Tour de France 2021 - Speculation and Gossip

???
In 2020, we had a lockdown until 1st of June and from 2nd week of September onwards in Slovenia.

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You are deflecting
.you made the point that Wout has pulled the peloton many times up mountains in the service of Roglic, as if that made him a Tour contender. I simply pointed out, using Castroviejo as an example, that it doesn’t mean much when it is their job to do that.

And winning sprint stages doesn’t make someone a Tour contender

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I am not doing anything. Wout can climb, sprint, and TT. He can win the green easily if he wants to. He can be a GC guy if he wants too. I was just responding to above post that was saying he loses time on some mountain stages. The reason for that is because he is expanding a lot of energy on every stage. Either pulling for teammates, lead out for sprints, or contend for sprints, and stage hunting. If he wanted to, he could hide himself on certain days like the GC guys. Not sure he can beat Pog, but he would be on podium.

Btw, he really needs a new marketing person and to get off JV. He is a better version of Sagan on the bike. MVDP has canyon in his pocket and Sagan has Specialized. He should have a bike company for himself and a team built for him to do what he wants. A little more charisma, and a couple wheelies, some fun YouTube appearances and he would be way more popular.

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I think it was UCI anti-doping, or a similar agency, stated on the Cycling Podcast that they performed less anti-doping tests, but only because they performed less in-competition testing. I have heard this stated, but I do not think it holds water.

Well put. Personally, I’ve been through cycles of increasing or decreasing interest–but always with the assumption that what we’re seeing on TV is the tip of the iceberg. I totally understand why some folks who expect a pure sport would wash their hands of the whole thing, but for me every single facet of the silly soap opera is pretty compelling.

Edit: Watching the coverage now on SBS and I was just now reminded that the only clean winner of the modern Tour–IMO Cadel Evans–was riding on BMC with doped-to-the-eyeballs “Nice Guy” George Hincapie as his chief domestique. It is what it is.

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OK
hit me up when that actually happens.

Chicago fans not letting this one go
.on both side of town.

South side last night

(the can eventually made it down onto the field)

North side
.

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cough Sammy cough Sosa. Corked cough bats. :rofl:

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Schitt
.corked bats were the least of Sammy’s offenses.

But he also wasn’t playing in 2016, soooo
.:stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

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2005 was bonkers.

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I agree, I don’t think that holds water either. I think that’s them preemptively trying to protect themselves/excusing themselves.

Vino’s breakaway win on the Champs-ElysĂ©es to displace Levi for 5th on the GC was such a fitting end to 2005.

I’ll just leave this here.

I don’t put a lot of stock in comparing one year’s average speed vs. another. A lot of variables, not the least of which is the fact it is never the same course.

This year had a lot fewer summit finishes, which is gonna be a big help in keeping the average speed up.

Not saying the comparisons aren’t w/o some merit, but there needs to be a deeper look at why the speeds ended the way they did.

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Tip off USADA
 I’m sure it will spook the others if one or a couple in the area get busted.

We had a guy in our area get a random out of season test request. He refused the test and was suspended. I’m sure it struck fear in some others!

:slight_smile:

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Yes ofc, my mistake. I just remembered how Slovenia were the only country to pull of Nat Champs without moving it, so clearly at that point testing was possible and by second week of September it was too late with regards to the tour.

But what is you’re feeling? Did the spring lockdown affect possibility of testing last year?

Have a look at his times on any climbs raced by the very top GC guys. You’ll see he is a fair way down, even when winning a stage. Margins of 2 to 4mins, depending on climb length.

Over a tour, he’d hemorrhage 12 to 20mins over the various mountain top finishes. He simply can’t do the 6.2+w/kg for 40mins, required to win grand tours.

I highly doubt he’d actually be able to safely lose the 7 or so kgs he’d need to, to become a true GC threat. He has a strong muscular frame, for a cyclist.

More importantly, please just let Wout be Wout.

As spoken about in regards to MVDP, these two riders are incredible as they are. Why do people want them to be dull GC riders? I personally couldn’t care less about the GC. I love riders like these two and value their vast array of different wins in multiple disciplines higher than a grand tour team display.

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If Wout would really want to chase GC, he would have to work on that specifically, and atm, I think the mixture of TT, classics, sprints and CX will never work for GC.

When Wiggins went after the GC, he did lose a bunch of weight, and really sacrificed absolute power, to be able to compete in the mountains (plural, not on one).
Wout could do something like that when he is around his 30s. Cut CX completely, lose 7kg+ over a longer period of time, high focus on repeatability of climbing efforts, not competing for sprint stages.

I also don‘t think he would want to compete at the moment, with Pogi. Tadej might well be the greatest GC rider ever in the making, so probably not a great era to start getting into GC (if you can win elsewhere).

Don’t forget that Wiggins lost that weight with a bunch of BS TUE cheating.

It’s not speculation. Sky and others in the peloton greatly abused the TUE system to allow their riders to use normally illegal in competition drugs to assist in losing weight.

I don’t remember the names of the particular drugs, but if I recall correctly, one was a type of steroid. Supposedly, it somehow allowed riders to hold power output at very low bodyfat percentages. That’s something that has always had me questioning certain performances.

I’ve personally used PEDs and am fully aware of their dramatic advantages. I’ve never used them in competition, just when I was young and dumb. I was into body building etc.

What I can say, is that some PEDs give you life long performance advantages. Literally, decades later


The system now, as I understand it, is heavily use these drugs, before entering the testing pool and reap the benefits for the rest of your athletic career.

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