The Bicycle Racing Thread 2015

[ChrisFilter]

I missed the era of Cav's dominance

That's probably it. The 2009 Milan - San Remo was the high point (alongside moments from the 12 and 13 TdFs) in my nascent cycling watching career. I started watching him as a cheeky upstart where his temper was pretty charming when combined with his brilliance.

If you'd only seen him post-2012 I can see why he'd be less likeable.

 

[Sigmund Fraud]

I always compare the career of Cav to McEwan - as his star rose while McEwan's faded, he seemed like the natural successor - they even look very alike. McEwan for me is the better bike rider though, a real scrapper of a sprinter in the old school model and somebody who lived on his wits more than a train - which he seldom had.

 

[ChrisFilter]

FWIW my Mrs dislikes Cav. She thinks he's very rude to the nice people interviewing him.

 

[yardbird]

Listening to Armstrong on R5.
Despicable cunt.

 

[yardbird]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/cycling/30981609

 

[sleaterkinney]

Slimy little toad, isn't he?

 

[ChrisFilter]

It's refreshingly honest considering he still maintains his innocence in his 'comeback' tours.

 

[Ted Striker]

I feel really sad about Lance. He is arguably the most obnoxious, mendacious, evil cunt that has ever entered the public eye, and the 7 TdF's are right to have no winner.

He's dead right about the doping of the era though, and he was a great, exciting racer, and could have been a legend. Though some of me understands his actions...To an extent...aren't illogical or unreasonable, he took such pleasure to be such an aresehole about it I just can't abide him.

Plus no one fucks with (my favourite) Greg Lemond

Hope he rots tbh.

 

[Sigmund Fraud]

Lance... and he was a great, exciting racer,

When was this? I must have missed a meeting or something, the Armstrong I saw was a dull, automaton of an alpha chimp bully. His doped contempories - Pantani, Vinokorov and even Ullrich were swashbucklers in comparison. Stick 8 dopers in front of you, crank up pace and attack when your DS tells you to because you're too stupid to read the race. He had an ugly, bludgeoning style on the bike...and he wore long black socks on more than one occasion. The most exiting thing he ever did was get busted, and the second most exiting thing he ever did was fit a LH downtube lever and run a non brifter brake lever to save weigh...but even that was probably somebody else's idea.

 

[Ted Striker]

Tbf I know little of Vinokourov or Ullrich (isn't he the German that LA wore the hat of when he got busted? A full on ugly toad climbing boreathon?), though to compare him to Pantani (arguably the first name in exciting racers - the fawning around him doesn't sit well with me tbh though Oropa(sp?) is my favourite peformance of a man on a bike who's initials aren't BW ) is unfair.

He was a cheeky little cunt on the bike and his gamesmanship was moderately interesting (form what I've read/seen). Could have been a Mourinho but instead was a...wanker.

 

[DownwardDog]

Before 'the fall' Armstrong had no greater acolyte than Wiggins. Lance was even conspicuously photoshopped into position next to BW on the cover of Wiggins' first, and now presumably pulped, autobiography.

 

[Sigmund Fraud]

Ulrich had his moments - he was unpredictable at least, most notably in what his fighting weight would be in July. Most cycling fans would probably buy Ullrich a beer for ending the careers of both Indurain and Riis...and for being a flawed German diesel.

 

[Ted Striker]

Like I said all a bit before my time. As it goes, don't you think Indurain has come out of this all rather well? He seems to have sloped away in the shadows, a missed any strenuous interrogation into his dominance?

 

[Ted Striker]

Before 'the fall' Armstrong had no greater acolyte than Wiggins. Lance was even conspicuously photoshopped into position next to BW on the cover of Wiggins' first, and now presumably pulped, autobiography.

The fall? (BW's on the Bike or LA's career?) Either way in his biog (written between 2012/3) I'm sure BW even says he cares not if he doped in the past though if it was proved he doped in 2010 (when Wiggins came 4th (3rd, IMO ) he would be fuming with him.

