Cycling Thread

[OlegKuznetsov 10,816]

Mountain bike?

Hybrid.

[JamieD 18,963]

Shame for the race.

Nibali the clear favourite now.

The Vuelta should be incredible. Quintana, Froome and Contador to go head-to-head?

[JamieD 18,963]

Hybrid.

That's okay then. Just checking you didn't have disc brakes on a road bike

[OlegKuznetsov 10,816]

Contador crashed uphill. Lost a lot of time and didn't look good but he seems to be catching up to the peloton.

Given that the Tour de France is essentially an advert for sponsors, and given that one of the favourites for the Tour is riding a frame that costs around £3000, and that frame just snapped while going uphill, throwing him onto the road and possibly ruining his Tour, I think the marketing executives at Specialized bikes are probably shitting themselves

Carbon bikes aren't worth the money and hassle for that very reason. There are more reliable bamboo frames.

[OlegKuznetsov 10,816]

That's okay then. Just checking you didn't have disc brakes on a road bike

They're bound to become the standard in time, with all the crashes.

[JamieD 18,963]

Carbon bikes aren't worth the money and hassle for that very reason. There are more reliable bamboo frames.

I have a carbon fork on an otherwise aluminium set-up and it has held up fine but I do find how light and flimsy it feels, and the way it sounds if I flick it, incredibly disconcerting

Besides, only racers really have a need for it. I'm a pretty light guy, and there's no way the combined weight of all those fat bastards I see on the road and their carbon bikes are lower than me and my aluminium one.

[quinty 1,445]

Fuck sake, Contador gone - looks like it's Nibali's now!

[OlegKuznetsov 10,816]

I have a carbon fork on an otherwise aluminium set-up and it has held up fine but I do find how light and flimsy it feels, and the way it sounds if I flick it, incredibly disconcerting

Besides, only racers really have a need for it. I'm a pretty light guy, and there's no way the combined weight of all those fat bastards I see on the road and their carbon bikes are lower than me and my aluminium one.

I did the plink test in Evans on Saturday. Disconcerting indeed. Reminded me of cheap plastic hangers.

[Duncan 23]

Still don't think Nibali is going to take this

[Skol 401]

I have a carbon fork on an otherwise aluminium set-up and it has held up fine but I do find how light and flimsy it feels, and the way it sounds if I flick it, incredibly disconcerting

Besides, only racers really have a need for it. I'm a pretty light guy, and there's no way the combined weight of all those fat bastards I see on the road and their carbon bikes are lower than me and my aluminium one.

Exactly. I also have an aluminium + carbon set-up. Interestingly the Germans are still big fans of this and they know a thing or two about engineering. It's fashion and psychology that makes all the amateurs think they need full carbon. I've ridden both and honestly didn't find much of a difference. Rather save the money for a decent group-set.

I know someone who has spent over a grand on wheels but is about 15kg overweight.

[JamieD 18,963]

Exactly. I also have an aluminium + carbon set-up. Interestingly the Germans are still big fans of this and they know a thing or two about engineering. It's fashion and psychology that makes all the amateurs think they need full carbon. I've ridden both and honestly didn't find much of a difference. Rather save the money for a decent group-set.

I know someone who has spent over a grand on wheels but is about 15kg overweight.

I would feel genuinely embarrassed to ride a bike like that, pootling along at 25kph.

[JamieD 18,963]

Still don't think Nibali is going to take this

Valverde, maybe?

Edit: If that little dig from Nibali is anything to go by, maybe not

[Duncan 23]

I'll have whatever Nibali is on

[Kopter 310]

Watched the two Lance Armstrong docs yesterday. It was some story.

Are the peloton still on the juice?

[JamieD 18,963]

Watched the two Lance Armstrong docs yesterday. It was some story.

Are the peloton still on the juice?

