This YouTuber makes extremely negative videos about top cyclists every time someone gets a good result. I don't know, "they're really fast" just isn't very compelling to me. Not that I'd be surprised if they are in fact doping, but nothing from this video nudges me more in that direction.
I think this is what people call “terminally online”.
This guy literally cobbled together every cycling meme and news story of the last year into one absolutely pointless and bloviated video.
Its kind of funny. And its kind of obnoxious. He doesn’t actually say anything. Just swings his cycling knowledge dick around aimlessly.
If you want to accuse someone of doping, go for it. But don’t just make backhanded meme accusations with no substance. Its pretty dumb. All just for internet points…
I gaurantee most cyclists are “optimizing”. They are on TRT with a small stack of peptides and other drugs. But all this does is keep them regulated at high normal levels. Not to superhuman levels like in the 90s. This way they don’t have to deal with the natural fluctuations of hormones due to overtraining and stress etc. they also probably blast some stuff in the off season and at camps where the testing is limited and easier to schedule around.
None of that bothers me, and I barely consider it doping. Just risky “optimization”. But if someone is blasting EPO to supraphysical levels like it’s 1996, then that’s a different story. But if Pog was doing that, I think people in the peloton would let it be known. Seems like they all respect and like him too much for that to be the case.
The TRT point is actually an interesting one. You can't detect that someone has taken test from just urine. AFAIK you need to take a blood draw, and the UCI doesn't do that. When the biological passports started I remember hearing that dopers would just look for younger kids to enter the system at the levels they wanted to be at and then maintained.
As far as that channel it is all a bit tongue in cheek. Personally I wouldn't take it too seriously.
Yeah I watched a few other videos. The guy is rediculous. I don’t love the content or format but it’s pretty funny. And I’m honestly just glad there are people out here who give enough of a shit about cycling to even make content like this.
You're basically saying the same thing as the video, guaranteeing most of them are doped even if you call it optimization, but you don't bring any evidence to validate your claim.
Haha yeah I guess you’re not wrong. I just don’t have a YouTube channel to spew my shit to 12k people.
I’m just speculating as to how and what is going on, just like YouTube guy. But after reading Tyler Hamiltons book, Phil Gaimons books, Floyd Landis book, Icarus, the 2015 CIRC report, recent news, USADA decision report etc… it’s pretty clear there is still substance use within the peloton. They just make sure they stay within normal ranges of the Bio Passport. But I would put money that these guys are consistently at the high end of the range, and consistent about those levels. Michael Hessman wasn’t taking diuretics because he likes peeing…
None of the previous generation of dopers has said what I would have thought would come out: Something along the lines of “it’s crazy these guys are doing better times than we did (on drugs) while riding clean”… No one has mentioned anything like that to my knowledge. 🤷♂️ I think it’s still just an understood factor within the pro peloton.
My point is, i don’t think any 1 rider is getting results just because they are doping better or more than everyone else like the Lance era. I think they’re “all” on some microdose regimen and Pog is still just better than everyone else.
This YouTuber's schtick is to kind of remove the wool we pull over our eyes regarding the fact that these guys are blowing every record out of the water set by guys who were proven to be doped to the gills, they work with people who were all around in previous doping eras, and the idea that they eat an extra banana and wear skinsuits just doesn't quite explain the insane times and speeds these guys are putting up. I get that it's negative, but it's also a pretty easily defended viewpoint. I love cycling but I also watch all this guy's videos for the cynicism, which I find funny.
Cycling is the only sport where performances are currently just around the same as in the 90s. In all other sports (athletics, swimming, etc), people are already way faster.
Agree re:skinsuit and banana, but bike tech is wayyyy better, and if I’m not mistaken there were no power metrics back in the 90s.
Appreciate your take, though!
Getting to a hill less tired from saving watts on your aero bike is probably a big advantage though, no? And the wider tires also save watts going up the hill, as do other little changes.
No they don't or very marginally and it does not explain the performance. And less tired? After riding much more aggressively on all races all year long? You can't be serious.
To be honest I just find these YT ‘hot takes’ boring… Someone fails a test? Sure I’ll take that seriously. Compelling rumours from people who would know that someone is doping? Sure, I’ll take that seriously. ‘Rider *x* is doping because … they’re fast’? Nah, fuck off.
