So, Kennaugh is not riding the Giro - not surprised with the fact that it's one of the riders of Sky's 'A-squad' or what you wanna call it.
Im sure many of you on the forum have touched upon the fact that the Sky riders (honestly, almost entirely the A-squad) have been sick or whatever and have abandoned quite amount of races. I havent been that active and haven't read too many threads, so I am curious to what ppl who have some deeper knowledge of this topic would think about it. My guess would be something in the lines of Sky somehow isn't sure that their dope for Froome, Porte, Kennaugh etc. cant be tracked and is waiting for the effects of the dope to wear off or something like that. Again, i dont know that much about the topic, but that would be my first guess.
Would really appreciate if someone who isnt that biased (I know its hard not to somewhat hate Sky, lol) would take some time to go in-depth about this, cause the the pattern we have seen so far this year has been truly ridicolous.
Edited by Riis123 on 07-05-2014 11:07
Well depending on what they are using the 'glow' period of most drugs when they are most detectable really isn't long. Only a few hours, if that. I don't doubt that some of them legitimately are sick and maybe they don't want to go into the race without a fully operational train or without a GC leader so they are pulling the rest?
Edit: of course I mean previous generation EPO here. I presume they would take some sort of masking agent to hide anything else. Either way I doubt it is a wanting to avoid detection issue. If they were truly concerned they wouldn't be using at all, or only in tiny doses, which doesn't seem o be the case based on Froome's performance.
Edited by CountArach on 07-05-2014 11:17
CountArach wrote:
Well depending on what they are using the 'glow' period of most drugs when they are most detectable really isn't long. Only a few hours, if that. I don't doubt that some of them legitimately are sick and maybe they don't want to go into the race without a fully operational train or without a GC leader so they are pulling the rest?
Edit: of course I mean previous generation EPO here. I presume they would take some sort of masking agent to hide anything else. Either way I doubt it is a wanting to avoid detection issue. If they were truly concerned they wouldn't be using at all, or only in tiny doses, which doesn't seem o be the case based on Froome's performance.
I agreed until the part you edited, more or less. All drugs glow for a while, have their own kinetic, but effects of course generally last much longer than the detection window.
Now if the word is on the street that labs have improved their testing for product X or Y, it means the detection window becomes much longer, which can mean a racing schedule would need to be reshuffled.
Again, the first part of your explanation is also very probable, I wouldn't want people to lose a sense of measure and claim it's only because of doping that Sky have been pulling riders out of races here and there in 2014.
CountArach wrote:
Well depending on what they are using the 'glow' period of most drugs when they are most detectable really isn't long. Only a few hours, if that. I don't doubt that some of them legitimately are sick and maybe they don't want to go into the race without a fully operational train or without a GC leader so they are pulling the rest?
Edit: of course I mean previous generation EPO here. I presume they would take some sort of masking agent to hide anything else. Either way I doubt it is a wanting to avoid detection issue. If they were truly concerned they wouldn't be using at all, or only in tiny doses, which doesn't seem o be the case based on Froome's performance.
I agreed until the part you edited, more or less. All drugs glow for a while, have their own kinetic, but effects of course generally last much longer than the detection window.
Now if the word is on the street that labs have improved their testing for product X or Y, it means the detection window becomes much longer, which can mean a racing schedule would need to be reshuffled.
Right, well I was only commenting from what I remembered about EPO because that was the first example that came to my mind. I assumed that other things had a different glow window but i didn't feel qualified to comment. Interesting though, thanks.
Well since the Giro starts in 2 days and we dont have a Thread 4 the 1 week i decided to continiue with this 4 the 1 week if u all dont mind.
Here some infos and stuff
Stage 1 of the 2014 Giro is a team time trial that never leaves the city limits of Belfast. The total length is 21.7 kilometres
The stage starts in the Titanic Quarter, a relatively new area on the water side. After some initial steering, riders head west – taking the long and straight Newtownards Road. The first intermediate time control takes place at Stormont– after 7.9 kilometres. A negligible bump will likely dampen the momentum somewhat, but there’s no real climbing today.
After a short ‘Giro di Stormont’, the route takes the riders back on the road they came. The second intermediate time check is at 15.3 kilometres on Oxford street. The last few kilometres are more technical which makes sense given we are in the city centre. The finish line is at Donegal Square in the heart of the city.
It’s a course for the powerful squads and if the wind gets up it’ll see the climber-heavy squads suffering significant time losses.
i dont really have high hopes for Uran yet, i would actually have my hopes for Quintana and Evans with Uran, Pozzovivo and Rodriguez as the biggest contenders, Basso and Scarponi is past their time and will fight for a top 10, also interesting to see what Niemiec and Rolland can do!
Aleakez wrote:
i dont really have high hopes for Uran yet, i would actually have my hopes for Quintana and Evans with Uran, Pozzovivo and Rodriguez as the biggest contenders, Basso and Scarponi is past their time and will fight for a top 10, also interesting to see what Niemiec and Rolland can do!
I would change Evans for Rodriguez. Changing that i think you would be correct
Kirchen_75 wrote:
OGE or Movistar would be my pick for TTT. My outsider would be Giant, a lot of horsepower there.. That one long straight looks good for them.
Yeah Giant are a well drilled squad and have a lot of sprinters, which really helps for this sort of test. I'd be tempted to but a bet on them if I could get good odds.
Kirchen_75 wrote:
OGE or Movistar would be my pick for TTT. My outsider would be Giant, a lot of horsepower there.. That one long straight looks good for them.
Yeah Giant are a well drilled squad and have a lot of sprinters, which really helps for this sort of test. I'd be tempted to but a bet on them if I could get good odds.
Kirchen_75 wrote:
OGE or Movistar would be my pick for TTT. My outsider would be Giant, a lot of horsepower there.. That one long straight looks good for them.
Yeah Giant are a well drilled squad and have a lot of sprinters, which really helps for this sort of test. I'd be tempted to but a bet on them if I could get good odds.
PaddyPower has them 100/1 ;-)
Argh why won't they let people bet there from Italy?!
Kirchen_75 wrote:
OGE or Movistar would be my pick for TTT. My outsider would be Giant, a lot of horsepower there.. That one long straight looks good for them.
Yeah Giant are a well drilled squad and have a lot of sprinters, which really helps for this sort of test. I'd be tempted to but a bet on them if I could get good odds.
PaddyPower has them 100/1 ;-)
Argh why won't they let people bet there from Italy?!
I think, if you had asked who would win Giro after Volta Catalunya than Purito would have been little ahead of Quintana, but that fall in Amstel Gold Race and having to abandon LBL shows there might be something lacking in him during 1st week of Giro but thankfully for him major action comes in last 7-9 days with 5 big mountainous stages. Despite of having more TT than TdF this year lack of good GC Time trialists put all in equal footing. Purito, Quintana, Uran, Scarponi should be similar and only difference would be in mountains/hills. I know Evans is there but he is not a beast in TT like Froome/Wiggins/Porte.
Top 10:
1. Joaquim Rodriguez
2. Nairo Quintana
3. Cadel Evans
4. Fabio Aru
5. Michele Scarponi
Who will be be the biggest disappointing rider?
Hesjedal will abandon once again due to poor form,
Who will be be the biggest surprising rider?
Aru in top 5.
Who will win the Maglia azzurra?
Battaglin.
Who will win the Maglia rossa?
I think Kittel will win.
10 hilly or mountain satges where Purito will score (not saying win) and 8 flat stages for Kittel (might win 4-5 stages). If he can get over mountains to finish in Trieste than he might win.
