Bike Racing

[Marco]

You can't see the inconsistencies?

You were concerned about Vingegaard being a doper on the basis of a direct comparison with another's performance who you had already written off for the season.

No. I raised seven 'points of concern' about riders from the yellow and black team. You have, repeatedly, chosen to focus on just one of them.

You name 3 exceptional GT riders and include Evenepoel on the basis of one win, only one completion until last week, but don't include Roglic, 4 times GT winner, GT podium finisher, won 20 Grand Tour Stages, Dauphine. Paris-Nice; 12 x Stage races in total.
I think this is his 7th season and he's also won an Olympic Gold and a few one day classics.

This is professional cycling, not racing numbers. A rider doesn't become great by the number of wins, it's the manner in which they win that counts more.

Laurent Fignon is credited with only three grand tours, but he is considered one of the greats. The reason for this is partially because in the 1984 Tour he beat Bernard Hinault (one of the greats) by 10 mins 32 secs, and Greg Lemond (a three time winner of the Tour) by 11 mins 46 secs. He won five stages, two of them solo wins on mountain stages whilst wearing the leader jersey. Graham will have a word for it, I'd probably describe it as 'pure class'.

You call me deeply disrespectful.

Yes. You said "I look through the rest and they are just not up to the job of team leader". Of the other team leaders, Ayuso finished 4th, Mas 6th, and Vlasov 7th. In a field of 176 riders in 22 teams there are 22 team leaders. Finishing 4th, 2 mins and 10 secs behind Roglič, is not a bad performance, and saying that someone is 'not up to the job' for doing so is deeply disrespectful.

19/7
In years to come this will be seen as a golden age for stage racing; enjoy what you're seeing now, as it could be another 50 years before we get an era this good again.
29/7
Not for me; the Tour de France has left me with a bad feeling that sport-enhancing-chemicals (drugs) are influencing the results again

10 days - that puts Sunak's U-Turn in to some perspective.

I said that this was a golden age for stage racing, because it is. I never said it was a golden age for clean racing.

You have taken taken my words from the 29th July out of context. I was stating that I would not be entering a competition to pick the leading places in the Vuelta; I was not saying that I would not be watching some of the race.

The only U-Turn is in your imagination