 

[Nigel Irritable]

Like I said all a bit before my time. As it goes, don't you think Indurain has come out of this all rather well? He seems to have sloped away in the shadows, a missed any strenuous interrogation into his dominance?

Anyone who gives it any thought knows the story with Indurain. But he (a) fucked off, (b) kept a low profile since, (c) has a reputation as a nice guy and (d) is way outside any statute of limitations. Who is going to go after him?

 

[The Boy]

Lance was even conspicuously photoshopped into position next to BW on the cover of Wiggins' first, and now presumably pulped, autobiography.

No he wasn't.

 

[Sigmund Fraud]

Anyone who gives it any thought knows the story with Indurain. But he (a) fucked off, (b) kept a low profile since, (c) has a reputation as a nice guy and (d) is way outside any statute of limitations. Who is going to go after him?

Yep. 5 Turgid tours but at least he was dethroned on the road, and to of all places Pamplona...and by Riis. That makes him mortal. And he is a quietly spoken, teetotal, church goer and leads a humble-ish life. He killed domestic TV coverage in the UK for 10 years though through being so boring...but I don't see a gulf in the excitement stakes between him and USPS.

 

[The Boy]

Looking forward to Cadel's autobiography.

 

[Ted Striker]

Yep. 5 Turgid tours but at least he was dethroned on the road, and to of all places Pamplona...and by Riis. That makes him mortal. And he is a quietly spoken, teetotal, church goer and leads a humble-ish life. He killed domestic TV coverage in the UK for 10 years though through being so boring...but I don't see a gulf in the excitement stakes between him and USPS.

Am I right in thinking US Postal were the Sky of their day?They may not be exciting but at least they had a personality*

*Albeit a really really shit one

 

[Sigmund Fraud]

There are certainly parallels. USPS gave much less of a shit about the rest of the calendar than Sky even. The forced tempo slide them off the back tactic is exactly the same, just that USPS usually had 6 improbably large mountain diesels to play with at any given moment.

 

[yardbird]

In the meantime, Lance strikes again.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs...trying-to-pin-it-on-his-girlfriend/?tid=sm_fb

 

[Sigmund Fraud]

 

[The Boy]

Is Elia Viviana the new Tylar Farrar?

 

[Nigel Irritable]

Is Elia Viviana the new Tylar Farrar?

At which stage of Farrar's career?

 

[The Boy]

At which stage of Farrar's career?

Not sure I'm misremebering the early part ofhis career, but wasn't he a master of podium finishes without actually winning fuck all of note?

What I like to think of as his Transitions Period.

 

[Nigel Irritable]

Not sure I'm misremebering the early part ofhis career, but wasn't he a master of podium finishes without actually winning fuck all of note?

What I like to think of as his Transitions Period.

That was when he was probably the second best sprinter in the world! In the one year racing as Garmin-Transitions (2010) he won two Giro stages, two Vuelta stages, Scheldeprijs, Vattenfalls etc. He was still pretty good in 2011. After that his results fall off a cliff.

I tend to think of guys who are always close but never win as pulling a Rojas.

 

[The Boy]

That was when he was probably the second best sprinter in the world! In the one year racing as Garmin-Transitions (2010) he won two Giro stages, two Vuelta stages, Scheldeprijs, Vattenfalls etc. He was still pretty good in 2011. After that his results fall off a cliff.

I tend to think of guys who are always close but never win as pulling a Rojas.

Aye, but those bloody transitions adverts kept playing for years after - in spite of his . Hence why I've used the name to define his period of not quite being good enough.

Good shout on the Rojas though. GVA has been doing a good job of that of late too.

 

[The Boy]

Ino ther news, as nice as it is to have live cycling back on TV I'd much rather be seeing Etoile de Besseges rather than Tour of Dubai.

 

[The Boy]

Mystic Mog strikes again .

 

[The Boy]

http://rouleur.cc/journal/racing/back-to-school

Interesting read on the Etoile de Besseges.