Ricoh A bit harsh, I thought...

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I haven't been following at all this year (I'm gonna be unable to watch the Tour this year, away for all of July with limited, if any, TV or internet). So what's wrong with Bradley - is Froom the new leader at Sky? He might should have been last year - he appeared the stronger of the two. Or did his ridiculously overheated denials that he would EVER do anything untoward to win come back to bite him?

-Ray
 
I know diddly squat about racing cycling. This was a book cover in the local WH Smith. Mrs Lightmancer ran interference with the staff for me while I framed the shot :)

I think he has a chest infection. He had to pull out of something a week or two ago and I don't think he has recovered enough to compete. I cycle, but mine is an old black sit-up-and-beg that I bimble about on in the Summer. Trust me, I do not look good in lycra...
 
I wish Froome had disobeyed team orders and made the 2012 Tour more exciting!!

Now, I may actually find myself rooting for Contador so that Froome will have someone to battle.

Not quite sure what BMC is doing by designating Evans as the "leader" when it's clear that TVG is better than Evans now.
 
I hate to say this, but I miss the days of heavy doping. Morals and ethics aside, those guys made for some exciting racing. Watching Pantani in his prime, Lance in his, and Contador in his was just plain a thrill. Seeing those guys riding up a grade at race pace that I could barely crawl up in my best days (which these days certainly are not) and then just stand up and accelerate and drop everyone else and ride away from the race was an amazing thing to watch. Watching a clean rider like Cadel grunt his way through it a couple of years ago was a tremendous thrill and inspirational as hell, but really short on thrills and excitement. Watching Contador get up and just EXPLODE was something else altogether. And they need dope to ride like that. Its unpopular to say and wrong on so many levels, but as a fan, I have to be honest - that was the stuff. And its not like the sport has ever really been clean - its just too hard to complete those three week stage races clean. Froome, on his best days last year, didn't look clean to me. Bradley did, but he won the race, so I have my doubts...

-Ray
 
I hate to say this, but I miss the days of heavy doping. Morals and ethics aside, those guys made for some exciting racing. Watching Pantani in his prime, Lance in his, and Contador in his was just plain a thrill. Seeing those guys riding up a grade at race pace that I could barely crawl up in my best days (which these days certainly are not) and then just stand up and accelerate and drop everyone else and ride away from the race was an amazing thing to watch. Watching a clean rider like Cadel grunt his way through it a couple of years ago was a tremendous thrill and inspirational as hell, but really short on thrills and excitement. Watching Contador get up and just EXPLODE was something else altogether. And they need dope to ride like that. Its unpopular to say and wrong on so many levels, but as a fan, I have to be honest - that was the stuff. And its not like the sport has ever really been clean - its just too hard to complete those three week stage races clean. Froome, on his best days last year, didn't look clean to me. Bradley did, but he won the race, so I have my doubts...

-Ray

Doping or no doping, I think the most exciting decade was the 80s. So many different winners, and drama almost every year.
 
Doping or no doping, I think the most exciting decade was the 80s. So many different winners, and drama almost every year.

I was kind of partial to Eddy in the '70s, but he was so dominant (in every type of race, not just the grand tours) that I guess I'd have to go along with the '80s. But I wasn't following that closely and there wasn't any TV coverage in the States (a highlight show when Lemond was doing well) so it wasn't as alive to me as later, when we started getting some coverage, and then the Lance era, when we got a TON...

-Ray
 
I was kind of partial to Eddy in the '70s, but he was so dominant (in every type of race, not just the grand tours) that I guess I'd have to go along with the '80s. But I wasn't following that closely and there wasn't any TV coverage in the States (a highlight show when Lemond was doing well) so it wasn't as alive to me as later, when we started getting some coverage, and then the Lance era, when we got a TON...

-Ray

Yes, Eddy was dominant and before my time. In the 80s, I'd look for the 2 column inches and results in the New York Times. That was the only place to get it outside of Velonews.

In the early 90s, I actually sent away for software for France's Minitel service. I installed it on my office Mac IIx and would use the 2400 baud modem to dial in for updates. The whole service was in French of course, which made navigation a bit difficult.

Good times.
 
