Is professional cycling pre arranged?

califano

Spoiler: Dont read for a day or so if you want to watch highlights

I understand that cyclists set out their stall for particular grand tours but Im beginning to think there are gentleman agreements in them behind the scenes agreements. Tenuous unwritten Ok ill let you have the Giro/Vuelta if you give me Le tour type agreements?

Because Sky are a train yet theres Froome winning Le Tour on the steel yet totally vulnerable looking and alone up the final climb of todays Vuelta and the tour so far in general like thats ever happening in the tour. Does a support team of Ian Boswell, Michal Golas, Pete Kennaugh, Christian Knees, Leopold Konig, Michal Kwiatkowski, David Lopez and Salvatore Puccio ''Mikel Landa was forced to withdraw in the week leading up to the race with a hip injury'' do anything to curry confidence. Does this supporting lineup state that they are really here to win?.

And it hasnt been too harsh a Vuelta yet so there is no excuses for no protection and not finding much and ceeding to Quintana up todays climb.

And now here is Quintana who is usually neutered against Froome in the tour pulling up trees in the Vuelta today and looking like a comfortable win overall. Hard to believe.
I was holding back on it for a while but theres an air of these being pre arranged. Its not as if its so unusual because its well accepted the criteriums totally are pre arranged.

Lumen

For the small post-TdF races this used to be the case, or so I've read in various cyclist autobios.

Mr. Grieves

Lumen wrote: »

For the small post-TdF races this used to be the case, or so I've read in various cyclist autobios.

Have you ever looked at the results of a post Tour crit? Quintana sprinting against Sagan and other bizarre results! Those haven't changed.

Buzwaldo

Thread should come with a spoiler alert.

Wishbone Ash

For feck sake califano - we don't all have the opportunity to watch live. Use a SPOILER!

Eamonnator

califano wrote: »

I understand that cyclists set out their stall for particular grand tours but Im beginning to think there are gentleman agreements in them behind the scenes agreements. Tenuous unwritten Ok ill let you have the Giro/Vuelta if you give me Le tour type agreements?

Because Sky are a train yet theres Froome winning Le Tour on the steel yet totally vulnerable looking and alone up the final climb of todays Vuelta and the tour so far in general like thats ever happening in the tour. Does a support team of Ian Boswell, Michal Golas, Pete Kennaugh, Christian Knees, Leopold Konig, Michal Kwiatkowski, David Lopez and Salvatore Puccio ''Mikel Landa was forced to withdraw in the week leading up to the race with a hip injury'' do anything to curry confidence. Does this supporting lineup state that they are really here to win?.

And it hasnt been too harsh a Vuelta yet so there is no excuses for no protection and not finding much and ceeding to Quintana up todays climb.

And now here is Quintana who is usually neutered against Froome in the tour pulling up trees in the Vuelta today and looking like a comfortable win overall. Hard to believe.
I was holding back on it for a while but theres an air of these being pre arranged. Its not as if its so unusual because its well accepted the criteriums totally are pre arranged.

I do wish, you had held back on it, until after the highlights programme on ITV4

Macy0161

Thanks for no feckin spoiler!

odyssey06

In December 2007, the New England Patriots, on their way to a perfect regular season (16 wins out of 16) played The New York Giants (10 wins out of 16) at the Giants stadium, New York. The Patriots won 38-35.

Five weeks later, both teams made it to Super Bowl XLII at the neutral University of Phoenix Stadium in Arizona.
The Patriots entered the game as 12 point favourites.
The final score: Giants 17 Patriots 14.

It's almost as as form, random chance, motivation, expectation all play a part in professional sports... or they are all fixed. We'd probably have to include amateur sports in there as well, such as when a GAA team that loses in the provincial championship wins the rematch against the same after progressing through the qualifiers.
When fixing does happen in sport, it's usually when one team has nothing to play for and the other does (such as last games of the season in Serie A where one team needed points to stay up). It doesn't usually happen for the big prizes.