Cycling 2014

[Mr A]

Brammeier 4th in Tour of China. http://www.cyclingnews.com/races/tou...tage-6/results Should hold on to that as there are no more mountains.

Hopefully he continues his good form into the Tour of China II next week.

[Mr A]

Tour of Britain starting this weekend. Piece on it and Roche here: http://www.irishtimes.com/sport/othe...tain-1.1918232

He has signed a deal for next season but we still await an announcement. The team he'll have backing him in Britain does not look overly strong. http://www.tinkoffsaxo.com/races/tour-britain/

[Mr A]

Super stuff from Martin to move up several places despite a major crash (piece starts with previous stage): http://www.irishtimes.com/sport/othe...1921036?page=1

Disappointing for Bennett as the first sprint at the Tour of Britain didn't really happen for him: http://www.netapp-endura.com/en/news...ur-of-britain/

[Mr A]

3rd for Bennett today behind Renshaw and Swift. Another good day for the Sean Kelly Team as Mark McNally retains the Mountains Jersey.

Another gutsy ride by Martin sees him move up to 6th. Rest day tomorrow.

[Dodge]

Irish team for Worlds. Martin, Roche and Deignan in the elite race. Bennett is reserve. Strong team

http://www.cyclingireland.ie/cycling...mpionships/357

[Mr A]

As well as Deignan in the Indo and Martin in the Times doing Vuelta diaries, Bennett is now doing a daily piece for Sticky Bottle. http://www.stickybottle.com/blogs/sa...a-dope-tester/

[Mr A]

Purito punched Deignan, what a ballbag. http://www.independent.ie/sport/othe...-30571873.html

[Mr A]

3rd for Roche today on the big mountain finish. Should have a shout of a decent overall result now. Only saw twitter but at one stage it looked like he had the stage.

[Acornvilla]

Watch a few of the bigger races and stages throughout the year, especially keep an eye out for the Irish lads, but I wouldn't have an in depth knowledge or interest in Cycling. However, one of my housemates is mad into it, is trying to cycle competitively a bit around the country, asked me to make a poster of someone he's a fan of. Might I post it up here, and you lot can take a guess at who it is. Let me know if I'm on the right track :P

Contador.jpg

[Real ale Madrid]

That looks like good old "AC" himself - Alberto Contador or "Accidental Clenbuterol" depending who you are taking to. Tell your mate he needs a new hero!

[Acornvilla]

That looks like good old "AC" himself - Alberto Contador or "Accidental Clenbuterol" depending who you are taking to. Tell your mate he needs a new hero!

Hah, I actually said something along similar lines, to him when he made the request.

[Macy]

That looks like good old "AC" himself - Alberto Contador or "Accidental Clenbuterol" depending who you are taking to. Tell your mate he needs a new hero!

He's a great racer. Better than someone just staring at their stem/ power meter all climb, or the wheel suckers that make up the rest of the top 4 of the current Vuelta.

[Real ale Madrid]

He's a great racer.

He's a drug cheat. He is NOTHING great.

[Dodge]

He's a drug cheat. He is NOTHING great.

You can be both. You can't honestly say Contador is purely a result of doping.

[Stuttgart88]

He's a drug cheat. He is NOTHING great.

Given the recent Ryder Hesjedal conspiracy theories I love this comment from Contador yesterday:

"Thursday's stage is completely different and we have to get the motor running at top speed again"


http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/cycling/29150370

[Real ale Madrid]

You can be both. You can't honestly say Contador is purely a result of doping.

Thats the point really - you can't say anything with any degree of certainty. How good a bike rider is Contador - haven't a clue - how good was Lance Armstrong ? How good was Riis ? Basso ? - we don't know or will ever know how good these guys really are.

[Macy]

Saying he is a great racer isn't the same as saying he's not a drug cheat. He could be a drug cheat, and a boring wheel sucking racer like Valverde! Froome is clean as far as we know - he's a rubbish racer with his boring power meter based timetrials up mountains.

[Real ale Madrid]

Saying he is a great racer isn't the same as saying he's not a drug cheat. He could be a drug cheat

But sure if he wasn't a drug cheat - then how would you know if he was a great racer or not. Would you be following him at the back of the peloton or at secondary races ?

Froome is clean as far as we know -

Oh wow - going to have to leave that one for another day!

[Macy]

But sure if he wasn't a drug cheat - then how would you know if he was a great racer or not. Would you be following him at the back of the peloton or at secondary races ?

We don't. But to a degree, unless it's completely outlandish (which nothing from Contador has been since his ban), you have to take it at facevalue to some degree. Otherwise there's no point watching it at all.

Oh wow - going to have to leave that one for another day!

Not sure what angle you're going with, but if you look back at other threads/ discussions, it's pretty clear I am a Froome sceptic.

[Real ale Madrid]

Otherwise there's no point watching it at all.

For me - cycling has turned very depressing the last year or two - and now with Irish cyclists all riding with teams connected to doping or past dopers - I'm finding it very difficult to watch at all to be honest - I wouldn't respond to comments on cycling normally but the assertion that AC is anything "great" is not right I think - just a personal opinion.

Not sure what angle you're going with, but if you look back at other threads/ discussions, it's pretty clear I am a Froome sceptic.

Fair enough - I didn't realise. Maybe the phrase is "Froome is clean - as far as we can prove".