I couldn’t believe how embarrassing it was yesterday watching Christopher Froome ride up the final climb to the finish, taunting Bradley Wiggins the whole way. He might not of meant it to be actually be that way, but the fact was he did. I think he realizes that the whole race is on live TV. If he doesn’t, then he should. He rode more of the last 3km looking backwards, a couple bike lengths ahead of Wiggins, than looking forward. Jonathan Vaughter’s finally got something correct when he tweeted it was “humiliation”.
I kept hearing Froome talk about being okay as a domestic for Wiggins. His riding style on the climbs shows either he is not telling the truth or just that he sucks as a domestic. Either way, someone at Sky needs to sit Christopher down and give him some lessons.
One of the few times Chris was looking forward yesterday.
I don’t see Froome being on Sky next year. There is no way he would want to work for Wiggins another year when yesterday he felt good on the mountains. You only get a handful of chances to win the Tour, why be a domestic when you can be a leader.
Or Froome should take the earpiece out and race his bike. ” err Sean what should I do? I’m dropping that miserable foul mouthed boring ass TTer again”. “wait for him Froomie, or I’ll diuretic your ass out the tour”. If Sky were not so intent on Wiggins, Froome would have won 2 grand tours by now. Wiggins leads Cav out today! Froome is clearly the stronger rider by a big margin. Anyway it’s only a matter of time before these two test positive anyway. SkyPostal!!!!!
Echoes of Hinault/Lemond at the finish. This vid sums it up for me:
http://youtu.be/1oIkVNykuuE
Yeah, Froome should be a two-time GT winner as of this Sunday, but I’m not sure he’ll ever win one now.
With Contador coming back, Andy possibly managing to regain mental health, and this flood of young talent we see in the current TDF being one year older/stronger next year, he’s not going to be quite so good.
Not to mention that if he lands with Riis or JB they’ll wreck his chances, anyway.
Fact is, Sky is a gigantic media company hell-bent on having a Brit (too bad he’s actually Belgian) win the Tour, alongside a Brit right-hand man (too bad he’s Kenyan).
Note the pansy ass course this year. The only good part about it was course profiles such as today’s, rather than pancake flat train finishes day after day. Not good that it came at the expense of another one or two MTFs.
So good luck Kenyan Froome on Garmin next year, against a defending Belgian Wiggins. You’re going to need it.
I saw it as Froome wanting to show the world, “I could drop Wiggins and win if I wanted to, but the team won’t let me.”
We’ll see who’s the “Boss” (at least for this TDF course) after the TT.
Froome should have won the stage yesterday, Wiggins didn’t want to help him….they could have finished 1,2. i never saw a more boring Tourwinner than Wiggins, riding and talking….
Today he pulled again for Cav which is cool, but it is only for a few seconds while he is already in the front…..
Cycling does not only have a drugproblem, they also have a problen to keep racing suspenseful…..
the fastest man should always win, like in any other sport….Cyling has to many earbugs, calculations, whats my watts , etc….they should get rid of all that hightech and race again, like in the old days…..
This has been the most boring tour I can remember. A little controversy with Froome dropping Wiggins would at least make things a little more interesting. The only saving grace of this tour has been Peter Sagan going for green and Voeckler’s polka-dots in the last couple of mountain stages. The GC race has not really been a race. It was over after the first TT.
Looking at the rise of Froome is interesting.A lack of any significant palmares leading up to this past year where out of nowhere he placed 2nd overall in the Vuelta and onto his current performance. His best performance in the TdF was in 2008 placing 84th in GC. Interesting too..Froome the climber back in 2008 TdF L’ Alpe-d”huez finished the day in 88th 2 hours and 20 minutes down from Evans and Nibali. Just to make sure it wasn’t a bad day..I checked the stage to Hautacam and he was 1 hr 8 minutes off the stage winner. Cadel and Nibali both displayed consistent results to present day. Anyone else find this kind of dramatic changes odd?
Watch this one from 6:04 on. [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZY9287pYZM&w=420&h=315%5D
@Bri Yeah, that’s makes my eyebrows arch higher than the Arc de’Triomphe! WTF? Does anyone believe in Tenerife magic?? Anyone?
Froome had an intestinal parasite two years ago, and getting rid of it apparently took longer than anyone would have predicted.
When is someone going to start a conversation about the real advantage these two have had: Osymetric chainrings!
wiggo and froome are just experiencing a “sky high”…nothing to see here. right…. we all buy that the two best guys are brits whose successes popped up out of no where at the same time, who never have a bad day in any stage race this year, who have no weaknesses, who train on Dr. Ferarri’s magic island, etc, etc, etc. I guess I am an effin wanker for not drinking the kool-aid. Sky may never get busted because they have the finacing to make it go away…
Froome is one thing.
