Pro Cycling

[pels]

Those days are gone, 90s up to mid 2000 they were juiced to the max

I think this years tour is wide open you can add other names like Sanchez, Menchov,Nibali Gesink & Van den Broeck who are outsiders but are more than capable of winning.
Looking forward to see what happens because with so much TT kms a rider like Schleck & other climbers really have to gain minutes in the mountains to have any chance

I disagree. One day it'll happen again. All sports go through changes and one day it'll change again to the point one person wins by 1/2 an hour.

I'm not discounting some of those other guys from being up there, but I don't see them on the top step. Podium places, not a problem. But if Evans and Wiggins avoid trouble I don't see any of those guys riding away regularly enough or taking time in those time trials. I even think Andy Schleck is going to have a hard time making up for those time trial miles given Wiggins and Evans will challenge Martin and Cancellara for the stage wins in the major ITT but I give him a chance because I think he's the best climber. He is a chance to take a minute or two on a few stages to get the 4-5 minutes extra he'll probably need.

Personally, I think Cadel is the favourite. The confidence from last year, the strength he has in his team to help him chase any break from a rival, Contador not there, Andy seems if anything to be losing that punch in his attacks and Wiggins is still a little of an unknown quantity in the mountains. Wiggins is the only major contender I see capable of taking time off Cadel in a time trial.

We agree that Evans is the favourite after him anything can happen, hope to see some exciting, attacking riding in the tour.

[pels]

Luke Durbridge won the prologue in the Critérium du Dauphiné 2012
This kid is going to be a star, already a world TT champ in U23 and his is only 21.
On SBS 2 tonight at 11ish

[Grahaml]

Luke Durbridge won the prologue in the Critérium du Dauphiné 2012
This kid is going to be a star, already a world TT champ in U23 and his is only 21.
On SBS 2 tonight at 11ish

Great to see some of these kids coming through. Hopefully he does go on with it. I remember thinking Michael Rogers would become something great after winning 3 world championships in the time trial, leading the TDF on the road before crashing when Rasmussen got kicked out. Sadly he hasn't really gone on with it. Mostly though, I just hope it's not too long we don't have a grand tour GC contender once Cadel winds up.

[mickey]

Cadel wins stage 2 and is in yellow.

[MIGHTY BULLS]

Cadel wins stage 2 and is in yellow.

Almost currently 1 second behind Wiggins in yellow

[Grahaml]

Cadel with a so-so time trial. I haven't looked closely, but traditionally the DL and TDF have the same ITT course don't they? If so the doomsayers will be worried about Cadel nearly being passed by Wiggins, but overall I think it's a reasonable hit out.

Cadel had to do the whole thing at a disadvantage after dropping his water bottle right at the start. Wiggins is a sensational time trialler, losing time to him is no disgrace. He even beat Tony Martin by a fair way. I also don't think Cadel's form is nearly as good as Wiggins. I don't subscribe to the theory that he might be too good too soon, but when they meet in the TDF Cadel will be much improved, Wiggins will be more or less where he is. There's also a few big mountains before the TDF time trial.

[pels]

Considering there is 100km of TT at this years TDF, Wiggins forms looks rather frightening to all the other contenders.
They really need to put him to the sword on most of the mountain stages (not as if there is that many this year) otherwise they are screwed.
Also a TT in the 3rd week of the tour is totally different to a TT in a one week race.

Hopefully he doesn’t keep up this form as I really don’t wanna see a pom win, but it looks like an Aussie vs Pommie battle at the tour this year

[Grahaml]

I don't see Wiggins avoiding time loss in the mountains. I also don't see him beating Cadel by so much if they both survive intact. I'd say at this stage a straight ITT battle in the TDF is 60/40 Wiggins' way. If he does win, I can't imagine him taking more than 15-20 seconds off Cadel. Cadel should take more than that in the mountains.

The big issue coming out of the CDD is Andy Schleck. Cadel's form is close enough to feel confident enough. Wiggins form is there and he just needs to hold it for 7 weeks, which shouldn't be too much of a problem. Andy though is losing time on stages he shouldn't lose time, even losing 13 minutes on a stage with 1 mountain climb. Even the time trial specialists beat him. Tony Martin finished with the Cadel/Wiggins group, they were going that easy. I don't see how he can recover from such a position to gain the time he'd need to on mountain stages. I'm even getting close to writing him off and tipping him to finish outside the top 10......

[brod]

Andy Schleck's Criterium du Dauphine has gone from bad to worse, and the RadioShack-Nissan captain threw in the towel on Saturday's sixth stage, abandoning the race. He had come into the penultimate stage in 129th place, over 29 minutes behind race leader Bradley Wiggins.

Schleck had not performed well in any stage, but his worst stage was the fifth, when he lost nearly 14 minutes. He explained his early poor performance was due to knee problems which cost him a week's training in May.

He then crashed heavily in Thursday's windy time trial, and suffered a heavy blow to his right aide and ribcage, as well as severe road rash.

[brod]

Nairo Quintana (Movistar) won the sixth stage of the Criterium du Dauphine, holding off not only Cadel Evans (BMC Racing Team) but also Team Sky. Evans broke from the small group of favourites to finish second, 16 seconds down, with Daniel Moreno of Katusha leading the group across the finish line another six seconds later.

Bradley Wiggins easily defended his lead, but there were changes behind him. Tony Martin (Omega Pharma-QuickStep) had fallen back on the brutal final climb, and also fell off the podium. Evans attacked near the end but it was not enough to bring him a significant gain, but with Martin gone Michael Rogers moved up to second and Evans to third.

