I’m barely even aware that it’s on.
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I been watching a lot, cos I got stranded in Christchurch for 8 hours on sunday ; )
Sheiss. Aaron Gate got his 4th Gold medal, in the road race. I guess he’s trying to make up for fucking up a medal in the TP at the Olympics.
Quintana got popped for tramadol.
no suspension, what a joke!
Speculation is he took it to help him sleep or not poop. It’s not exactly a PED. I’m impressed he could put his shoes on taking tramadol.
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Fluckiger busted eh? I always wondered how clean they were at the top of MTB.
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some ex pro posted this great tweet that was basically “why doesn’t keegan swenson race world tour? why doesn’t he race mtb world cups” and then just a screenshot of the fluckiger headline
it was very good i wish i could remember who posted it
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I bet they are doped less and less effective. Smaller pool. Easier to maintain something that resembles consistent testing. There will always be guys doing it, but given that most of them are not seeing the same level of support as WT riders I bet whatever shit they are doing is lower key/less effective.
Getting busted for cow roids is some low rent behavior shartmo.
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yeah i’m mostly surprised he was on just some bargain anabolic steroid. come on man.
I wonder if Switzerland is so small that if you weren’t just doing vet supplies, that someone would hear about it? Does seem very low rent. Back in the day I asked our top pro and he reckoned Absalon was clean.
Also seems like modern WT doping has mostly been centered around managing blood during stage racing.
Some fuckery during hard training blocks but really just trying to be the least fatigued after multiple days of racing in a row.
The elite XC guys are seemingly no less fit than the top 50% of WT riders, but they are not subjected to the same level of load during racing. Less days, shorter races, less to recover from (with or without help from the pharmacy).
This is my argument for eliminating or severely cutting back grand tours.
No one can compete at those levels every day for three weeks without something screwy going on atmo.
Make the days shorter or make them race every other day or the whole thing is only a week.
Anyway, one day races are more fun to watch.
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One day races in bad weather are fun to watch
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Who do you reckon is more rooted at the end of the day? The tour divide guy or the tour de France guy? I’m not a fan of sleep deprivation as a sport myself but.
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I’m guessing the TdV rider is generally more wiped out each day. If for no other reason than they don’t have masseuse or a personal chef and a warm bed to sleep in.
But I dunno. They don’t run themselves at 90-100% all the time like the TdF racers do. Maybe they do?
Either way, we can agree that all of these people are abnormal and their bodies don’t work exactly the same as ours.
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I wonder how you could compare? Calorific expenditure? I feel like if you just did the tdv, you won’t be fronting up to race kermeses the next week !
TDF guys are definitely not running even close to 90-100% the vast majority of the race. While the 140-220km distance of the stages seem crazy, keep in mind the actual saddle time most days is 4-5 hours. Getting sucked along in a peloton is a remarkable thing and the aero advantage of sitting in means a remarkably low effort at times. Not that guys are not going hard as fuck at times, but to your point, they also have really dialed nutrition and a solid recovery regime after the race. Definitely not the same type of wear and tear that a TDV racer is going to end up with. Plus the TDF people are certainly better-conditioned athletes overall so that 4-hour ride at 27mph just isn’t the same relative effort as a cat3 doing a 4-hour ride at 22mph.
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Yeah. A TDV rider would dream about having a daily rest as long as a TDF riders daily ride.
Something I been thinking about recently is what kind of pressure are the riders under to start racing again post covid. I haven’t seen or heard of George Bennett since the TDF, and Anyon Cooper’s HR average was about 165 at the MTB worlds the other day where he could only manage 33rd. He’s obviously a long way off ready.
I am guessing their Drs might be at the pointy end of the science of covid recovery?
Roglic’s abandon has me feeling all the feelings. After watching the stage yesterday, I knew he wasn’t going to start. Just the way he was sitting against the barriers after the finish, you could just tell.
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