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Cycling thread/ tour de france


salzy
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Cadel is the obvious prediction for yellow, rode well the other week in the criterium and is in top form, is in a far stronger team than he ever has been, and doesn't have the competion he has had in previous tours.

Edited by malloy
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Won't be the same withough Andy Schleck. Feel sorry for him tbh. Really think he would have taken it up to cadel the whole race. Especially in the mountains.

can never see either of the schlecks winning tbh, unless cadel was involved in a big crash like he has been in the past. Cadel will always have them covered in the time trial.

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can never see either of the schlecks winning tbh

????

I have No idea what you're talking about tbh. My man Andy is a proven winner.

2009- As a junior finished 2nd over all to Contador high as a fucken kite. Won his 2nd Maillot Blanc by country mile.

2010- Finished 2nd to a drugged up Contador by just over a minute and almost got him in the mountains until his chain snapped on the Col de Tourmalet. Was re-classified as winner after Contador's doping charge was upheld.

2011- Lost gallantly to a better Cadel by just over a minute again.

Without a cheating Contador we would be talking about a dual Grand Tour winner, the best young rider of the 2000's and a prospective champion of cycyling.

Andy has

Edited by Braveheart
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in saying I dont think either of the schlecks would will ever win, i meant to say when Cadel is riding. sorry if you didnt see it that way, didnt make that post clear enough.

Andy is a quality rider not going to say he isnt.

just dont think he has the quality to beat Cadel, he simply cant time trial.

and if were going to put it down to what each of them has achieved, Cadel will certainly win on that front.

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Too bad sky and wiggins put everything into the Giro, would have loved to see a 3 way battle between him, cadel and schleck. Wiggins is not as good in the mountains I reckon as the other 2 but blows even cadel off the road in a TT, not to mention a crazy strong team. Both Michael Rogers and richie Porte are both riding pretty well for him.

Really pumped this year! Feeling the hype too, already registered for the 115k Kinglake Ride and Around the bay 100k. Now to start training.......

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Two horse race between Cadel and Denny Menchov imo. Cadel should be good enough to win again though especially considering how strong his team is. Frank Schleck or Wiggins could possibly challenge but I think a podium spot is all they could realistically get.

Thoughts on the Green jersey? Pretty open this year imo. Would usually think Cavendish, but I think he will be concentrating more on the Olympics and team will be more centred on Wiggins. Possibly Hushovd.

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Sky have assembled a very solid team a few good Aussies in the mix, I reckon Wiggins will take the honours. Was in great form before the crash last season.

If Cadel doesn't win I'd like to see Menchov take it out, a great rider with a Tour victory pretty much the only thing that eludes him.

Nibali is my dark horse, wins plenty of stages early, but always seems to run out of puff late in the GTs, who noes what this year holds.

I also love watching Philippe Gilbert, I hope joining BMC doesn't become a joy kill for him.

I still think Cavendish will wear green on the final day.

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Both Wiggins and Cavendesh both put everything into the Giro. Cavendish will probably lead the green jersey until half way then pull out, especially with the Olympics being in England there will be massive pressure on him there.

I forgot about menchov, mmmm, still think Gesink will be my dark horse. I hope cadel can win but tbh I think he won against probably the weakest field of riders last year that the tour has seen in the last 10 years.

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Didn't realise the Olympics was soon after le Tour.

So it's highly likely Cav will drop out. I reckon Matt Goss has a good chance as GreenEdge could potential use all it resources in him for sprint/stage wins, etc.

Yep, they've pretty much said that the team they select will be there to get Goss stage wins. Throw in a few top time trialists and they could walk away with at least a couple of stages. Luke Durbridge won the timetrial against the strongest lineup in the Dauphine earlier this month.

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It's pretty exciting to have Green Edge this season, Phil Ligget and co. have talked about the prospect of having an Aussie team for as long as I can remember.

Will be great to have a whilole team to cheer on now, rather than just a few select riders.

Edited by LR9
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Bump.

Prologue tonight.

Hard to look past Cancellara tbh, Martin is probably the only person who could beat him. Wiggins should go pretty well too, I expect him to get a few seconds on the rest of the favourites.

Any predictions?