I hate to say this, but I miss the days of heavy doping. Morals and ethics aside, those guys made for some exciting racing. Watching Pantani in his prime, Lance in his, and Contador in his was just plain a thrill. Seeing those guys riding up a grade at race pace that I could barely crawl up in my best days (which these days certainly are not) and then just stand up and accelerate and drop everyone else and ride away from the race was an amazing thing to watch. Watching a clean rider like Cadel grunt his way through it a couple of years ago was a tremendous thrill and inspirational as hell, but really short on thrills and excitement. Watching Contador get up and just EXPLODE was something else altogether. And they need dope to ride like that. Its unpopular to say and wrong on so many levels, but as a fan, I have to be honest - that was the stuff. And its not like the sport has ever really been clean - its just too hard to complete those three week stage races clean. Froome, on his best days last year, didn't look clean to me. Bradley did, but he won the race, so I have my doubts...

-Ray

I feel the same way. VDB's attack on the Cote de St Nicolas is LBL for example - totally inhuman and disgusting from a sporting standpoint, but amazingly entertaining to watch. In contrast, last year's Tour was practically unwatchable. This year's Giro was entertaining (in my opinion its always the most exciting Grand Tour of the year), but watching Danilo Diluca surge away on climbs he has no business attacking on after being out of the sport as he had been sent up a huge red flag. Similarly, his teammate Mauro Santambrogio just today got popped for EPO. The doping is still there, there's just a bit less of it. You see a guy have a standout season and then have no results the next and you have to wonder. Look at Gilbert between last year and this year...

I think the Wiggins knee issue that's keeping him from riding the Tour is a load of bunk. Yes he may have a knee issue but the real issue is that he doesn't want to ride in support of Froome at the Tour seeing as he dropped out of the Giro and that would all but leave his season without any significant success. If he sits out the Tour he can go into the Vuelta well rested and attempt to salvage something.

As an aside, its very interesting to me how many people on SC, m43 and the other Amin sites are into cycling - both riding and following the competitive side of the sport (road and cyclocross). Its a pretty niche sport compared to the more mainstream stuff, but there seems to be a disproportionate amount gravitation to it from those who also count photography as a hobby.
 
I hate to say this, but I miss the days of heavy doping. Morals and ethics aside, those guys made for some exciting racing. Watching Pantani in his prime, Lance in his, and Contador in his was just plain a thrill. Seeing those guys riding up a grade at race pace that I could barely crawl up in my best days (which these days certainly are not) and then just stand up and accelerate and drop everyone else and ride away from the race was an amazing thing to watch. Watching a clean rider like Cadel grunt his way through it a couple of years ago was a tremendous thrill and inspirational as hell, but really short on thrills and excitement. Watching Contador get up and just EXPLODE was something else altogether. And they need dope to ride like that. Its unpopular to say and wrong on so many levels, but as a fan, I have to be honest - that was the stuff. And its not like the sport has ever really been clean - its just too hard to complete those three week stage races clean. Froome, on his best days last year, didn't look clean to me. Bradley did, but he won the race, so I have my doubts...

-Ray

I have similar thoughts. Obviously it is bad for you, but makes for some fun contests.
 
I am uncomfortable at the implied accusation that Wiggo must have been on something just because he won. What a sad and cynical state of affairs for a sport to find itself in.

Sent from another Galaxy
 
I think we can rest easy that SBW rode clean.
He is, after all, an Englishman, and it seems to me it's just Johnny Foreigner who plays a dirty game.
 
I think we can rest easy that SBW rode clean.
He is, after all, an Englishman, and it seems to me it's just Johnny Foreigner who plays a dirty game.

Absolutely right! No history of any Brit famously dying on the lower slopes of the Ventoux from amphetamines and heat - THAT never happened....

-Ray
 
I am uncomfortable at the implied accusation that Wiggo must have been on something just because he won. What a sad and cynical state of affairs for a sport to find itself in.

Sent from another Galaxy
Sad and cynical perhaps, but until the whole sport is clean and riders aren't getting busted for EPO use, I won't believe a grand tour winner was clean. Those blood boosting drugs (and, you know, blood itself) are too effective for a clean rider to beat a rider with all of that hematocrit over a three week torture test. I don't know how Cadel could have done it but I've known a few people who are pretty connected with the upper end of the sport and he's the only winning rider in the past 20+ years that they all seem to actually believe rode clean. May be the greatest feat in modern sport....

-Ray
 
Ray, with all due respect, I think sometimes you need to engage your sense of humour a bit when responding to some posts
 
+1 and please, again with all due respect, note that "Brit" is a term originally used as a high insult in Northern Ireland during the Troubles. In many quarters on this side of the pond it is still taken as such.

Sent from another Galaxy
 
On reflection, I am going to close this thread now before it goes any further. I regret that it has deviated far from the original light-hearted intent.
 
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