Procycling thread

[Mr. Brightside]

[kiddy]

Early reports are suggesting he may have fallen down the mountainside and back onto the road after being unable to unclip from his pedal although there hasn't been any official reports yet.

From the clip I saw on the news, & reports so far, apparently his "pedal had jammed" & it appeared to be on a straight section of road. Have seen riders overcooking corners & going over the side at hairpins before. But this didn't appear to be the case.

It's hard not to jump to conclusions. But reflecting back over the past year, my instant thought was to Andy Schlecks mechanical incident that cost him last years Tour & Cancellara "slipping gears" in the recent Belgian classics. Something becoming a common occurence within Team Lepoards maintenance? I'd hate to think so.

Edited May 10, 2011 by kiddy

[SJ1210]

From the clip I saw on the news, & reports so far, apparently his "pedal had jammed" & it appeared to be on a straight section of road. Have seen riders overcooking corners & going over the side at hairpins before. But this didn't appear to be the case.

He appears to have clipped the stone barrier that was at the side of the road as there is a fresh cut in the stone roughly pedal height, some reporting that he could have been glancing over his shoulder at the time.

It's hard not to jump to conclusions. But reflecting back over the past year, my instant thought was to Andy Schlecks mechanical incident that cost him last years Tour & Cancellara "slipping gears" in the recent Belgian classics. Something becoming a common occurence within Team Lepoards maintenance? I'd hate to think so.

You can't make reference to Schlecks problems last year as being a fault with Leopard Trek's maintenance as he was with a completely different team riding completing different bikes.

[kiddy]

You can't make reference to Schlecks problems last year as being a fault with Leopard Trek's maintenance as he was with a completely different team riding completing different bikes.

A large portion of their team followed to Leopard, did they take the mechanics with them?

[T_S_A_R]

the eurosport commentator is currently loving the fact that bikes are wobbling about on the dust tracks and riders are using their legs and feet to get round corners and laughing that a police bike slid out. surely considering what happened with weylandt it's a bit tasteless.

nibali is going for it on the descent here though. he might get some time.

[T_S_A_R]

holy shit.

there is a rabo rider down who looked to be getting cpr but he seems to be moving.

edit - shlager the guy who was in trouble is apparently ok but will have to abandon.

the stage was won by rabo's peter weening. quite an entertaining stage but the deabte about whether the giro is becoming too gimmicky will continue.

Edited May 11, 2011 by T_S_A_R

[kiddy]

holy shit.

there is a rabo rider down who looked to be getting cpr but he seems to be moving.

edit - shlager the guy who was in trouble is apparently ok but will have to abandon.

the stage was won by rabo's peter weening. quite an entertaining stage but the deabte about whether the giro is becoming too gimmicky will continue.

It was one of those 'hold your breath' moments when Tom Slagter hit the deck. A good stage with some of the main contenders stretching their legs, but 'El Pistolero' was lurking there in the background.

The "Strada Bianchi" stages put the Giro light years ahead of the Tour.

Edited May 11, 2011 by kiddy

[T_S_A_R]

The "Strada Bianchi" stages put the Giro light years ahead of the Tour.

i can't agree with that.

for me the stages that define grand tours are the ones with top climbers going over multiple difficult climbs. that's when you see the real selections. the giro has been extremely entertaining over the past couple of years but hasn't had anything to match the saxo-astana-radioshack drama of the tour.

stage 17 from 2009 when hushovd went on a solo escape then the schlecks and contador controverisally broke away on the final climb while lance and wiggins toiled.

2010 tour stage 8 when armstrong lost it and astana stepped it up leaving only the elite climbers at the end. andy schleck and samu sanchez got away from contador at the end.

i don't think you need dirt tracks or impossible inclines to make a good race just a challenging parocours. i can' t think of a recent giro stage which matches either of those two for drama.

[kiddy]

Wonder what will happen in regards the Etna stages. It started erupting today.

[Mr. Brightside]

Wonder what will happen in regards the Etna stages. It started erupting today.

Should make for an interesting day!

[T_S_A_R]

has anyone else seen the leaked uci doping suspect list?

every rider was ranked 0-10 with 0 being clean. there are some quite interesting ratings but it was no suprise denis menchov got a 9, his performances are extremely suspect.

from super clean sky geraint thomas had a 6 rating and bradley wiggins a 5. if it turns out the british olympic track cycling gold rush was achieved by doping i may well die of laughter.

Edited May 13, 2011 by T_S_A_R

[kiddy]

AC puts down his marker, with a very impressive ride on Etna.

[kiddy]

i can't agree with that.

for me the stages that define grand tours are the ones with top climbers going over multiple difficult climbs. that's when you see the real selections. the giro has been extremely entertaining over the past couple of years but hasn't had anything to match the saxo-astana-radioshack drama of the tour.

stage 17 from 2009 when hushovd went on a solo escape then the schlecks and contador controverisally broke away on the final climb while lance and wiggins toiled.

