Author Topic: Tour de France 2012  (Read 143057 times)

mattc

  • n.b. have grown beard since photo taken
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Re: Tour de France 2012
« Reply #350 on: 10 July, 2012, 07:03:00 pm »
Wishing the questions away is worse than useless.
Almost as useless as you repeating them here!
Has never ridden RAAM
---------
No.11  Because of the great host of those who dislike the least appearance of "swank " when they travel the roads and lanes. - From Kuklos' 39 Articles

LittleWheelsandBig

  • Whimsy Rider
Re: Tour de France 2012
« Reply #351 on: 10 July, 2012, 07:07:42 pm »
Nope. There are people on the forum who think the sport is mostly clean and therefore encouraging the status to stay quo. The bigger the groundswell for change, the more likely that something useful (rather than cosmetic) gets done.
Wheel meet again, don't know where, don't know when...

mattc

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Re: Tour de France 2012
« Reply #352 on: 10 July, 2012, 07:09:03 pm »
You think this forum will change anything? Wow.
Has never ridden RAAM
---------
No.11  Because of the great host of those who dislike the least appearance of "swank " when they travel the roads and lanes. - From Kuklos' 39 Articles

LittleWheelsandBig

  • Whimsy Rider
Re: Tour de France 2012
« Reply #353 on: 10 July, 2012, 07:15:42 pm »
The forum has collectively carried out several 'little bits of good' in the past. Why not again?

Pro sport survives because people pay to watch and buy their sponsors' products. Enough people say not interested because of doping, the money goes elsewhere and the sport changes or dies. Are you going to support doping?
Wheel meet again, don't know where, don't know when...

mattc

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Re: Tour de France 2012
« Reply #354 on: 10 July, 2012, 07:18:05 pm »
The forum has collectively carried out several 'little bits of good' in the past. Why not again?

Pro sport survives because people pay to watch and buy their sponsors' products. Enough people say not interested because of doping, the money goes elsewhere and the sport changes or dies. Are you going to support doping?
OK good - I admire your principles (really).

So boycott it - start a protest thread, don't discuss it, don't watch it, and write to the UCI, ITV4 and SKY to tell them why.

Posting on this thread just makes you look grumpy.
Has never ridden RAAM
---------
No.11  Because of the great host of those who dislike the least appearance of "swank " when they travel the roads and lanes. - From Kuklos' 39 Articles

LittleWheelsandBig

  • Whimsy Rider
Re: Tour de France 2012
« Reply #355 on: 10 July, 2012, 07:30:12 pm »
Probably because I am grumpy...
Wheel meet again, don't know where, don't know when...

citoyen

  • Occasionally rides a bike
Tour de France 2012
« Reply #356 on: 10 July, 2012, 07:33:01 pm »
What would be the point of a complaint or protest if it were tucked away where people could ignore it?

Anyway, it's impossible to discuss the Tour without doping coming into it somewhere. First Wiggo's rant, now Di Gregorio's arrest. These are newsworthy events directly related to the Tour so belong in this thread. There will be more stories relating to doping before this Tour is done - sounds like the net may be closing on Astana...

d.
"The future's all yours, you lousy bicycles."

mattc

  • n.b. have grown beard since photo taken
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Re: Tour de France 2012
« Reply #357 on: 10 July, 2012, 07:47:19 pm »
Anyway, it's impossible to discuss the Tour without doping coming into it somewhere. First Wiggo's rant, now Di Gregorio's arrest. These are newsworthy events directly related to the Tour so belong in this thread. There will be more stories relating to doping before this Tour is done
Oh sure, but it seems some people can't discuss Wiggo swearing without discussing the likelihood that the whole race is a shame due to cheating, and digging up events from 2007 (and earlier).

Although I know it won't happen, I'd rather we really did have a "TdeF2012 Drugs" thread!

gimme a minute ...
Has never ridden RAAM
---------
No.11  Because of the great host of those who dislike the least appearance of "swank " when they travel the roads and lanes. - From Kuklos' 39 Articles

rogerzilla

  • When n+1 gets out of hand
Re: Tour de France 2012
« Reply #358 on: 10 July, 2012, 07:48:44 pm »
How fast would Wiggers be if he shaved those ridiculous sideburns?

He should have it in the bag provided he doesn't fall off or get sick.  I think he's benefiting from one of those slack periods in between dominant champions (as when Delgado, Riis, Ullrich et al managed to get one in) and he's too old to get many more - 29 is about the peak age for the TdF - but chapeau all the same.
Hard work sometimes pays off in the end, but laziness ALWAYS pays off NOW.

