Pro Cycling Live - will contain spoilers

Does it also start to fall into the old category “they were all doing it, so it’s ok”.

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I thought everyone was pointing the finger?

Pog’s performance looks too good to be true :man_shrugging:

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Ive had this for a year plus in boxing.

Three boxers have done things in the last 2-3 years that were previously thought impossible.

I know more about boxing than cycling and I’m pretty convinced that boxing / MMA has a MUCH bigger peds problem than Cycling at the moment.

Al three are more frequently tested now… nothing.

If pog has been leasing grand yours for 30 days this year is he not tested daily ?
He’s either clean

Or

He’s using stuff that they can’t detect/ masking/ micro dosing.

Innocent untill proven guilty as they say.
He could just be an exceptional athlete at the peak of his powers in a brilliant team with all the best nutrition, tech, coaching etc.

Any evidence to suggest he’s cheating ?

He went on record after two of the stages saying “ these are the best numbers I’ve ever produced “

How fit is fully fit ?

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Absolutely zero.
Not so much as a Jiffy bag being sent.
Or a laptop going missing.

It smacks of xenophobia to me.
We were all happy to watch a 100kg Wiggins get to 64kg and win a Tour with no questions asked at all.

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Re. CO - Escape Collective had zero evidence that any teams were using it for performance enhancement, it was all pretty click bait and sensationalist. From their own piece “And there is no hard evidence that any WorldTeams are currently using CO inhalation for performance gains.”

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Xenophobia? The vast majority of Pro cyclists are foreign. Given people also voiced suspicions at Froome, particularly after jiffy-gate, and Wiggins also falls into that category after the fact. It took Wiggins 4 seasons to go from Gold Medallist track cyclist and Grand Tour also-ran to 1x TdF winner; he then faded away somewhat. He was no Pogacar.

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I thought UAE themselves had confirmed that they were using CO?

When contrasting progression, it’s worth remembering too that it took 26 years for someone to break Boardman’s Hour Record, and not by a large amount. Unification of the UCI Record seems to be the closing of the circle, where a comparable athlete using gradual ‘conventional’ technology improvements finally eclipsed the mark.

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As part of a test protocol to measure the effectiveness of altitude training. It is an accepted test methodology to understand haemoglobin levels.

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Wiggins was apparently ~82kg at Beijing, not 100.

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I have to say, the biggest and most obvious example of “outside assistance” on this tdf was not Pog, it was Cavendish winning…

But yes, I was certainly considering wiggins etc. as dopers - although I do think they were probably fortunate enough to be in a phase where overall doping was lower.

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Some people have there head right in the sand
Because it happened before doesn’t mean it’s happening now.
At least we might have a big scrap if we were all in the same room together … that would be brill !!

Appears I’ve got that muddled up with his rowing “career” :see_no_evil:

He was looking much larger than 82kg between Athens and Beijing like :woman_shrugging:t2:

Just get a TUE for hay fever. Some nice triamcilone (?) injections, lovely weight loss and power gain is a completely unexpected side effect.

Same for Froome.
But G’s deffo clean. Right?

RE: Xenophobia - there’s foreign and “nah, they’re not foreign, as look at their skin and English language”

Contador - drugs!
Cuddles? Nah. Look at him, with the lion. And his little squeaky voice. He wouldn’t. He couldn’t.
Nibbles? He’s on Astana. So deffo on drugs.
Sky/Ineos era - Bernal gets a pass by association of riding for a team under the union flag. Right? Surely?
Vingegaard? Where’s he come from? A fishmongers, with that TT ability? DRUGS!
Pogacar? Slovenian. Hides a lot. DRUGS!

That’s what it all sounds like to me.

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I believe he was 88, maybe even 90 for the hour/rio games.

Hes certainly 100+ now :grimacing:

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It’s also worth remembering that record was set using a position that was banned a few months later. And the record was actually broken in 2005.
Next to nobody attempted it, as it was thought to be unbeatable - as the banned position was too fast.

Roll onto 2014, with a rule change, and loads of people attempted it. But they were generally at the ends of their careers, or unattached.

So it stayed until Ganna finally passed it.

But you’re illustrating my point with this record;
Just how much of an impact position and equipment has.

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Wondering how Sky have achieved their dominance, and complaining about their hiring of staff heavily involved in doping is perfectly legitimate, Sky need to sort out their defence and proof rather than just getting fan boys to say “it’s not fair he must clean”.

I see you’re still doing the fanboy assertion that they’re clean.

But you’re deliberately ignoring the fact people have cast doubt over UK Postal…

Are you posting for Joe?

The 2005 Hour Record was the ‘standard Merckx bike’ record.

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@jorgan and @JibberJim - No. I’m not.
That post is tongue in cheek.
The credibility of Sky/Ineos went a long time ago.
Wiggins and Froome are tainted, ergo, G and Bernal are, too.

To say Cuddles and Nibbles aren’t, when everyone around them is, would also be churlish, right?

So what now?
Pogacar being clean …

… Vingegaard being clean.

Yeah. Until something says otherwise. And is the otherwise /gasps/ is that cycling is (dare I say it!) clean :scream:

In the past, the best just took a little of bit of juice to boost their performance enough for the win but without getting caught. And the rest of the pack were high as a kite, not caring if they got caught. As what’s a domestique gonna get? Not a multi-million dollar lawsuit, that’s fo sho.

Now, everyone’s clean, so the pack are all a bit shitter, and the cream has risen to the top and looks better than the rest.

But they’ve eclipsed doping times!
Yeah, because having four hours (broken) sleep per night, keeping your blood flowing sounds like a great way to be in top shape for a grand tour. :roll_eyes:

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Looks too good to be true without even considering that he’s just won the Giro by miles as well.

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