Froome down

Greg Lemond, the only non doper in the peloton and he beat them all. See kids the drugs don’t work :wink:

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I think Armstrong is the only Anglophone to ever dope…

isn’t he?

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Pretty certain he won it seven times and was later stripped of them, as ASO and UCI back pedalled (sic?) massively when they realised they’d shot them self in the foot

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Exactly, he has no TdF titles, he has some old bike jerseys in framesbut that’s not the same thing. Good job the UCI replaced the crook that was running the show then with someone with no conflicts of interest.

ETA: :wink: (just for bants)

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he’s just a full pro kit wanker these days :rofl: proper Fred .

Did I ever tell the story of the 2013 Midnightman. Biblical rain all night and I rode a few laps with a yank. Flown over just for the event. Had a Discovert Channel Yellow Jersey on, but without a hint of irony he said he thought he’d buy it because it was bright. I’m the guy that wears a USPS cycling cap so was disappointed he didnt do it for the giggles.

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:rofl::rofl:

In 2005 a mate and I did the Poladot Challenge. There was a guy head to toe in USPS including the Trek Madone. At the feed stop his old man drove up and gave him a USPS musette with his food in.

Although, we were total choppers too. Our first sportive, first ride of 100 miles. Our 2nd being the Etape :crazy_face::hot_face::hot_face::hot_face:

Edit: it was 2005

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I cycled up the col du Galibier in 2005. I wasn’t really a “cyclist” back then and I did it on a mountain bike… at the top, a huge camper van drove up and parked about 200m from the col. Out got a group of MAMILs, some wearing yellow jerseys. They took their bikes out of the camper van. The video guy walked to the summit with his camcorder. And filmed the MAMILs as they summited the mighty Galibier. Whooooooo! I think I spoiled their video as I laboured up after hours and hours on the rented MTB, wearing trainers, carrying a rucksack on my back and wearing a running top…
then they all got back in their huge van and drove off. Maybe to the summit of Alpe d’Huez…?!

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I ran up Ad’H when we were there in 2011. There was a chap on a Bianchi in full Bianchi kit cycling up with his family getting out their car to cheer him at every corner. We had an epic slow motion race, but I overhauled him over the last 6 bends. Loved waving at his family.

Mistakenly I’d ran up on a Sunday when the buses weren’t operating & had to run down.

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:sweat_smile:

He crashed winding up to win a grand tour, just after he’d won a grand tour.

Surely that is during his winning years?

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Hi last win was the Giro in 2018 and he crashed in the Dauphine in 2019.

The Giro win was an outstanding result, helped by Yates’ totoal meltdown, but he struggled for form in the 2018 Tour.

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I’m not surprised he struggled for form after the monumental effort it took to win the Giro.

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was that the year of the 50 mile solo break?

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Yep, but from memory he made most of his time gap on Dumoulin on the big descent and the field was in pieces by the time he attacked, so no bunch to hold off.

The race was in bit when he attacked because of the frenetic pace they were riding at to set him up. Then he buried himself solo for 80 and then still has 2 days of constant attacks to cover.

He had crashed 2-3 times in the first week too.

I’m not sure any ‘but’ can devalue how hard that Giro was, especially the last few days.

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I think George Bennett summed it up best for me.

No, agreed. The bit about making the time on the descent was more a counter to the “not normal” accusations made in some areas about the long solo break. Sky had recce’d the descent, so he had some familiarity with it. It’s more believable that he took the time on the descent and held onto it on the other sections, rather than a Landis style attack where he rode away from everyone and just kept increasing his gap to the finish.

The Giro/Tour double is an incredible feat, which is why it’s so rare these days.

Ah ok. Yes, also the others had the issue of one of the riders on the front descending like an old lady which lost them time. I think it was Dumoulin himself who just wasn’t taking any risks.
He put an extra 90 seconds or so into them on that first descent.

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Well, last Giro/Tour double was Pantani in '98; before that Indurain in both 92 & 93. Make of that what you will!

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As I remember, the huge tactical advantage Froome had on that stage was nutrition. Froome/Sky had planned the attack & had helpers at pre determined places on route to hand out to Froome the required drink/food. The chasers were in a break & had no support from their team & never imagined it would be required from the course.