But Porte and Rogers (!) something else altogether. One or both had nametags in the autobus the past few years. Now coming in 1-2 minutes down on a MTF after burning off admitted drugged-up GC guys day after day by riding ‘tempo?’ Even Postal/Disco/Etc. had the sense to switch up the front every so often.
I’m sorry, but unless I see Farrar and Zabriskie thinning out the peloton for four or five straight days into and through the Alps next season, I’m not buying it. These dudes are on the cutting edge, out there among the ozone …
I read the comparisons some make between Sky and Postal, and I think, wow, not even close. Wiggo and Co this year have won Paris-Nice, Romandie and the Dauphine. Lance, I believe, would only win one of the big pre-tour stage races before winning the Tour. And, I don’t remember any of Lance’s teammates attacking and winning the same stage they do a ton of work.
Also, what would have been wrong if they “let” Froome go for the win yesterday? They both dropped everyone else. That to me was the absolute lowest point of the tour this year, and it hasn’t been a very good tour overall.
Big difference between Lemond and Hinault and Wiggo and Froome. Both had major palmares at that point. If you go back and follow Lemond his progression was very natural. Both were very gifted and had mega Vo2s also.
Another oddity in the tour: Cavendish pulling up a Category 1 climb while some of the teams “climbers” were being dropped.
Conundrum part 2: Froome putting significant time on Cancellera and several other tt specialist on stage 9.
But then what would I know about training or ever trying to reach a goal in my own life and if we even question the results we all suddenly become “wankers”
The comparisons between US Postal/Discovery and Sky are somewhat skewed.
The reason I think US Postal targeted only the TdF is because of their limited budget whereas Sky has even deeper pockets. They are after all bankrolled by the Mudoch’s and there is nothing good that has ever come out of a Murdoch enterprise.
Now to the real issue that I have been mulling over and waiting for a forum or topic to express in, is the assumption of doping based on the visual evidence that we have. It does not pass the smell test.
Here is my theory and I will try to explain it with use of physics and what knowledge I have of the human body.
There are two components to cycling that affect performance from a stand point of physics, (a) Force and (b) Energy needed to perform that work (generate Force).
So there are two properties that a cyclist can manipulate, Force and/or Energy cycle.
The amateur, bottom of the rung professional and mid level professional manipulates the Force equation. Increase the amount of force that can be transmitted through the skeletal structure to the pedals and you will go faster on any type of terrain. But there is a weight penalty associated with it otherwise someone with a body structure of a Andre Griepel or Chris Hoy would win the Tour.
The limiting factor with increasing mass is to also see an increase in the force of gravity which acts against your mass and requires now a greater force to move that mass (Newton’s First law of Motion). Hence there is the factor of diminishing return.
This leads to the second portion of the equation that one can manipulate which is the Energy balance equation.
Cycling in particular is all about rate of change of speed or accelerations. In order to accelerate, the body has to release a quick burst of energy and at the same time replenish that energy back into the system. The process is self-regulating if the speed levels out to a new set-point in a race but if it does not than the rate of change is dependent on the physical properties of the system, in this case the human being and his body characteristics. Hence in the 90’s and early 2000’s, the top level professionals manipulated the rate of change equation and somewhat dealt with buffering the energy needed to support that rate of change. Production of lactic acid is the safety mechanism to prevent a run away process.
Now the equation has taken a new format I think with the Sky team and its team of doctors. Lets say that a cyclist goes out and does an hour long test and averages 100 Newtons of force (or say 350 Watts) for that hour. Based on that test the same athlete can generate greater force for a 30 min effort say 125 Newtons (or say 400 watts).
The flip side is, if a cyclist can generate 350 watts for an hour, what would prevent that cyclist from generating the same 350 watts for 2 hours. Convential wisdom is that to do so would require the cyclist to function at say 300 watts for 2 hours. A reduction in power (or Force) is due to a finite amount of energy storage. Unless you can mainpulate that energy source.
The basic principal of energy is that energy in is equal to energy out (First law of thermodynamics). Energy is released based on the composition of the fuel and the amount of oxygen available. Different fuels have different Btu values (Joules). And the amount of air (oxygen content of air) determines if the full Btu content of the fuel will be completely burnt or some of the Btu’s will not be released. You can have the best fuel but if there is not enough oxygen content then you will not release the full potential of the fuel and on the flip side if the fuel is of mediocre value but you have a large oxygen capacity then you can still function at a high level aka Chris Horner on pizza, snickers and hamburgers.
