Tour de France 2021

[kosmonooit]

Great stage yesterday, love those mountains!

Also very happy to see Seb taking it, sure he can blow hot and cold, but when he has got the legs, its fantastic to see, like the first time at that Tour of Utah mountain stage when he made his name.

 

[Jewbacca]

2 minutes ago, kosmonooit said:

Great stage yesterday, love those mountains!

Also very happy to see Seb taking it, sure he can blow hot and cold, but when he has got the legs, its fantastic to see, like the first time at that Tour of Utah mountain stage when he made his name.

 

Seb? Obviously his name wasn't made properly on that stage....... ????

[TNT1]

4 minutes ago, kosmonooit said:

Great stage yesterday, love those mountains!

Also very happy to see Seb taking it, sure he can blow hot and cold, but when he has got the legs, its fantastic to see, like the first time at that Tour of Utah mountain stage when he made his name.

 

Which one is Seb? I thought Sepp won yesterday.

 

Also, not fair to say he "blows hot and cold" He's probably the most consistent mountain domestique in the peleton.

Edited July 12, 2021 by TNT1

[Mountain Bru]

10 minutes ago, TNT1 said:

Oh, I have the same doubts about how fantastic Bahrain Victorious suddenly are. 

 

Also, is it ok to question the geographic oddity that is Slovenia? It's like East Germany or something?

 

BTW, I enjoy the racing. I'm Lance's biggest fan. 7 TdF wins. I even named my son after him.

Lets pretend that Pogacar is 100% clean for a moment...
Imagine how crap it must be to never be able to prove it and for every performance to be ruthlessly scrutinized. It's impossible to prove a negative. So you kind of know that every time you put in a big performance, you're gonna get accused of being a doper, and there's nothing you can do to refute the accusations.

But if we assume that he is doping somehow in some undetectable way, flip the kid has some real guts. For a 22 year old to stand on the biggest stage of the sport and perform the way he does knowing he's a doper and will inevitably be caught in the future when the technology to test for "XYZ drug" develops is borderline insane.
 

[Mountain Bru]

6 minutes ago, Jewbacca said:

RE the idiot proof clothing...... Have you met people?

ISN got it right with Woods by taking away his zip completely. Can't screw something up if it's not there

[Jewbacca]

Okes, drug doping is so last decade. 

These guys have been spliced with regenerative lizard genes, camel hydration, Dolphin Oxygen absoption etc.... They are bred to be athletes, not taken and made into athletes.

The world, genetics and science is evolving super quickly. While I jest in a way, it wouldn't surprise me one bit to find out that super athletes are being created in a lab.

[TNT1]

5 minutes ago, Mountain Bru said:

Lets pretend that Pogacar is 100% clean for a moment...

 

I'm sure he is (or he isn't, I don't really mind either way), but to literally quote Lance in press conferences is not the way to go about convincing people.

[TNT1]

Just now, Jewbacca said:

Okes, drug doping is so last decade. 

These guys have been spliced with regenerative lizard genes, camel hydration, Dolphin Oxygen absoption etc.... They are bred to be athletes, not taken and made into athletes.

The world, genetics and science is evolving super quickly. While I jest in a way, it wouldn't surprise me one bit to find out that super athletes are being created in a lab.

Nah, CRISPR is not quite at that level yet.

[Vetplant]

3 minutes ago, Jewbacca said:

Okes, drug doping is so last decade. 

These guys have been spliced with regenerative lizard genes, camel hydration, Dolphin Oxygen absoption etc.... They are bred to be athletes, not taken and made into athletes.

The world, genetics and science is evolving super quickly. While I jest in a way, it wouldn't surprise me one bit to find out that super athletes are being created in a lab.

The Chinese are probably way ahead of everyone in that field. They just have not decided that cycling is cool yet... 

(Rest days always bring out the most interesting discussions hey) 

[dsw]

Although I do not doubt Jeroen's assesssment of Pogacar's mental qualities and ability to recover it does not proof much unless it is directly compared to those of his main competitors ( top 10 in GC for example) as measured at the same time.

I will just enjoy cycling for what it is. 

 

[TNT1]

6 minutes ago, Vetplant said:

The Chinese are probably way ahead of everyone in that field. They just have not decided that cycling is cool yet... 

 

They have actually used CRISPR on some twins. The results weren't exactly as planned, so it's not 100% ready for this yet.

[Jewbacca]

5 minutes ago, Vetplant said:

The Chinese are probably way ahead of everyone in that field. They just have not decided that cycling is cool yet... 

(Rest days always bring out the most interesting discussions hey) 

The russians.... They proved that national level systematic doping exists.

The Chinese forced the Gymnastic world into creating a minimum age rule as they were turning prepubescent children into super gymnasts as their bodies are easier to manipulate and predict before hormones. 

Humans and winning... The extent of this obsession will never truly be know by us plebs

[Mountain Bru]

4 minutes ago, dsw said:

Although I do not doubt Jeroen's assesssment of Pogacar's mental qualities and ability to recover it does not proof much unless it is directly compared to those of his main competitors ( top 10 in GC for example) as measured at the same time.

I will just enjoy cycling for what it is. 

 

Might as well compare him to the local kindergarten this year. The top 10 on GC aren't exactly the sports top 10 grand tour riders. 

[Mountain Bru]

Just now, Jewbacca said:

Humans and winning... The extent of this obsession will never truly be know by us plebs

Have you not seen people sprinting like they're in Paris for position 3876 in the CTCT or 947? 

[kosmonooit]

19 minutes ago, TNT1 said:

Which one is Seb? I thought Sepp won yesterday.

 

Also, not fair to say he "blows hot and cold" He's probably the most consistent mountain domestique in the peleton.

Aagh ffs, whats in a name.. Seb, Sep, Seep, Suip. Names are not my strong point.

There was great expectations from him once he joined the world tour coming to the Giro I think after that ToU victory, just didn't feature at all. I guess that the way it goes, the weight of expectations perhaps a bit heavy for his young shoulders. But he has been a great team mate for Rodg, and he did take that stage at the Vuelta in a spectacular way. I'm fan for sure.

 

 

 

 

[Jewbacca]

2 minutes ago, Mountain Bru said:

Might as well compare him to the local kindergarten this year. The top 10 on GC aren't exactly the sports top 10 grand tour riders. 

Besides Bernal, who do you think was missing from the start line that constitutes the current 'top 10'?

I'm interested as I don't actually think the current cycling superstars are GC oriented. The 'current' big names are mostly classics and monuments riders.

I prefer the spring racing and I love how the style has overflowed into how the guys are racing GT's. Bike racing is infinitely more exciting these days and it is thanks to the shift in focus of the 'new' big names and how they just don't care for the traditional status quo