Quite amusing catching up on this thread with almost a whole page about how Pogacar is ridiculous and must be doping, and then on a crucial stage he drops almost 3 minutes and now likely won't win the TdF.
So do we think maybe he isn't actually doping or do we think Vingegaard is doping too?
I do think he was doping in the last two tdf’s, whether he still is or not, we will see or not. Froome is probably the only rider in the recent era that Pod could be compared to in terms of repeated Grand Tour success. Froome always looked to me that he would pay for big efforts the day after, but had a good team to help minimise any losses. It also helped that he was a better TTr than most of his main rivals at the time.
I still wouldn’t be surprised to hear over the coming days Pogacar testing positive for covid. Whatever his bad day has made for a much more interesting race.
Never trust a Strava segment. That segment leaves out the final turn and finish. But looking at Pinot's time from 2015, it would seem Kuss and Bardet did around the low 39 minutes. So Pog, Ving and Thomas must have gone faster. I suppose it was raced by Jumbo, whereas previous recent years have been smaller groups or as in 2018 they watched each other. Still those are fast times.
Rafal Majka suffered a muscle tear after his chain snapped on Stage 16. Mauro Gianetti, UAE Team Emirates' team principal, confirmed to Eurosport that the Polish rider would be unable to start Stage 17 in Saint-Gaudens in another blow to Tadej Pogacar's hopes of snatching back the yellow jersey from Jonas Vingegaard.
It continues a disastrous tour for the team, who also lost Marc Soler yesterday after the Spanish rider finished outside of the stage time limit after appearing to be suffering from heat stroke.
Your previous posts were tin foil hattery of the highest order. There's nothing to suggest the sport was anything other than (in the vast majority) clean after the Armstrong era and subsequent busts. The mere fact four world class cyclists have sprung up from the same tiny country out of absolutely nowhere in the past five years is what sets alarm bells ringing - along with the ridiculous manner in which Pogacar was dominant in the two previous tours.
The stage average times and times up climbs with comparable conditions and at comparable points in a stage simply don't point to anything like the nuclear levels of Edgar and blood bags on display in the nineties and noughties.
You seem to have an odd, overwhelming obsession with Sky having been 'cheats', but the simple fact is - apart from financial doping (being able to buy four potential grand tour winners to ride for Froome in the mountains), there's nothing to suggest Sky had a team sanctioned doping programme going on. The statistics don't back that up.
Is Pogacar on the gear? Yes. Are other individual riders doping? Yes. Is it at anything like the level it was in the nineties and noughties? Obviously not.
You want to see a sport where doping is absolutely rife, yet the governing bodies are complicit in ensuring everyone looks the other way? Try football.
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I still wouldn’t be surprised to hear over the coming days Pogacar testing positive for covid. Whatever his bad day has made for a much more interesting race.
Almost reminded me of this sprint from Cavendish a few years ago, which really highlights the power Sprinters have.
https://twitter.com/treksegafredo/status/1548654028225142791?s=24
Rafal Majka suffered a muscle tear after his chain snapped on Stage 16. Mauro Gianetti, UAE Team Emirates' team principal, confirmed to Eurosport that the Polish rider would be unable to start Stage 17 in Saint-Gaudens in another blow to Tadej Pogacar's hopes of snatching back the yellow jersey from Jonas Vingegaard.
Sky cheated, the whole of British cycling cheated. If they actually broke the rules is a different question.
Pogacar is cheating and he isn't winning. Categorically he is cheating. So so must be those that are beating him
Thomas is the best of the rest, with a world class team around him. Yates is getting drop every time. Are they now "clean"?
The stage average times and times up climbs with comparable conditions and at comparable points in a stage simply don't point to anything like the nuclear levels of Edgar and blood bags on display in the nineties and noughties.
You seem to have an odd, overwhelming obsession with Sky having been 'cheats', but the simple fact is - apart from financial doping (being able to buy four potential grand tour winners to ride for Froome in the mountains), there's nothing to suggest Sky had a team sanctioned doping programme going on. The statistics don't back that up.
Is Pogacar on the gear? Yes. Are other individual riders doping? Yes. Is it at anything like the level it was in the nineties and noughties? Obviously not.
You want to see a sport where doping is absolutely rife, yet the governing bodies are complicit in ensuring everyone looks the other way? Try football.
Calm down.