Cadel is rightfully favourite but I'm going to go with Menchov for yellow.

Harder to pick the green tbh. Gilbert will get it early imo can't really see him holding onto it for too long but I hope he can.

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Dunno man, Voeckler and Froome too, must have gotten caught up in it all.

Chavenel almost got away but the peleton reacted, probably what caused the last crash with such a big Peleton left, so late.

Seriously barley watched any Wimbledon since this started, love it.

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Apparently Froome and Menchov both went down in the last crash. Menchov had originally been given a time of 1:18 slower and Froome around 2 mins. They have now been given the same time as Cancellara etc. as the crash was in the last 3 kms.

It's amazing how little is said about Menchov on the broadcast and on most major websites covering the tour considering that he is third favourite to win (same as Cadel was last year) and how good he is.

Voeckler was involved in an earlier incident and never recovered and finished well behind. Never thought he would be challenge for the podium this year though but thought this might be a good stage for him to try and win. Might see him in a few breakaways now he has lost some time.

Cracking tour so far. It's so open this year. Nibali has been very impressive so far, don't think he will win but could get very close and wouldn't be a huge surprise.

It will be interesting to see how Hejsedal holds up in the second and third weeks after already winning the Giro this year, he has been very impressive too, top 3 would be huge but don't think he will be able to keep this up.

Schleck, Van den Broeck, Scarponi, Basso all very good riders, probably not go enough to win the tour this year (particularly with 2 ITT's to come) but could very well be in the top 3 or 5 riders.

You still have the three favourites too.

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Fucking drug bullshit.

JUST RIDE THE FUCKING BIKES YOU CUNTS!

Agree with this but I think it's a bit early to be calling Frank Schleck a disgrace.

He was only tested positive to having taken a diuretic and claims to have been poisoned. Considering he finished 3rd last year and was in 12th this year it doesn't quite add up for me. Don't think it's a case of doping, worst case scenario, he was trying to lose a few kilo's by taking diuretics, imo.

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Don't think it's a case of doping, worst case scenario, he was trying to lose a few kilo's by taking diuretics, imo.

Losing kilos via a diuretics is also cheating as those who are not taking the pill are not able to lose as much weight at the same rate. Just as those who take steroids are gaining more muscle mass at a faster rate and those that take EPO are upping their aerobic output by increasing the number and rate at which red blood cells are created.

It's all cheating and although probably the lesser evil out of the three, rapid weight loss, in endurance sports is a huge advantage.

Btw it is now being said that he voluntarily spoke to the Police as to avoid having the team hotel room raided. Looks like Radio-Shack have some explaining to do..

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Not an expert on it all by any means, but I'm pretty sure taking diuretics isn't performance enhancing at all. Even though I said it above, I don't think using it to lose weight would be beneficial as you only lose water/sodium etc. weight so it could possibly be detrimental to performances more than anything, e.g dehydration.

The only reason he would knowingly take it is to hide any traces of performance enhancing substances.

I won't judge Frank though until after the investigation though.

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  • 1 month later...

THE US Anti-Doping Agency will ban Lance Armstrong from cycling for life and strip him of all his results since August, 1998, including his seven Tour de France titles.

http://www.news.com.au/sport/more-sport/lance-armstrong-accepts-usada-drug-charges/story-fndukor0-1226457338370

There's a joke here about cycling in more ways than one or something along those lines but cbf thinking atm.

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Key thing to read here is that the USADA doesn't have jurisdiction to do anything that they've said they're going to do.

They've got a maximum of 8 previous years to bring forth allegations, and they're attempting to charge him for things 13 years ago. As well as that, they're not using any physical evidence (A and B samples) to make the charges, they're simply going on a potentially corruptible system of former teammates' allegations without evidence.

Other anti-doping agencies have already condemned USADA for their investigation, so don't expect too much to come from this without appeals for the next two to three years.

Whether or not he took drugs is irrelevant, if you go back through history and retrospectively sanction people for using chemicals that at the time were legal, there would be no athletes. The issue here is more to do the fact that, without any evidence, he is guilty until proven innocent. Sets a very disturbing precedent for sport.

In b4 conspiracy theories, etc.

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