Re: Tour de France 2012
« Reply #359 on: 10 July, 2012, 07:49:55 pm »
Bollocks to that. The answer to the question of which Tour riders are doping is 'most of them.' ...

But that's not a useful or appropriate purpose for this thread, which is really to discuss the current tour.  Whilst news pertaining to doping in this tour is appropriate, long and protracted discussions about the likelihood of someone using drugs, or whether they did in a certain tour is probably best undertaken in it's own thread.  A short discussion may be OK, but once the thread becomes almost entirely related to doping, it's gone significantly OT, and should probably be split.
Actually, it is rocket science.
 

rogerzilla

  • When n+1 gets out of hand
Re: Tour de France 2012
« Reply #360 on: 10 July, 2012, 07:51:50 pm »
It's too hard to split now, so can you start a new thread for Teh Drugs, plz?
Hard work sometimes pays off in the end, but laziness ALWAYS pays off NOW.

Re: Tour de France 2012
« Reply #361 on: 10 July, 2012, 08:40:39 pm »
How fast would Wiggers be if he shaved those ridiculous sideburns?

They have been cut and shaped to a carefully calculated Reynolds number and serve to diffuse the airflow around the face/helmet interface.  It's SKIENCE you see.

Incidentally, has anyone else heard that Wiggo is so good that he's managed to put another 30 secs into Evans on the rest day?

red marley

Re: Tour de France 2012
« Reply #362 on: 10 July, 2012, 08:56:33 pm »
I really like his sideees, which I assume he modelled on those sported by our very own SimonP. Certainly better than Wiggo's 'modfather' haircut of a few years ago.


simonp

Re: Tour de France 2012
« Reply #363 on: 10 July, 2012, 09:01:27 pm »
I really like his sideees, which I assume he modelled on those sported by our very own SimonP. Certainly better than Wiggo's 'modfather' haircut of a few years ago.

Yeah! The guy OTP who accused me of being a Bradley Wiggins Lookalike has it all back to front.

Certainly not universally liked:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/othersports/cycling/tour-de-france/9385389/Tour-de-France-2012-live.html

Quote
"Bradley Wiggins' sideburns will never be back in fashion", reckons Sandra T. Ingrassia.

"Besides, they look like they have the mange, with the top being thinned out by his helmet straps and/or his sunglasses. Really, he should just shave those awful things!"

I got the mange look down to a T, I think.

rogerzilla

  • When n+1 gets out of hand
Re: Tour de France 2012
« Reply #364 on: 10 July, 2012, 09:08:35 pm »
It's 'cos he's a mod*; imagine those sideburns and that lugubrious expression in a fishtail parka and it all fits.


*true
Hard work sometimes pays off in the end, but laziness ALWAYS pays off NOW.

simonb

Re: Tour de France 2012
« Reply #365 on: 10 July, 2012, 09:12:19 pm »
I like Brad precisely because he has mangey sideburns.

Re: Tour de France 2012
« Reply #366 on: 10 July, 2012, 09:30:23 pm »
Tomorrow's stage is the hors d'ouevres for Thursday's main course. We can expect plenty of action in the last 20kms as riders attack on the descent from the Col de Richemond. I am watching every televised millimetre of this race, (except when the helicopter sends me to sleep).

I thought that Sunday's stage was compelling right from the start with the peloton forced to race hard all day over an extremely lumpy course.

It's been a long time since never that a couple of Brits (apologies Damon) have stamped their mark so forcefully on this race, so let the attacks begin and may the Brad and The Froome confront, hold firm and repel the onslaught.
#makewattsnotwar

simonb

Re: Tour de France 2012
« Reply #367 on: 10 July, 2012, 10:09:00 pm »
may the Brad and The Froome confront, hold firm and repel the onslaught.

Hear hear!

Re: Tour de France 2012
« Reply #368 on: 10 July, 2012, 11:40:21 pm »
Yes, tomorrow with the Col du Grand Colombier should be a bit of a git, but whilst it looks like the stage finish is uphill, it's not much compared to the three other main climbs of the day (Cat 2, Cat 3, and the Hors catégorie Col du Grand Colombier).  Presumably things could favour anyone who fancies descending suicidally enough down the other side of the Col de Richemond, assuming they've gotten to the top early enough to have a reasonably clear road ahead.
Actually, it is rocket science.
 