My opinion is that Sky is manipulating the fuel and oxyegn of the energy equation. Now I am not sure if the human body duplicates a Carnot cycle or its modification the Rankine cycle but if it does then use of O-rings by Wiggins and Froome is even more alarming because in a circular chain ring there are dead spots which allow energy to be put back which completes the Carnot cycle and this is where my knowledge of physics and lack of knowledge of the human body become evident.
And to add one last thing, the only way I see the energy cycle from a fuel and air perspective being manipulated is to change the energy release and storage code in the human body aka DNA of the cells. Now is that really doping or is it cutting edge scientific breakthrough viz a viz changing your genetic makeup.
I am interested to know what readers of this blog think.
And a side note, I mention Force in my analysis, there is a reason behind it, the SRM, Quarq etc do not measure power, they measure force. Power is a derived variable and it is based on moment arm. The powermeters simplify the equation by using crank arm length. In reality the moment arm is more like a hinged lever with the hip joint socket as the main point where the lever is extended from.
I’m ok with the gestures. Wiggo said he spaced out, allowing himself to think he had won the Tour.
Very interesting, but the manipulation and all the calculated scientific training those guys do today; some hobby riders or runners can’t do their workout without garmin, heartratemonitor etc….seems to me boring. The fun part of the human body and his owner is the fact that you have natural limits and experiencing those from highs to lows make life great. Today I am strong tomorrow I feel tired that’s normal and should always be like that. Every healthy person or lets say every person has their own build in “let me know whats going on system” and that’s the one you listen to and guess what you will function fine. To be tested to see what your abilities are is fine and good ( I had this done 1 time in 1989), but to choose to train like a machine, race like a machine without all the great human values everybody possesses, makes you a robotic boring machine….I love the feeling when I go all out, but I also love the feeling when my body tells me that’s enough or you are now done…I don’t need a heartratemonitor to tell me this..
Human body is nothing but a machine except that it also generates chemical responses like emotions, feelings etc. If a machine can perform its desired task efficiently for its estimated life then why cannot a human body do so also.
Infact the human body does that without one thinking about it like sleeping, walking, thinking etc.
This does not make us boring or robotic because there are already processes built within us which work on auto pilot so to speak.
So if lets say a cyclist is going to do a stage race like a Cascade classic and wants to finish in the top ten, then he or she, knows the terrain, knows their competition and therfore can calculate the amount of energy and force needed to achieve their goal daily and also doing so efficiently. That is not boring, it is called maximizing your potential.
Wiggins competition made a huge mistake by competing against him and his team at stage races like Paris-Nice, Romandie and Dauphine. Based on the data from those races, Sky and its team of doctors and scientists were able to deduce the progression of their competition throughout the season especially Cadel, Nibali, Gesing, Van Den Broeck and also what it would take to beat them. Also remember that even though Wiggins crashed out last year they still had Roberto Uran in the tour and he was competing for the white jersey so they had his data and used it to relate to how Cadel, Andy Schleck and Contador were performing during that tour.
All of these numbers mean something but data is only good as the person interpreting that data. In the right hand it could produce meaningful results.
If Froome does Vuelta, it will be interesting to see how he performs against Contador and Rodriguez.
That said I am skeptical of Sky’s performance. While everyone points to Wiggins past as a great track racer and his loss of weight and also point out the fact that you cannot convert a stable horse to a derby winner, but you can turn a miler into a marathoner which is what Wiggins has achieved. I am really skeptical of that analogy.
one more time: Osymetric.
maybe I am misremembering, but wasn’t he riding out-of-round rings when he was slow two years ago?
nope here is his Garmin bike: http://www.cyclingnews.com/features/photos/more-race-bikes-from-paris-roubaix/15427
It’s common for domestiques to finish way back in the autobus, especially on stages where they are not needed, or, not going after a stage win. Saves energy for tomorrow.
Cav pulled, briefly, at the bottom of a cat 1 climb. Anybody can go over-threshold for 5 minutes, shell a few guys who’d prefer not to go over threshold at all today, saving energy for tomorrow.
FHG so if I’m understanding you Sky is running their team like a Formula 1 team. Collect tetabytes of data & having 100’s of engineers(coaches/Dr.s) studying the info with some of the worlds fastest super computers to figure out how to beat everyone else. I guess since most F1 teams are British based could be feasible….
Check out the link:
http://www.cyclingnews.com/features/pro-bike-mark-cavendishs-htc-specialized-mclaren-venge
And you would not need hundreds of engineers or scientists. A couple would be sufficient.
Bernd said Wiggo was the most boring Tour winner he’s seen. I’d nominate Carlos Sastre everyday plus twice on Sundays over Wiggo.