dm83

Yes, unfortunately it seems like it's over for him at this point, lost too much time. Ironically, his fans are always hoping for Froome to crash.

USAZorro

Hard to love a rider with a beard. Wish Talansky had caught him.

Man, I hate Sky and Froome. Hoping the support riders will be gassed on tomorrow's stage.

Laggard

Why?

lotek 

that's because of this guy:


Photo courtesy Pezcyclingnews.com

USAZorro

Can't shake the suspicion that something isn't right over there.

Wiggins - track champion/TdF winner - Pro road-racing career was nothing special until joining Sky
G. Thomas - track champion/TdF contender - Pro road-racing career was nothing special until joining Sky
C. Froome - climbs with ease (and the grace of a wildebeast), and never has a bad day - Pro road-racing career was nothing special until joining Sky
R. Porte - The only member of Team Sky to really show significant promise before joining Team Sky

Are Team Sky that much more advanced in their recruiting and training than the rest of the UCI Pro Tour teams (whilst seeming to limit themselves to riders who are native English speakers)?

It's more than a little suspicious to me. Kinda like when Armstrong, Hincapie, Landis and Zabriskie all were on the same team under Bruyneel. Had a lot of folks thinking that American cycling had arrived. Ten years on, we know why, and now there are 2 Americans still riding in the Tour?

I obviously have only suspicions that there has to be some explanation for dominance under such circumstances, and the explanation may be they are doing something legal that provides incredible training/performance benefits. I can't make myself un-skeptical until I know what that explanation is - just how my brain and memory work.

DiabloScott

"YOU go get him, GINDO"

WCroadie

Today's STAGE was exciting to see who would win. The RACE for the GC was boring yet again. Aside from TvG abandoning which is a shame, what was exciting about the Froome group and again, as I mentioned in my prior post, the GC race was boring. Froome covered with ease any attempt Quintanna made to distance himself, Froome also covered with ease Nibali's attack on the downhill. The GC race was over after the 1st mountain stage, which IMO, is boring, I already know who wins.

Yep, that about sums it up.

GreenAnvil

@zorro

I strongly believe that they are on "something". Whether that something is illegal, or unknown (and therefore not banned yet) remains to be seen.

I know this: it's very hard for two people to keep a good secret, let alone a whole team. They all will go their separate ways and all will be good until one day one of them finds himself down on his luck and reaches to the others for help... only to be thrown under the bus. and that's when the genie will be let out of the bottle...

And we'll hear the "I told you so's" and the passionate denials from those that for one reason or another need to keep their heroes on their pedestals.

Don't expect the peloton or the UCI to say anything other than that their sport is squeaky clean. It is their livelihood after all and I'm sure there are "unwritten rules" that should anyone dare to break he would find himself out of the sport or at least very "unpopular" very soon.

It's like one big cake, and as long as everyone benefits they'll just take turns eating their slice and every now and then someone is allowed to get a bigger share and some extra frosting too.

It's all smoke and mirrors my friend. Whenever you have big intere$ts involved in sports there's no "clean" way to go about it, only the most "win-win" way... for the sponsors, the governing bodies, the athletes, and the fans who still believe in a romantic idea of "clean" competition.

And when one icon falls, the powers that be will find another and market him/her to their utmost benefit. Rinse. Lather. Repeat.

Laggard

Sadly now anytime a rider or a team out performs everyone else people are going to scream "doping!"

That's reality and just sad.

RJM

I leave hope for superior training and recruiting too...but I'm a bit too much of a realist to really get behind that.

It's boring when one team is controlling things. Maybe the tour is just too big and too long now in the modern age.

I do love watching the classics though...generally much more exciting than watching the TdF.

TMonk

^
I agree. While I am sure that their training, nutrition, recovery and support protocol are top-notch, it just stinks of something more.

It does seem quite reminiscent of US Postal...

USAZorro

It admittedly is. Quite frankly, if Froome and the others at Sky showed even an occasional bit of weakness, there would be a lot less speculation and innuendo. Let's say, if Quintana had taken a few (let's say even 3) seconds on him in the stage today, even if he had simply "let him", it would go a long ways towards giving fans the impression that he is human. I think it is the continual display of zero weaknesses that has earned the heaps of disdain and disbelief that he is dealing with now.

Gerryattrick

Let's all get in on the act and have a TdF rumour classification based on bias and gossip rather than facts.

1. Sky must be cheating because they are leading the field by a full 3 minutes with four days left.

2. Why are the riders who were tipped to challenge/beat Froome, especially on the climbs, not able to? Is it because their previous wins were down to doping?

3. Why did second place TVG drop out so suddenly? Did his team get the prescription wrong the night before?

It's all bollocks of course - just like the above points - and unfair on the people concerned (unless it is ultimately proved correct of course when all criticism is justified), but that doesn't stop the armchair experts giving their informed opinions.

cthenn

I agree that it's sad that anytime anyone wins anything in cycling, it turns into "they're doping", but frankly, the sport has brought it on itself. The sport was, and still is rife with cheaters, and so there is no one else to blame. However, when something is as obvious as Team Sky, it's really not sad. I find it ridiculous that there was, and still is, all this hate toward US Postal, as they richly deserve, but Team Sky is above reproach in some people's eyes. Even though they are literally following the same script. Guy was a nobody, sick with disease, guy gets over it, guy magically becomes the best rider, best TT'er and best climber almost overnight. Team is ultra powerful, guys who were nobodies and underperformers all of a sudden form one of the most powerful teams in the peloton. Guy who was a Classics specialist now is climbing with the best climbers in the world, rolling in so comfortable that he can pat a guy on the back as if he feels sorry for him. In fact, there was just a TV show in Britain detailing the physiological wonders of Chris Froome and why is the best GT rider in the world! LOL they may have just called it "The Science of Chris Froomestrong". The similarities are so striking, yet oh no, this version of US Postal just works harder than the rest of the guys, marginal gains and a 15% equipment bonus. LOL, it would be "just sad" if it wasn't so damn funny!

cthenn

Well now that we have *the* expert opinion of the subject, I guess we should all just shut up! It's bollocks everybody, just bollocks.

