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Velocette
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What a delight it was this evening to see Alberto Contador show the charmless little robots of team Sky just what sporting endeavour really is. No hiding in a coterie of team mates who do the harder work then popping out at the last minute to claim a place. If only Sky and their money would s*d off and leave the real racers to it. Rant over !!

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Do you not think it was staged for Bertie to win the stage but not change the overall race.

 

Spain had not won a single stage at this years race and it was Bertie's last Grand Tour, it doesn't take a lot to work it out.

Staged deliberately? Not sure. But, I do wonder whether Froomey thought, 'you know what? it's not worth it, I've won the Vuelta, let Conts have his day in the Sun.' He had iron-man Wout Poels with him, I do feel he could have gone for the stage win if he'd needed to, but he'd got the Vuelta in the bag with a couple of stage wins in there, so there wasn't a huge amount for him

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I'm afraid that Froom is nothing without the protection of the Sky protection gang who shut down any challenge with their bullying behaviour. He relies upon the time trials to get a lead and then prevents any opposition pulling time out ,,and as a consequence is profoundly disliked on the continent for it. Over there its not just about winning,,,its the way you do it and Sky's clinical approach is heartily disliked.

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I'm afraid that Froom is nothing without the protection of the Sky protection gang who shut down any challenge with their bullying behaviour. He relies upon the time trials to get a lead and then prevents any opposition pulling time out ,,and as a consequence is profoundly disliked on the continent for it. Over there its not just about winning,,,its the way you do it and Sky's clinical approach is heartily disliked.

Then don't follow it.

Cycling's a team sport. Yes, one person gets the jersey, but it's about a team of riders. They're the best team, with the best rider, so they win a lot. You may not like the way they win, but they're not cheating, they're just racing hard. Any other team could do exactly the same. And you have to remember that A lot of riders have left Team Sky who were amazing in Sky colours and suddenly become underwhelming out of it. That's the sign of a proper team ethos and unity. Think of all those great rides that Richie Porte put in for Froome. He moves teams and is just an also-ran.

 

I think the reason they're so disliked on the continent is more to do with the scars of team doping in the past than tactics in the present. One team dominating, with a superstar rider grinding out win after win kind of smells too much like the U.S. Postal team and Lance Armstrong. THAT's why Froome has urine thrown at him, why he's booed at every stage win, why T.Sky riders are almost always asked about doping records. Betrayed trust takes a long time to heal and it's Sky that's feeling the cost of it. A new team will rise at some point and will dominate and it'll probably be all okay, because Sky took the brunt of it and proved that it's possible to dominate cleanly

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Nails it, IMO.

 

Well said.

 

Then don't follow it.

Cycling's a team sport. Yes, one person gets the jersey, but it's about a team of riders. They're the best team, with the best rider, so they win a lot. You may not like the way they win, but they're not cheating, they're just racing hard. Any other team could do exactly the same. And you have to remember that A lot of riders have left Team Sky who were amazing in Sky colours and suddenly become underwhelming out of it. That's the sign of a proper team ethos and unity. Think of all those great rides that Richie Porte put in for Froome. He moves teams and is just an also-ran.

 

I think the reason they're so disliked on the continent is more to do with the scars of team doping in the past than tactics in the present. One team dominating, with a superstar rider grinding out win after win kind of smells too much like the U.S. Postal team and Lance Armstrong. THAT's why Froome has urine thrown at him, why he's booed at every stage win, why T.Sky riders are almost always asked about doping records. Betrayed trust takes a long time to heal and it's Sky that's feeling the cost of it. A new team will rise at some point and will dominate and it'll probably be all okay, because Sky took the brunt of it and proved that it's possible to dominate cleanly

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Spot the brit,,

https://www.teamsky.com/riders

 

Over £25000000 of Rupert Murdochs Australian Sky money used to buy up the best riders they can find,,and discard them smartly when worn out,,managed by predominately non Brits and still under investigation by UK Sport. Nothing there for me to wave a flag at because Sky are not a UK representing team at all.

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Spot the brit,,

https://www.teamsky.com/riders

 

Over £25000000 of Rupert Murdochs Australian Sky money used to buy up the best riders they can find,,and discard them smartly when worn out,,managed by predominately non Brits and still under investigation by UK Sport. Nothing there for me to wave a flag at because Sky are not a UK representing team at all.

Well, you say that but...

3 of the 5 senior management positions are filled by Brits and most of both the medical and nutritional departments are made of brits too. And, whilst they're not an overall majority, there are more British riders in the team than any other nationality and there is in no other team that has more Brits. It's also produced 5 GB TdF wins.

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Not quite right,,he has never admitted it and still claims it was food contamination,,,but that is beside the point. He was banned,served his time and came back. At the time it happened doping was endemic and some were caught,,but many were not. Its not gone away but is much more devious now and very difficult to detect. The matter of asthma inhalers which have medical exemption but are proven to give an advantage to the user are a subject of interest at the moment,,,particularly as Froome uses one. One could say that if someone is not naturally fit enough to compete then no medical help should be offered as it could be open to abuse. Contador is as clean as anyone else racing now,,,,which really is not saying much !

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Velocette are you a cycling enthusiast or are you climbing on the back of social media that likes to do down any British success.

There seems to be a few of us on here who do support and take part in cycling and do know/understand the whole affair of British cycling successes.

On the subject of Bertie's 2 year ban for eating supposedly contaminated beef, he could not prove it, and if you were in his position of guilt would you have done otherwise, l think not.

Cyclist at this standard are regularly caught out, only last week one international was found with 7 different steroids/enhancers in his system.

If you cheat you get caught, if it's allowed by the UCI you can use any medication on the list.

Brown envelopes not seen so much since 2012!

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I am a cycling enthusiast and not climbing on the back of anything. I'd be the first to applaud some aspects of the upsurge of British cycling but I'm afraid that team Sky is not British cycling and its ethos and questionable behaviour by its management are no example to anyone. Their "holier than thou" attitude and arrogant behaviour will,,I hope, come home to roost.

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Do you not think it was staged for Bertie to win the stage but not change the overall race.

 

Spain had not won a single stage at this years race and it was Bertie's last Grand Tour, it doesn't take a lot to work it out.

I have to say that this thought went through my head but from what I have seen of froomey he is a nice guy but completely ruthless it the final race he could not let that little guy that one the race have the white jumper all he had to do was come in 12 and it would have meant the world to that young guy and not affected froomey at all but no he had to come in 11 the just to deprive the other guy.

 

As for Alberto Contador he made that race froomey could mot keep up with him on the big hills and only did what he did because his team sky are rich and can afford to buy the best lead out people to protect him I am not saying that he is not good but with that team around you any half decent rider could have done it.

 

If we are talking about dope one thing comes to mind wiggins :whistling: :whistling: :whistling: to see Alberto riding around in the white jumper so happy with the crowds chearing made the day for me. :good:

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Contador made his play on Thursday (i think) , he had been on Frooms tail up one of the big hills, tried to make a grand gesture by riding away from him but only managed to gain a few yards before he was knackered, he knew then that it was over for him, The peloton let him go on Saturday to gift him the win on his last pro race, which i thought was a nice gesture from them.

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That was my take on it too, although Nibali's crash helped him out with the time gap.

 

Contador made his play on Thursday (i think) , he had been on Frooms tail up one of the big hills, tried to make a grand gesture by riding away from him but only managed to gain a few yards before he was knackered, he knew then that it was over for him, The peloton let him go on Saturday to gift him the win on his last pro race, which i thought was a nice gesture from them.

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