Giro d' Italia 2015

[Bianchisti]

'Berto tapering for double, I reckon.

Quite brilliant

Build a buffer of sizable margin

Then stay out of the deep red for several days until Milan

And controls the maglia rosa

He'll be exhausted

Had zero support in critical moments of the entire Giro

What a master!

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Yeah true. Agreed. Worked hard early days for that buffer. And in the end looked very comfy in his riding style.

 

Okay bye.

[HappyMartin]

Very exciting stuff. Thank goodness there is five weeks until the Tour. I'm exhausted!!!

 

Enjoy your evening everyone. I'm off to watch the Lions game. Live rugby is great. You get to eat borewors rolls.

[Mntboy]

Bout the only decent thing they've done.

 

Listen I reckon.. astana car pulled Landa back as it wad starting to look too suspicious. .

 

Both him and Aru looked just perky at the line..

 

As soon as wada figure out what and how they are doping Ryder will have a couple extra career wins.

If it's blood bags the UCI & Wada might not catch them via a test. Epo even with micro dosing should be traceable (I hope) if tested soon enough after having been taken but I wonder if these guys aren't on something similar that don't yet have a test. But imho they are very definitely using a doping system of some kind. It's all a little too convenient in my books.

[Patchelicious]

Look here, that Aru come back looks very suspicious!

 

Struggling like hell, being dished hidings then bang!!

 

Textbook BB case.

 

As much as I want to believe we are in a better era, this Astana things is just dodgy!

 

This coupled with their steam train all Giro, recent bans, suspect and previously sanctioned team members....

 

Well done to Clenbutador though, he rode well, gained some admiration for him in this race!

 

Will be good to see him vs the other big names at Tour!

[Mntboy]

Is Aru riding a lot better the last few days or are the others bit stuffed? Would love me some of the breakfast he had in the last week

For that you need a doctor, a needle, an iv tube and an iv bag. Take out some blood. Store it somewhere cold. When you need it during a GT re-infuse just before the queen stage and bang! You can ride like Aru just did the past two days.

 

Sorry Jaco but Lance & co pulled off similar and we all know it was because of blood bags, epo and a whole host other drugs. Aru's performances the last two days are highly suspect.

[Mntboy]

Will be cool of Hasjedal gets a stage win

He, I think & hope, can be trusted to be clean along with most of his Garmin Cannondale team.

[GrumpyOldGuy]

Bravo 'Berto Bravo - exhausted but triumphant.!

 

Hesjedal - Great come back, well deserved!

 

Landa and Aru - well, to coin a phrase from the great Gilberto Simoni - Extraterrestrial.!  

[CAAD4]

The question is, can Contador sustain the multiple relentless attacks that will come again in Le Tour, without the support of his team? Some of his other rivals that might not have been present, are sure to sacrifice some team members to punish him. He rode very smartly all on his own this time. Should be an interesting Tour?

['Dale]

I'm a 'Berto fan hey

But the maillot jaune will be on Quintana's shoulders in Paris, I reckon

[HappyMartin]

Well let's see how AC goes with the likes of Sagan in his team. He will have a better team at the Tour I reckon. He was up against it on his own against the most dodgy team we have seen in years and he still won.

 

I think the Tour is a bit much but I wouldn't write him off just yet. Perhaps I'm just hopeful.

 

I'm also not a fan of Quintana. I think he is a total prima Donna. I'm not doubting his ability at all and his prep for the tour by riding some of the cobbled classics was very impressive. Still not my favorite. And he can't TT though I bet he has been working on it.

 

Anyway AC is now the reigning Vuelta champ and Giro champ. Not too shabby

[Patchelicious]

Let's be honest.

 

He was the only REAL GC guy at Giro. The Tour will be much tougher for him, more teams, more cometition and more attacks!

 

Clenbutador, Froome, Nibali, Quintanna.... Now that is a toughy.

[Gen]

We'll have to see who lines up in the tinkoff kit come TDF time.. I do believe he will def have a stronger team with him.

 

As for the opposition. . I honestly believe he only has to worry about quintanna and froome. The stage those 3 have to worry about Nibs is the cobble stage.

[Winstonian1984]

We'll have to see who lines up in the tinkoff kit come TDF time.. I do believe he will def have a stronger team with him.

 

As for the opposition. . I honestly believe he only has to worry about quintanna and froome. The stage those 3 have to worry about Nibs is the cobble stage.

With a 13.8km ITT on day 1 and a 28km TTT on day 9, seems like the columbians paid a bride to Le tour organisers to set this route up for quintana LOL...Whether AC wins or not, at least it will always be entertaining.

[Jay_B]

I'm glad to see I'm not the only one who finds Aru's comeback the last 2 stages is as dodgey as at it gets after watching him rock and roll off the back of any small incline during the week

[tombeej]

If it's blood bags the UCI & Wada might not catch them via a test. Epo even with micro dosing should be traceable (I hope) if tested soon enough after having been taken but I wonder if these guys aren't on something similar that don't yet have a test. But imho they are very definitely using a doping system of some kind. It's all a little too convenient in my books.

 

I've posted about this already on this thread, but to recap:

 

It has been proven already that you can easily micro-dose on EPO and never test positive. And not only that, but the biological passport is also easily fooled. Which effectively means that the anti-doping authorities have no answer for this. A whole team can be micro-dosing and no-one will be able to catch them.

 

Besides that:

 

Apart from the xenon gas claims about the Russian Olympic teams, which they all took to dominate the medals table in the 2014 Winter Olympics, these are the new drugs in professional endurance sports, which are also now showing up in pro cycling:

 

AICAR, GW50516, TP500 and GAS6.

 

The are the new age drugs being used across the board in endurance sports and there are currently no known methods to detect them. Please read my post on this subject, which is a section from Christophe Basson's autobiography. It helps to explain what these drugs do. Like I've said before, EPO is old-school, and BB's are even older.

 

We're in a new era, and the anti-doping testers are faaar behind.

 

 

[Please click on the links above - they are worth reading]

[tombeej]

Besides the endless comments on twitter, etc., there are pro riders who are dropping serious hints as to what they think of Astana's performance over the past 3 weeks. They're not allowed to say it out loud, otherwise they'll get sued, so they're only able to drop hints. Here are just 3....

 

There were moments when I went mano a mano with the Astana riders but you have to understand that the Astana team was at a superior level to everyone else. When we were in a group of 10 riders, 5 were from Astana, in a group of 8, there were 4 of them.

Alberto Contador

 

“Aru and Astana, they’re unreal, riding all day like that.”

Ryder Hesjedal

 

“After the descent to the Campiglio, Astana began to push hard in the front. It was predictable. "The pace was hard but then with 10km from the finish, Tanel Kangert started pulling a murderous pace and behind me, a lot of riders dropped off.”

Steven Kruijswijk

 

These next ones are not my words (pulled from a road.cc thread on the same topic), but sums up exactly what I’m thinking too:

 

Do you think Greg Henderson just decided one day to tweet about Aru, or is it more likely to be something commonly discussed and acknowledged in the peloton and he just let it slip at the wrong time?

 

The riders themselves have a pretty damn good idea of who is clean and who is juiced, and they pass that on to the journalists in off-the-record ways.

 

That filters through into a code if you look hard enough, between the lines.

 

Adjectives like unbelievable, incredible, extra-terrestrial, superhuman in describing strength or team performance are the journo ways of telling us that doping is going on without explicitly saying it.