Tour de France Stage 15 - Limoux > Foix (185 km)

Dr. Bre wrote: »

Alaphilippe reminds me of the year voeckler had yellow and just hung in right till the end!

Everything down to the wild swinging style when he's suffering on climbs to the tongue out!

That was such an entertaining but heartbreaking tour. Not just for Voeckler but for Andy Schleck too. I was gutted Cadel Evans won, absolutely hated his tactics for riding and how they were always blowing smoke up his ass and all he did was follow wheels.

And it was heartbreaking for Contador in a sense as he went for Giro-Tour double and it really looked like prior to the Tour that he could do it. I really think if Contador hadn't gone out of his way to absolutely destroy the Giro that year and just won it without expending too much he might have done the double that year. To this day I've never witnessed someone make a mockery of his competitors like Contador did in that Giro. Andy was nowhere near his 09+10 level, Cadel Evans was very beatable as always, Wiggins crashed out and the other contenders weren't threatening. Dumoulin with a 2nd and a 2nd and Froome with a 1st and a 3rd are the two closest since God knows when but I still maintain nobody had a better shot in recent times than Contador in '11.

Froome will probably never try it again, and considering the injury he had he might never make it back 100%. Quintana failed miserably with his attempt and looks a complete shadow of his 13-15 self. Aru has gone down the same path and besides their TT isn't good enough. Nibali too old as well. Out of the current crop nobody stands out with a chance other than Dumoulin. But I'd imagine he'll make a huge push to win the Vuelta this year and then focus on the Tour next year for the triple crown. Bernal perhaps?

To be honest not too many stand out even as a potential GT winner really. Roglic I really like and his progression has been astounding. He surely wins one sooner rather than later. The Yates' will probably nab a Giro or a Vuelta. Carapaz could win another in a climbing heavy edition. Lopez and Mas will one day and they're both very young where most of their competitors are in their 30s. It'll be interesting to see the GT climate in a few years when Nibali/Froome/Thomas/Quintana et al are well well past it/retured. There's a huge gap there for someone to come in and dominate. Bernal would appear to be the obvious choice and considering he's only 22 he's got a huge advantage.

Went off in a huuuuuge tangent there, been a long ol Monday, something has to keep the mind sane.

MPFGLB wrote: »

Eddie Dunbar is a potential GT contender for me...He can climb and TT but not yet like Bernal but it will come

I think he will podium at least becasue he has the mindset...may have to wait about 5 years

No question about his climbing ability but what's his TT like? Could you see him competing to win a TT stage at that level?

retalivity wrote: »

Gaudu will fill the pinot/bardet role for years to come as well.

Pierre Latour is the one I'm most excited about, albeit his style isn't soft on the eyes. The TT skills are there and he's a pretty good climber. Seems quite frail though and gets injured and sick a good bit. Really exciting cyclist though.

retalivity wrote: »

I completely forgot about him, where did he go???

Injuries all year AFAIK. Should be right for the Vuelta though? The Tour has been fantastic but the Vuelta is shaping up to be a cracking edition again. A lot of big names should arrive fresh as well as quite a few fresh contenders.

Decuc500 wrote: »

You were heartbroken for a Schleck? Those were the bad days of cycling when clean riders like Cadel Evans were up against dopers like Armstrong, Contador and Andy's brother Frank.

I'm reading Cadel Evans' autobiography at the moment. It's a great read. He approached cycling the right way and eventually got the results he deserved by riding clean. His success in that era should be applauded.

Entitled to your opinion but I disagree. I know you can't talk about this stuff on this forum but I do ask how one knows if anyone is clean? Doesn't test positive? Fair enough, innocent until proven guilty but Lance never publicly failed a test, neither did Riis, neither did Basso, neither did Rasmussen, neither did Hesjedal, neither did Ullrich. Now we all know these lads eventually admitted to doping or in some cases were linked to Operacion Puerto but what's to say Cadel Evans or Sastre doesn't have something like that happen to them in time to come. As far as I remember Ullrich was only confirmed to have doped when they retested his samples a decade later.

Maybe Evans and Sastre were clean, maybe there were not. One can't say conclusively either way. However I find it interesting/funny that the years they won they beat many many proven dopers. If they themselves were clean then they are two of the greatest cyclists ever considering everyone from Coppi to Anquetil to Merckx to Fignon to Armstrong to Pantani to Contador to Froome all have been shown to have taken something. You may believe guys like Hinault, Lemond, Indurain, Evans and Sastre are the outliers, fair enough. However I can't overlook the level they were at, the guys the beat. Innocent until guilty I guess, but to edit a quote Armstrong was famous for... I'm sorry I don't know if I believe in miracles.

EC1000 wrote: »

He was found to have been doping in 2010 and had a convincing win in 2011 which was then stripped from him. In the context of the original post on this issue, I think his failure to win the tour that year should be celebrated as opposed to anything else. You can choose to believe his excuses or not. Anyway, this if off topic to the thread. However, fur the purposes of a future for pro cycling, I would prefer not to eulogise over cheaters.

Not saying Contador was clean then or ever but the amount they found was shown to have no performance enhancing effect. They more than less banned him out of making an example out of someone to try and derail the rife doping going on. That was around the prime CERA years. Now Contador's excuse was shady although many pulled the excuse and got away with it (Mexicans say it all the time) but it doesn't stand well with me that there's an asterisk and stripped titles next to his name, especially with such a small amount linked and Chris Froome gets no ban for being well over the limit and only the other day gets awarded another Vuelta. Same for someone like Heras who basically lawyered his way into getting his name 'cleared' just like Froome. No official asterisk to next to their names. Bjarne Riis still has his Tour win officially. Etc etc.

People are entitled to say they've no time for dopers and question why anyone would be a fan, but when you look at the most successful cyclists, the ones responsible for the prestige, money and whatever else you want to say that's in the sport, the vast majority have doped. Unfortunately cycling has a bad rep due to these guys but it is these same guys who have cycling a reputation in the first place.

If the sport was fair I'd love if everyone who's even linked to doping, that goes for even being a client of a famous dope doctor was banned for life and their lifetime achievements erased completely but the sport isn't fair, no sport is truly fair. So I just decide to follow and praise whoever brings excitement to the sport, who tries to prove themselves as elite. Maybe I'm idiotic for that and me and people like me are compounding the problem but I don't see how things will ever change. There's too much risk against it.