigel Irritable
Five, Ten, Fifteen Years
If it's an ABP test then Sky must have known that there was a strong chance that Henao was going to trip a wire with the BP process. If that's so, then they dont really deserve brownie points for moving first, unless they had reason to think that his "anomalies" would get a BP pass.
They don't deserve calumny for moving first either, mind you. It's just that if it had been an internal test and Sky had gone to the authorities completely off their own bat about one of their main men, then it would at least have provided pretty much incontrovertible evidence that there's no team sanctioned doping there. Short of Henao being innocent, that was about the best case scenario.
They don't deserve calumny for moving first either, mind you. It's just that if it had been an internal test and Sky had gone to the authorities completely off their own bat about one of their main men, then it would at least have provided pretty much incontrovertible evidence that there's no team sanctioned doping there. Short of Henao being innocent, that was about the best case scenario.
DownwardDog
Riding a Brompton with a power meter.
Very few teams (Kelme?) dope the whole team though. They just do it where it gives them the most advantage - climbers, GC contenders etc.
UCI statement on sky/henao, for what it's worth -
http://www.uci.ch/Modules/ENews/ENe...s/UCI/UCI8/layout.asp?MenuId=MTYzMDQ&LangId=1
http://www.uci.ch/Modules/ENews/ENe...s/UCI/UCI8/layout.asp?MenuId=MTYzMDQ&LangId=1
Sigmund Fraud
893 all the way.
A podium for Swift is a decent enough showing but why did Sky leave Stannard behind? He loves wet and windy conditions.