2010 tour stage 8 when armstrong lost it and astana stepped it up leaving only the elite climbers at the end. andy schleck and samu sanchez got away from contador at the end.

i don't think you need dirt tracks or impossible inclines to make a good race just a challenging parocours. i can' t think of a recent giro stage which matches either of those two for drama.

Couple of stages coming up pretty meaty.

[Desert Nomad]

Couple of stages coming up pretty meaty.

And that`s without including the penultimate stage over the Finnestre! Contador really is the man to beat in GT`s and I think will stamp his authority all over this Giro, after what he see`s as a great injustice to him. The whole world knows that Andy Schleck wouldn`t get near him if he were aloud to ride the Tour. As far as the Giro goes, we can only hope he has an off day to make the race competitive.

[Desert Nomad]

Cav gets his stage win after an audacious move by Millar in the last couple of kms. Not much left for the sprinters in this Giro, can see them all packing up now!

Edit: They`ll hang about for stage 12 though:

Edited May 17, 2011 by Desert Nomad

[Desert Nomad]

has anyone else seen the leaked uci doping suspect list?

every rider was ranked 0-10 with 0 being clean. there are some quite interesting ratings but it was no suprise denis menchov got a 9, his performances are extremely suspect.

from super clean sky geraint thomas had a 6 rating and bradley wiggins a 5. if it turns out the british olympic track cycling gold rush was achieved by doping i may well die of laughter.

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/ucis-suspicious-list-leaked-from-2010-tour-de-france

The complete list:

0 Mario Aerts, Yukiya Arashiro, Stephane Augé, Michael Barry, Francesco Bellotti, Jose Alberto Benitez, Edvald Boasson Hagen, Lars Boom, Maxime Bouet, Pavel Brutt, Fabian Cancellara, Manuel Cardoso, Dries Devenyns, Samuel Dumoulin, Julien El Farès, Simon Gerrans, Anthony Geslin, Bert Grabsch, Christopher Horner, Robert Hunter, Kristjan Koren, Burt Lancaster, David Le Lay, Christophe Le Mével, Adriano Malori, Koes Moerenhout, Amael Moinard, Lloyd Mondory, Damien Monier, Juan Jose Oroz, Remi Pauriol, Mathieu Perget, Gregory Rast, Mark Renshaw, Nicolas Roche, Jurgen Roelandts, Pierre Rolland, Anthony Roux, Jeremy Roy, Mathieu Sp***k, Rein Taaramae, Sebastien Turgot, Niki Terpstra, Brian Vandborg, Kristof Vandewalle, Ivan Velasco, Thomas Voeckler, Fabian Wegmann, David Zabriskie

1 Marcus Burghardt, Sandy Casar, Anthony Charteau, Sylvain Chavanel, Julian Dean, Mickael Delage, Martin Elmiger, Johannes Fröhlinger, Jakob Fuglsang, Robert Gesink, Xavier Florencio, Adam Hansen, Ryder Hesjedal, George Hincapie, Andreas Klier, Roger Kluge, Alexander Kuchinsky, Daniel Lloyd, Mirco Lorenzetto, Martijn Maaskant, Aitor Pérez, Alan Pérez, Jerome Pineau, Ruben Plaza, Alexandre Pliuschin, MaartenTjallingii, Rafael Valls, Maarten Wynants

2 Eros Capecchi, Mark Cavendish, Stephen Cummings, Remy Di Gregorio, Arkaitz Duran, Mathias Frank, Oscar Freire, John Gadret, Francesco Gavazzi, Volodymir Gustov, Thor Hushovd, Christophe Kern, Thomas Löfkvist, Sebastien Minard, Daniel Navarro, Grischa Niermann, Stuart O'Grady, Rubén Pérez, Christophe Riblon, Thomas Rohregger, L. L. Sanchez, Carlos Sastre, Fränk Schleck, Simon Spilak, Bram Tankink, Stijn Vandenbergh, Benoit Vaugrenard, Jens Voigt, Eduard Vorganov

3 Ivan Basso, Grega Bole, Brent Bookwalter, Dimitri Champion, Gerald Ciolek, Rui Costa, Damiano Cunego, Mauro Da Dalto, Francis De Greef, Markus Eibegger, Imanol Erviti, Tyler Farrar, Fabio Felline, Juan Antonio Flecha, Maxim Iglinskiy, Vasil Kiryienka, Roman Kreuziger, Matthieu Ladagnous, Robbie McEwen, Maxime Monfort, Sergio Paulinho, Joaquin Rodriguez, Andy Schleck, Chris Anker Sörensen, Sylvester Szmyd, Paolo Tiralongo, Amets Txurruka, Johan Van Summeren, Gorka Verdugo, Charles Wegelius