Can't see any reason why they wouldn't be, sadly. The rewards are as great as they ever have been. I doubt they fly as close to the sun any more though, which would explain things like the relatively slower average speeds that get reported as proof that doping isn't as prevalent any more. Nobody is going to be stupid enough to jack their blood values up to the extent that a rider in the mid-90s could, but that doesn't mean that you can't still get a substantial advantage over a clean rider without testing positive.

I certainly don't believe for one second that riders don't still dope for recovery as much as they ever did, and for as long as the race organisers keep putting on insanely tough stages to please TV viewers I can't say I blame them.

[Kopter 310]

Can't see any reason why they wouldn't be, sadly. The rewards are as great as they ever have been. I doubt they fly as close to the sun any more though, which would explain things like the relatively slower average speeds that get reported as proof that doping isn't as prevalent any more. Nobody is going to be stupid enough to jack their blood values up to the extent that a rider in the mid-90s could, but that doesn't mean that you can't still get a substantial advantage over a clean rider without testing positive.

I certainly don't believe for one second that riders don't still dope for recovery as much as they ever did, and for as long as the race organisers keep putting on insanely tough stages to please TV viewers I can't say I blame them.

I'm not even sure if I'm depressed about that. Only really got into watching cycling since the 2009 Lance comeback tour ironically.

Mental sport but absolutely compelling. Surely Team Sky aren't at it or is the 'marginal gains' bullshit precisely that?

[JamieD 18,963]

I'm not even sure if I'm depressed about that. Only really got into watching cycling since the 2009 Lance comeback tour ironically.

Mental sport but absolutely compelling. Surely Team Sky aren't at it or is the 'marginal gains' bullshit precisely that?

For me, the more time goes by the more unusual Sky's results look and the more their public statements on doping seem to clash with their actions. I don't know if they are dodgy but they say and do all the wrong things and I get a bad vibe. For a "zero tolerance" team they have employed a startling number of dopers, apparently without doing the most basic research into their history. In 2010, when they hired Sean Yates, the doping that he took part in with Lance at Motorola in the mid 90s had been a matter of public record (obviously ignored by most) for six years. Anybody who cared to read David Walsh's book, LA Confidentiel, would have known that Yates had doped as a rider, and therefore broke Sky's zero tolerance rule even before they hired him. They signed Michael Barry, who was implicated by the same book in doping alongside Lance at US Postal. A few months after hiring him, Floyd Landis implicated him and the whole US Postal team in doping and Brailsford basically shrugged it off. Barry kept his mouth shut and kept riding for two years in the face of overwhelming evidence without Sky taking any action against him, before finally admitting it. They hired Geert Leinders, who was Michael Rasmussen's doctor at Rabobank when he was booted out of the Tour for doping in 2007 while wearing the yellow jersey. They hired Bobby Julich even though he probably rode for more notorious doping teams than any other cyclist in history. They told David Walsh (who wrote a glowing book about them but has since questioned their ethics in recent weeks) that they would rather pull a rider from racing than ask for a therapeutic usage exemption for banned drugs, and then a few weeks ago it emerged that they had applied for one for Froome at a race he went on to win this season. I mean, this naivety and inconsistency wouldn't be totally implausible were it not for the fact that the team claims its incredible successes are due to attention to detail. Why are they so good at physiology and so bad at management?

Then there's the fact that the physiologist who was permitted by Sky to look over Froome's power numbers after people questioned his performance at last year's Tour had this to say about them:

The extremely high maximal aerobic power (efforts of five minutes) confirms that he has an extraordinary high aerobic potential, which means he has a V02 max (this has never been measured in the laboratory by his team) close to the limits of known physiological science."

Basically he is saying that if Froome is clean, he's the greatest natural talent the sport has ever seen. Which is possible, I suppose, except that as recently as 2011 Sky were thinking of letting him go from the team because he was going nowhere. Until his surprise performance at the Tour of Spain saved his career.

