OMG, 105 for the win, being cheap is now' retro

[Canuk]

If David Walsh, who brought down Lance Armstrong remember, believes that Pogacar is clean then that's good enough for me.

Have it on good report from a French pro who has only recently retired from the sport that drug use is as bad as ever, and increasingly powerful and harder to detect forms like EPO. Massive bust in Andorra last year at a well known pharmacy. I do not believe there is a single pro peloton rider not using some method of performance enhancement. The wheel keeps a turnin and there's no way, it seems, to get off ..

 

[pigman]

Have it on good report from a French pro who has only recently retired from the sport that drug use is as bad as ever, and increasingly powerful and harder to detect forms like EPO. Massive bust in Andorra last year at a well known pharmacy. I do not believe there is a single pro peloton rider not using some method of performance enhancement. The wheel keeps a turnin and there's no way, it seems, to get off ..

You're probably/possibly right. BUT .... your French pro friend is no different to that office gossip where a woman gets promoted and everyone says she only got the job cos she slept with the boss. Maybe she'd did, but maybe she's just damn capable. But as an outsider the 'good authority ' says what it says.
I'll stick my neck out and say I'm happy to bury my head in the sand and watch the entertainment. Why? Because it affects all sports - tennis, athletics, football, American football, basketball maybe even snooker and darts ??
And then there's the fact even if they're 'clean' in the sense that they'll pass any drug test, they're so far away from what I am and do, it's irrelevant anyway. World's best talent using the best equipment, riding every day, responsibilities pushed aside (no 'proper' job, families left at home), medical treatments I have no access to (doctor on tap, massages, remedies). If I'm being entertained by an alien world, I don't really dwell on how far they've gone

 

[Guinessisgoodforyou]

You're probably/possibly right. BUT .... your French pro friend is no different to that office gossip where a woman gets promoted and everyone says she only got the job cos she slept with the boss. Maybe she'd did, but maybe she's just damn capable. But as an outsider the 'good authority ' says what it says.
I'll stick my neck out and say I'm happy to bury my head in the sand and watch the entertainment. Why? Because it affects all sports - tennis, athletics, football, American football, basketball maybe even snooker and darts ??
And then there's the fact even if they're 'clean' in the sense that they'll pass any drug test, they're so far away from what I am and do, it's irrelevant anyway. World's best talent using the best equipment, riding every day, responsibilities pushed aside (no 'proper' job, families left at home), medical treatments I have no access to (doctor on tap, massages, remedies). If I'm being entertained by an alien world, I don't really dwell on how far they've gone

Agreed

 

[ChromeChainstay]

If David Walsh, who brought down Lance Armstrong remember, believes that Pogacar is clean then that's good enough for me.

perhaps so • but let's see Pogacar win on 105

 

[LondonClassic]

If David Walsh, who brought down Lance Armstrong remember, believes that Pogacar is clean then that's good enough for me.

Travis Tygart, Floyd Landis, Betsy Andreu, Dick Pound, Jeff Novitzky, David Walsh...can all lay claim to have 'brought down Lance Armstrong'. Individually none of them did though.

David Walsh's critical journalistic eye on cycling seemed to disappear when his employer bankrolled a superteam - a conflict of interest to look too hard at a sport your bosses are spending millions propping up. I wouldn't take his steer on Pog anymore than I would take his steer wether to buy Daz or Persil.

 

[pigman]

Travis Tygart, Floyd Landis, Betsy Andreu, Dick Pound, Jeff Novitzky, David Walsh...can all lay claim to have 'brought down Lance Armstrong'. Individually none of them did though.

David Walsh's critical journalistic eye on cycling seemed to disappear when his employer bankrolled a superteam - a conflict of interest to look too hard at a sport your bosses are spending millions propping up. I wouldn't take his steer on Pog anymore than I would take his steer wether to buy Daz or Persil.

I also heard that he's looked for scandal in just about every sport except golf. Why? Well his personal buddies are pro golfers.

I've also been told he used Betsy. He asked her to spill the beans in confidence and then outed her

 

[Canuk]

Kind of reminds me of watching a Kellogg's one night in Manchester city centre and chatting to Sean Yates at the finish, and lo and behold a 531 frame in amongst all the Reynolds 753. How or what you might have done to piss off the mechanic remains a mystery!

 

[pigman]

Kind of reminds me of watching a Kellogg's one night in Manchester city centre and chatting to Sean Yates at the finish, and lo and behold a 531 frame in amongst all the Reynolds 753. How or what you might have done to piss off the mechanic remains a mystery!

Eh?
Nothing wrong with 531.
Maybe the rider preferred the 531's rigidity or strength. Crit racing doesn't necessarily mean a sub 8kg bike is best

 

[Canuk]

Eh?
Nothing wrong with 531.
Maybe the rider preferred the 531's rigidity or strength. Crit racing doesn't necessarily mean a sub 8kg bike is best

It was the Peugeot GB team, and some of the bikes looked really 'race proven ', ie fairly abused. I don't doubt the Tour bikes are pristine, but cycle racing in the UK at that time was probably an afterthought for European based teams.

 

[pigman]

It was the Peugeot GB team, and some of the bikes looked really 'race proven ', ie fairly abused. I don't doubt the Tour bikes are pristine, but cycle racing in the UK at that time was probably an afterthought for European based teams.

It reminds me of when a ToB stage finished in Sheffield in 2006. I had a look round at some of the team bikes that had already been mounted onto roof racks. Some of the carbon forks had big chunks missing out of them, as if they'd been bashed with a hammer. And these weren't fresh damage caused be a crash on the stage, the weather had dulled the holes over time
Compare this to the internet warriors express concern that they need new frames because the lacquer has started to peel and weathering will cause a failure