Tour de France 2020

[Graham Breeze]

[QUOTE=Llani Boy;666855]

My money would be on Pogacar to be wearing yellow in Paris.

Well you heard it here first

Nice story in the DT today.

Pogacar when much younger was way off the back at a circuit race and an observer chided the RO and said he needed to do something about the small chap that had been left behind.

The RO then explained that the small chap - Pogacar - was actually about to lap the rest of the field.

[Graham Breeze]

LANCE

The 201 minute ESPN documentary is now on BBC iplayer. I think it will be shown on BBC2 at some point.

I know the odd thing or two about Armstrong, drugs in cycling & etc and while there are some boring bits of his domestic life (grating parmesan!) much of the film, which is interview based, is riveting stuff.

And, reassuringly, he comes over as a really, really nasty piece of work.

[Derby Tup]

That’ll be because he is a nasty piece of work

[matthew]

That’ll be because he is a nasty piece of work

Pretty handy on a bike though

[noel]

Nice story in the DT today.

Pogacar when much younger was way off the back at a circuit race and an observer chided the RO and said he needed to do something about the small chap that had been left behind.

The RO then explained that the small chap - Pogacar - was actually about to lap the rest of the field.

Young rider comes through and is better than lots of other riders - many of whom have been banned in the past for doping.

Here we go again...
Will we also have the in-hindsight amusing assertions that he must be clean because he's very talented and has spoken passionately about being anti-doping?

But you're right - it's box office.

[Graham Breeze]

Pretty handy on a bike though

Even sharper with a syringe.

[Derby Tup]

That’s the point. Sharp work

[CL]

Not necessarily. Miguel Indurain was tall and heavy and so struggled to get over mountains and won hardly any stages but he won 5 consecutive Tours because he was almost unbeatable in Time Trials. Light mountain climbers are often rubbish at Time Trials (they just don't have the muscle) and cannot get back the time a strong Time Trial rider can gain.

There have been Tours with maybe five Time Trials and long ones at that and that is how Anquetil destroyed his opposition.

The Indurain years are regarded as the dullest era in Tour history since WW2. However they immediately preceded the EPO years when Riis and then Ullrich, Pantani and Armstrong started winning - by being good climbers.

In recent years to win the Tour you have to be more of an all-rounder and the balance has swung to favouring climbers but you still have to be able to Time Trial well - as we saw today, although "hill top" finish Time Trials are somewhat unusual.

I didn't really care who won the Tour - as long as it wasn't Ineos - and I hope 2020
has seen the end of the fear other teams have had for the Sky/Ineos machine.

Indurain was one of the finest climbers ever. Yes big and heavy, which made his pace on mountain stages all the more unbelievable. Looking at the fastest Alp D'huez stages charts - of which there are many - it is generally agreed that Pantani was the fastest in 1995 at around 37 minutes. But Indurain rode 38.24 at a body weight of 12 stones! How many so called pure climbers rode faster than that?

Indurain was 1.24 down that day and he lost that time on the bottom of the climb when he was content to ride tempo. As soon as he decided to step it up Pantani didn't gain anymore time and that was over the last 9 kilometers or so. That was the way Induarin rode. Climbers would fly off the front, the commentators would get very excited then all of a sudden he'd wind it up and back they came. They had no weapons to use against him as he was so strong.

But of course I can't be seen to be sucking up to the druggies. Indurain was actually responsible for the doping arms race in cycling during the 90s. When a guy is taking 3 minutes out of the next best riders in time trials you know something is wrong. And it was and the others soon cottoned on and they started to catch up. Fast forward to 1995 and 96.

[PeteS]

Whilst I admired Big Mig's ability to just grind the opposition into the tarmac, its hard to look back now and not suspect he was up to something. Banesto as a team have been shown to have links to a certain Italian Dr.
I think he retired in 1996 so left the sport at just the right time. Other notable heavyweights who suddenly found an ability to climb (Ullrich, Riis etc.) have all been proven 'dopeurs' since.

[Witton Park]

Indurain was one of the finest climbers ever. Yes big and heavy, which made his pace on mountain stages all the more unbelievable. Looking at the fastest Alp D'huez stages charts - of which there are many - it is generally agreed that Pantani was the fastest in 1995 at around 37 minutes. But Indurain rode 38.24 at a body weight of 12 stones! How many so called pure climbers rode faster than that?

Indurain was 1.24 down that day and he lost that time on the bottom of the climb when he was content to ride tempo. As soon as he decided to step it up Pantani didn't gain anymore time and that was over the last 9 kilometers or so. That was the way Induarin rode. Climbers would fly off the front, the commentators would get very excited then all of a sudden he'd wind it up and back they came. They had no weapons to use against him as he was so strong.

But of course I can't be seen to be sucking up to the druggies. Indurain was actually responsible for the doping arms race in cycling during the 90s. When a guy is taking 3 minutes out of the next best riders in time trials you know something is wrong. And it was and the others soon cottoned on and they started to catch up. Fast forward to 1995 and 96.

Good to see you back Christopher. Have you been away, or just lurking in the background