Gerryattrick

It's great, and humbling, to be the acknowledged expert on bollocks amongst so many other contenders.

PepeM

We are in a sad situation where everyone who wins is immediately called a cheater by some. I don't want to get too much into it because I don't want to be accused of 'defending my heroes' and whatnot, and honestly I couldn't care less about Froome or Sky or any rider for that matter, all I want is to see good racing. I just don't see why beating Quintana by one minute in a summit finish makes people so suspicious. Sure, Porte beat Quintana too, but everyone knows Porte is a really strong rider - one who essentially took week one of. Sure, Thomas is doing really well. He got dropped today though. What about guys like Kennaugh or Roche? The magic pills don't work on them? Now, i am not saying I am 100% sure they are not doping, but until evidence is shown that suggests they are cheating, I will not be throwing accusations at them. Being good is not enough evidence.

GreenAnvil

Yes, I forgot about the fact checkers... Like when Postal was dominating and the "facts" were that LA "had NEVER failed a drug test". We all were sure it was due to their superior training, talent, strategy, etc., and everone else (especially the French) had sour grapes.

As you know some people still believe that Pantani was "innocent". And he is still there officially recognized as the last one to pull out the "double"... Poor Contador... wait!

Gerryattrick

+1

cthenn

BTW good stage today. For the race having been over for a week now, it was pretty exciting stuff, especially up front with Talansky trying to catch the winner. The other main contenders took a few chances, but their attacks were too easy for Froome to cover. Quintana looks pretty explosive now, compared to everyone but Froome, hoping he hangs on to 2nd.

cthenn

Leinster

Wiggins was 3rd in the 2009 Tour riding for Garmin.
Thomas has always been highly rated. The British federation pushed him towards the track because that's where they saw good chances for Olympic medals*, so he focussed his training on the pursuit until 2012, but he's slimmed down now so it's not surprising that he's become a good climber. Personally, I think his energies would be best focussed on trying to win a monument or 2.
Froome always had the power numbers, they just had to teach him how to ride a bike. He was a notoriously dangerous descender, for example.
You're also being selective with the riders you're looking at there; Roche and Konig both seem to have gone backwards from how they were riding last season. Riders like Sivtsov, Kiriyenka, Poels and Viviani all had good road pedigrees before signing for them.

The crucial difference (for me) between USPS and Sky is that there's been no Betsy Andreu, no Emma O'Reilly calling shennanigans. No riders like Hamilton, Landis or Heras getting caught for doping after leaving the fold (ok, maybe a bit early to call that one). When Lance was still winning Tours, I read a newspaper article that detailed following a USPS team car, watching the driver dump a load of bags in a trash can in an out of the way street, then digging through the can and finding syringes, vials etc of undetermined contents. Nobody's done that for Sky. The suspicions around Lance weren't just that he was faster than anyone else, there were other whispers too. Froome and Sky are under scrutiny because they're faster uphill than the rest, and that's it.

*Funnily enough, they wanted to do the same with Dan Martin too, so Martin declared for Ireland (his mum's country) instead as they would allow him to focus on his road career (Ireland not having a track team worthy of mention at the time).

PepeM

Yes, the battle for the win, even if not really close, was great. Geschke did a superb job. Pinot was looking up for the task of catching up with him, until he fell. You could tell his confidence was gone after that. Feel bad for the man. Talansky really went for it, he was just too far behind, same with Uran. As for the GC battle, I though that one was pretty good too. Contador tried an attack early on, but Valverde decided he was having none of that and brought him back. Then Contador had his spill which was unfortunate. We finally saw Froome isolated and both Quintana and Valverde looked ready to fight, but this is not the kind of stage where you would see Froome falter. Gives me some hope that we might see some action in the next few days though.

TMonk

There's nothing wrong with speculation - as long as you take for what it's worth (not much).

Everything I have against Team Sky has to due with speculation and anecdote - i'll be the first to admit that my opnion on the matter isn't worth much, certainly not worth getting worked up over @Gerryattrick.

I think a lot of it has to due with me wanting a good race, and I find Sky's dominance, and Froome's riding style quite boring. Effective, but boring. Froome is like a humanoid cyborg pedaling machine manufactured by Sky - completely devoid of style and skill. His sky high (pun intended) w/kg is everything.

cthenn

The hypocrisy is the worst part. Pantani is a hero, Indurain is still lauded as a great champion, Riis still his title, former dopers abound in MANAGEMENT positions in the sport, and on and on. No one wants to actually clean up the sport, we just want the guys who are not mean jerks and liars. Well liars are ok, as long as you stop lying once you get caught.