4 Lance Armstrong, Janez Brajkovic, Bernhard Eisel, Cadel Evans, Pierrick Fédrigo, Juan Manuel Garate, Andriy Grivko, Jesus Hernandez, Ignatas Konovalovas, Sebastian Lang, Levi Leipheimer, David Millar, Daniel Moreno, Serge Pauwels, Manuel Quinziato, Luke Roberts, Samuel Sanchez, Christian Vande Velde, Nicolas Vogondy

5 Alessandro Ballan, Matti Breschel, Alberto Contador, Cyril Gautier, Inaki Isasi, Sergei Ivanov, Vladimir Karpets, Alexandr Kolobnev, Karsten Kroon, Steve Morabito, Benjamin Noval, Jose Rojas, Nicki Sörensen, Alexander Vinokourov, Bradley Wiggins

6 Linus Gerdemann, Christian Knees, Egoi Martínez, Alessandro Petacchi, Francesco Reda, Mauro Santambrogio, Geraint Thomas

7 Jeremy Hunt, Andreas Klöden, Tony Martin, Christophe Moreau, Michael Rogers, Wesley Sulzberger

8 David De la Fuente, Ivan Gutiérrez, Danilo Hondo, Matthew Lloyd, Iban Mayoz, Dmitriy Muravyev, Rinaldo Nocentini, Daniel Oss, Kevin Seeldraeyers, Kanstantsin Siutsou, Jurgen Van Den Broeck

9 Denis Menchov

10 Carlos Barredo,Yaroslav Popovych

[T_S_A_R]

And that`s without including the penultimate stage over the Finnestre! Contador really is the man to beat in GT`s and I think will stamp his authority all over this Giro, after what he see`s as a great injustice to him. The whole world knows that Andy Schleck wouldn`t get near him if he were aloud to ride the Tour. As far as the Giro goes, we can only hope he has an off day to make the race competitive.

i thought contador was taking the piss a bit over the weekend. at least in the last couple of tours he kidded on it was close when he could probably have destroyed andy on ventoux in 2009 and on the tourmalet in 2010. let's face it the guy is doped to the gills and he only got caught due to a stupid mistake with contaminated blood. i've got a feeling he thinks he's going to lose his case and is just going to go out and dominate the giro and the tour before he gets his ban.

[Desert Nomad]

i thought contador was taking the piss a bit over the weekend. at least in the last couple of tours he kidded on it was close when he could probably have destroyed andy on ventoux in 2009 and on the tourmalet in 2010. let's face it the guy is doped to the gills and he only got caught due to a stupid mistake with contaminated blood. i've got a feeling he thinks he's going to lose his case and is just going to go out and dominate the giro and the tour before he gets his ban.

Well he won`t dominate the Tour as he won`t ride. As for the Giro, assuming Contador wins it, the most important stage could well be in June when he will in all probability lose his case. Contador`s crime is being caught, cos if you think Schleck and others aren`t similarly doped up, then I fear you`re mistaken.

[T_S_A_R]

i think the majority of them are probably transfusing their own stored blood during races and micro dosing epo (and hgh for the sprinters) however i think the peloton is a lot cleaner than it has been which is reflected in the decreasing time gaps and later attacks. while i wouldn't be suprised if andy schleck was doping i think he left everything out on the road in last year's tour while contador still had a lot in the tank suggesting contador's program is on a totally different level to the rest of them.

what contador over the weekend was like armstrong in his prime or ricardo ricco at his most blatant. he beat the full peloton on saturday on a small hll then left nibali and the rest of the favourites for dead on the first major climb. that shouldn't be possible.

[Desert Nomad]

i think the majority of them are probably transfusing their own stored blood during races and micro dosing epo (and hgh for the sprinters) however i think the peloton is a lot cleaner than it has been which is reflected in the decreasing time gaps and later attacks. while i wouldn't be suprised if andy schleck was doping i think he left everything out on the road in last year's tour while contador still had a lot in the tank suggesting contador's program is on a totally different level to the rest of them.

what contador over the weekend was like armstrong in his prime or ricardo ricco at his most blatant. he beat the full peloton on saturday on a small hll then left nibali and the rest of the favourites for dead on the first major climb. that shouldn't be possible.

He took less than a minute though, which shouldn`t be forgotton. Will be interesting to see what happens with Shcleck now he has parted company with Riis, who`s now team manager for one Alberto Contador...

While I don`t think the level of doping is as high as the Armstrong/pre-Armstrong era, it still goes on now doubt. We`ll see what happens in the Tour, without Contador, I fully expect Andy Schleck to dominate the race.