People say "There's no way these people would risk their reputations, there's no way Sky would" etc, but then nobody would think that Armstrong would willingly lie to millions of cancer sufferers, nor that a cycling team bankrolled by the US government would cheat, so there's no measure of plausibility any more. People will do crazy things to win. I don't trust them and that's just fine. Cycling can be amazing to watch even if you can't quite believe in it. I'm very sad that Contador and Froome are out of the Tour because it was going to be an amazing spectacle, not because I can get behind the idea that they were involved in honest endeavour

[JamieD 18,963]

This is a very good, to all appearances unbiased blog (he turns a sceptical eye to all riders, regardless of nationality). The writer's post about yesterday's stage is food for thought.

http://www.sportsscientists.com/2014/07/tours-first-mountain-finish-quick-take/

In other words, what we saw today was a performance, not only from Nibali but also from those nearest him on the stage, that is at least comparable to anything produced between 2002 and 2007, the height of the doping era.

[Duncan 23]

My question here is.

Compared to the Armstrong era and now. What difference does the bike make?

My main thinking about Nibali yesterday is that he has raced alot this year already and as far as I know had yet to win a UCI event.

Now considering how tired his legs must be I was just really surprised about his stage win yesterday. I know the others are not that strong compared to Froome and Contador but even Nibali didn't really perform in the Dauphine this year. He looked weak compared to others

[Kopter 310]

This is a very good, to all appearances unbiased blog (he turns a sceptical eye to all riders, regardless of nationality). The writer's post about yesterday's stage is food for thought.

http://www.sportsscientists.com/2014/07/tours-first-mountain-finish-quick-take/

Interesting stuff - thanks for the comprehensive reply.

Need to get a cycling booklist on the go.

[Don81 2,838]

Just noticed last day of Tour de France is on when I'm in Paris . Buzzing

[trueblue68 2,497]

I have the Commonwealth time trials nearby on the 31st. Looking forward to it actually.

[JamieD 18,963]

http://www.uci.ch/Modules/ENews/ENewsDetails2011.asp?id=MTAwODk&MenuId=MTYzMDQ&LangId=1

Jonathan Tiernan-Locke has been banned for two years for a biological passport violation and Sky have sacked him. Brailsford insists that the findings are based on results from before he joined Sky, but as the UCI statement says, he has been stripped of his results from the 2012 World Championships for doping during that time. Dave Brailsford ran the Team GB cycling team at the 2012 World Championships.

He refused to answer questions from journalists on the matter today. Total transparency seems to be going out of the window.

[Kopter 310]

http://www.uci.ch/Modules/ENews/ENewsDetails2011.asp?id=MTAwODk&MenuId=MTYzMDQ&LangId=1

Jonathan Tiernan-Locke has been banned for two years for a biological passport violation and Sky have sacked him. Brailsford insists that the findings are based on results from before he joined Sky, but as the UCI statement says, he has been stripped of his results from the 2012 World Championships for doping during that time. Dave Brailsford ran the Team GB cycling team at the 2012 World Championships.

He refused to answer questions from journalists on the matter today. Total transparency seems to be going out of the window.

That's depressing.

Mate in work who's big into his cycling was doing his nut today at the thought of Valverde winning the tour due to his doping past.

Sagan 2nd again today - great bike rider.

[JamieD 18,963]

That's depressing.

Mate in work who's big into his cycling was doing his nut today at the thought of Valverde winning the tour due to his doping past.

Sagan 2nd again today - great bike rider.

Valverde reckons he's stronger now than he was before his ban. Now, either he has an incredibly late peak AND he was on a really shite doping regimen before, or he's still at it. Or he's clean and just deluded about his form. Either way he sounded like a tit saying it

I'm starting to feel bad for Sagan. The green jersey is his but what riders really want is to win races and he's just not making the right moves. I can't imagine his team-mates are happy about busting their arses for him only for him to make tactical mistakes. He's amazingly talented but it's like he's not sure what type of rider he's supposed to be. He isn't fast enough to win sprints, so he needs to show some guts and try to win some breakaways.