[brod]

Tour of Switzerland starts tonight with GreenEDGE having the following team
61 Michael Albasini (Swi)
62 Baden Cooke (Aus)
63 Allan Davis (Aus)
64 Aidis Kruopis (Ltu)
65 Sebastiaan Langeveld (Ned)
66 Cameron Meyer (Aus)
67 Stuart O'Grady (Aus)
68 Matthew Wilson (Aus)

A couple of other Aussies are in the race
31 Matthew Hayman (Sky Procycling)
54 Heinrich Haussler (Garmin-Barracuda)

[Grahaml]

Another day in the Criterium, another bad one for Andy Schleck. Cadel showed enough to suggest he's on track, taking a little time on the stage at the end while Sky look formidible. BMC have improved their team, I think luckily because Sky look to me like they'll be the strong team for the TDF.

[am Bays]

Another day in the Criterium, another bad one for Andy Schleck. Cadel showed enough to suggest he's on track, taking a little time on the stage at the end while Sky look formidible. BMC have improved their team, I think luckily because Sky look to me like they'll be the strong team for the TDF.

Sky look strong but BMC will add Burghardt (Evans' designated protector), Hurshvold and possible Kohlar to their TDF team. Sky will add Cavendish but will he cope with not having a team geared for him to win stages as they will need to keep blokes back to protect Wiggins.

[Grahaml]

Another day in the Criterium, another bad one for Andy Schleck. Cadel showed enough to suggest he's on track, taking a little time on the stage at the end while Sky look formidible. BMC have improved their team, I think luckily because Sky look to me like they'll be the strong team for the TDF.

Sky look strong but BMC will add Burghardt (Evans' designated protector), Hurshvold and possible Kohlar to their TDF team. Sky will add Cavendish but will he cope with not having a team geared for him to win stages as they will need to keep blokes back to protect Wiggins.

I presume they won't give Cavendish any support. Sky finished 1,2,4 and 9 in the Dauphine. Like I said, BMC have added strength to their team, so they won't be out of their depth. I just hope they're strong enough to have blokes able to set up attacks later, chase down attacks and just keep Cadel out of trouble. The rest Cadel will take care of.

[pels]

Andy Schleck will miss the TDF this year, blessing in diguise as he wouldn't been killed in all the Time Trials

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/schleck ... -de-france

[Grahaml]

Very sad news he won't be there. His form was ordinary but if he found his legs in the closing stages he was one who could jump from the pack. He would have lost plenty of time in the time trial but he was more than capable of taking minutes in the mountains. It now feels like it's goimg to come down to whether Wiggins can stay with Cadel in the mountains.

[Grahaml]

So there I was last night after hearing of Andy Schleck's withdrawl and wondering what bold predictions to make when I began wondering what story would be bigger than Rasmussen's withdrawl, cars crashing into cyclists and Contador attacking when Schleck had a mechanical when I realised it's pretty assured something big will happen. Crashes and cheating are so common predicting one isn't noteworthy. In the end I decided the only real way to outdo the regular big story was if someone like Merckx or Armstrong admitted to or was found to have taken drugs. To my great amazement I read today the USADA have launched action against several people for doping violations including just 1 single rider: Armstrong. I have to say, as much as I hope that if he did in fact cheat he gets found out the case seems ludicrously weak. So many cheats have, once found guilty, tried to claim Armstrong was a cheat, in order to reduce their penalty. It seems that again this is the basis for this action. They claim some medical evidence but it sounds far from convincing. All this action, despite to me seeming thin on untainted testimomy or scientific information has meant his automatic suspension from triathlons despite not yet being guilty of anything. This is the man who was tested more than any other athlete in sporting history with no failed tests. He also rightly points out he never had a spike in perforance like those to have been caught. This is after a 2 year investigation was called off, presubably due to a lack of evidence. The medical evidence apparently comes from his 2 year return. No doubt he never tried anything then but they claim it shows past doping and EPO use from his earlier career. If they can prove that 2 year old blood shows cheating from a decade earlier then hats off and we might see the end of widespread cheating forever. But I remain unconvinced. In the meantime a sporting legend sits in limbo unable to continue to prove his greatness. Let's hope this isn't as frivolous as it seems.

[brod]

Plenty of cyclists having their say about Lance

- Chris Horner has leapt to the defence of Lance Armstrong after it was announced that USADA had brought doping charges against the seven-time Tour de France winner. The pair rode together at Astana and RadioShack, a period in time in which alleged doping infractions occurred. Armstrong has denied all charges levelled at him.
- Two men who clashed infamously with Lance Armstrong during his reign as the Tour de France’s dominant rider, Christophe Bassons and Filippo Simeoni, today welcomed news that Armstrong will face doping charges from the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA).
Bassons said that USADA’s action was “important” but also long overdue. “It’s a shame now that it’s coming 15 years after it all happened. It’s a shame because the evidence was there for years. I knew all along what was happening, so this doesn’t change anything for me. I don’t need fifteen pages of documents to tell me what I knew already,” Bassons told Cyclingnews.

[brod]

Tour of Switzerland

Peter Sagan (Liquigas-Cannondale) continued his dominance in the Tour de Suisse, coming from behind to win the sprint of the sixth stage in Bischofszell. In the last few meters he caught and passed Ben Swift (Sky) who finished second, with Allan Davis of Orica-GreenEdge finishing third.
It was Sagan's fourth win in the race, and his 12th on the season.

Allan Davis is 5th in the Points classification

[Rams52]

Reading all the other riders saying things like "I knew he was cheating/taking drugs etc" is slightly amusing to me. I obviously do not know either way but I remember reading an article a long time ago about his triaing regime leading into a TDF. It was crazy the amount of work he did. Sometimes 3 sessions a day; weights, 3 hour road ride, 1 1/2 hour high intensity stationary bike session. It was amazing the lengths he went to to succeed.