Jakob

Re: Tour de France 2012
« Reply #369 on: 11 July, 2012, 01:47:35 am »
FWIW, I think this comment is spot on:

http://www.cyclingnews.com/features/10-conclusions-from-the-tour-de-france

Quote
The unfounded murmurs online – and in the press room too – have clearly rattled him. But compare his statements with Armstrong's during his seven year reign. The American was measured, composed, rehearsed but lacking a level legitimacy, and while Wiggins still has more to do in this year’s Tour to clear up his stance on doping, at least he spoke from the heart. There’s no doubt he has worked hard, perhaps harder than all of his rivals, but the next time he’s offered the doping topic lets hope he has the maturity and quite frankly the respect for the yellow jersey to deliver something with a little more substance.

Re: Tour de France 2012
« Reply #370 on: 11 July, 2012, 09:14:27 am »
I disagree .... you want him to start saying "I've never tested positive" - in a "measured, composed, rehearsed" fashion?

No, sorry, been there... and I believed in LA for a long while too.

Sky seem to have re-written the rulebook on training and come to the Tour, not just with an improved BW, but with a squad who are able to protect him.  That seems to have taken so much sacrifice, apart from the stresses of the Tour itself, and all that goes with wearing Yellow, that I'm not at all surprised he "goes off on one" when someone asks an unanswerable and frankly silly question about doping.

Re: Tour de France 2012
« Reply #371 on: 11 July, 2012, 10:33:34 am »
Thanks jo. Just the sort of thing I was after.

People shamelessly pushing their way to the front reminds me of festivals where I’ve waited at the front for ages for the headline act…or even London Transport…thanks for the warning.

It really is an experience - one thing I remember was not knowing who won the sprint till the next day - despite accidentally being in the perfect position to watch the finish.

If you want to move around at all (rather than spend hours in the same position) take a little portable foldable ladder.  You can then be at the back of 4 rows of people and still see lots.

Thanks Justin(e). It's occasions like this that I'm grateful we're both on the tall side!

Re: Tour de France 2012
« Reply #372 on: 11 July, 2012, 10:45:21 am »
It looks like the crash on Stage 6 was caused by Vigano putting a set of shoe covers into his pocket. Who the hell passes over things from one rider to another at 70kph deep into a bunch? Why not just throw them into the crowd?

"Lampre's Danilo Hondo accounted for what brought Vigano and Scarponi down. "Viganò was putting [Alessandro] Petacchi's shoe covers in his jersey, when some riders ahead slowed down. Davide had only one hand on the handlebar, so he could not brake properly and he fell in the ditch on the side of the road, then all the rest of the group crashed, Scarponi too."

Source:http://www.cyclingnews.com/editions/first-edition-cycling-news-saturday-july-7-2012

Looks like Poels might lose a kidney as a result of the crash: http://www.velonation.com/News/ID/12339/Poels-in-danger-of-losing-a-kidney-as-a-result-of-Tour-de-France-crash.aspx

LEE

Re: Tour de France 2012
« Reply #373 on: 11 July, 2012, 10:46:09 am »
FWIW, I think this comment is spot on:

http://www.cyclingnews.com/features/10-conclusions-from-the-tour-de-france

Quote
The unfounded murmurs online – and in the press room too – have clearly rattled him. But compare his statements with Armstrong's during his seven year reign. The American was measured, composed, rehearsed but lacking a level legitimacy, and while Wiggins still has more to do in this year’s Tour to clear up his stance on doping, at least he spoke from the heart. There’s no doubt he has worked hard, perhaps harder than all of his rivals, but the next time he’s offered the doping topic lets hope he has the maturity and quite frankly the respect for the yellow jersey to deliver something with a little more substance.

I disagree.

I thought he actually showed tremendous respect for the Yellow Jersey with those comments.

There have been too many previous wearers showing "respect and maturity" in interviews whilst doping to the eyeballs as soon as they leave the press office.

Brad is a character and sport needs characters.

citoyen

  • Occasionally rides a bike
Re: Tour de France 2012
« Reply #374 on: 11 July, 2012, 10:50:02 am »
FWIW, I think this comment is spot on:

Quote
lets hope he has the maturity and quite frankly the respect for the yellow jersey to deliver something with a little more substance.

I thought we all wanted riders with a little less in the way of "substance"...

Anyway, lest we forget, Millar was always vocally anti-doping before he was caught doping. Talk is cheap.

Wiggins spoke from the heart. Probably 'roid rage.

d.
"The future's all yours, you lousy bicycles."