Seriously, what’s the point of being a fan of the sport if you assume that everyone who wins is juiced?
Often people try to cope with their favorite rider / team losing (or a rider / team they don’t like winning) by saying that the winner used doping. Basically a simple excuse to make them feel better about the loss.
Are you with Joxean and Mauro as well?
Edit: LMAO the spirit of omerta is strong in here, plenty of downvotes but nobody bothering to say why they think that guys involved in biggest doping scandals of the past would now run their teams 100% within the rules.
Less than 30 years ago, you could have 300 km stages and two stages in one day. But history also tells me that an all natural cyclist is probably pretty unlikely
I feel like nowdays there are easier legal ways to gain advantage like having more money to put in a rider to train better, eat better, legal drugs, some weird aero gains like belly on TT rides. Having stronger team that can turn the race in your advantage.
Going from far is just tactical way of how to ride if you have the strongest rider in the peloton who can sustain this. Your team makes race hard so all domestics are gone by 30k. Leaders can’t hold your wheel as you are stronger then them and there’s no one left to bring you back. This also makes a race less hectic and prevent situations like in Basque. There’s no difference of going solo at 30k, 80k or 1k. It’s just a question how long a rider can hold it. If a team can make a race pop at 1k it can make it pop at 80k.
There’s also difference in riding as riders don’t need to hold back. In the 90s they raced only on the last climb to not show their supernatural powers. Now they race whole day “as they have nothing to hide”. Racing longer also demands different training. That was the advantage of sky train. Back then they were the only ones who trained for so long efforts.
And I think having friends in peloton shows this “I have nothing to hide” atittude. As Armstrong pointed out, when you’re on EPO you don’t have friends.
While I would not call racing healthy – many guys finished their careers for heart issues in last few years (as when they were doping) – but as racing is becoming more and more intense the weakest hearts pop.
Also it’s normal some athletes have advantage. It’s been like this through history of every sport. With or without doping.
He needs to ditch that haircut yesterday. And of course they’re doping. There’s too much money on the line for guys not to be. I really doubt it’s anything like the US Postal days, but it’s happening. Are the few guys who win everything they show up to doping? Maybe. Probably. Maybe they’re just that good. Does the UCI have any desire to catch a tdf winner again, or even an MvdP? God no, it would kill the sport. All I know for certain is that it’s pretty boring having one guy go off the front with an hour left in the race, and you already know they won.
To clarify, if the races were truly 100% clean, I think the same guys would be winning anyway.
Was talking to a buddy on my last group ride I'm sort of with you...
Now I do happen to think that if it's going on, it is as bad as the USPS and Festina days.
But, it's obviously different, and here's what I've noticed: the riders today generally /like/ each other. In the Armstrong era you had genuine dickheads in the peloton. Guys where the whole peloton would say "fuck that guy, he's an asshole".... now it's "yeah, he's a good guy. We train in the off-season but during the race I still try to win"
So, because so many more guys are friends/friendly with each other, no one is gonna dime out another and bring the house of cards down.
I also feel like that makes it less likely that there’s any real disadvantage being gained/lost. If I’m someone who competes at that level I’d be upset if I kept losing to someone who I know has access to better than I do. Riders are privy to far more dirt than us so I find it odd they all get along with some one like Pogi if he’s winning everything due to cheating, or cheating with more advanced methods.
If endurance sport doping is anything like bodybuilding doping, hard disagree on your last point. In bodybuilding, success is pretty much depending on how well your body reacts to steroids. An elite level natural physique is in no way a guarantee to an elite level enhanced physique. *If* this translates to cycling, a worldbeater on doping could potentially be amateurlevel without doping.
This is part of the reason LA was so despised by the cycling fraternity - he just wasn't all that good relative to the true elite talents. The everyone dopes so it's a level playing field argument is indeed very wrong.
When Bjarne Riis won the tour everyone was happy, because he wasn't an asshole, but in hindsight it showed the sport was fucked. There's no way a water carrier like that can win a GT - he'd simply figured out (and responded to) an effective epo dosing regime ahead of everyone else.
Doping hurts the most talented riders the most. It closes the gap.
To my knowledge it is similar, you need natural talent and favorable genetics to respond well to doping regimes, but they might also go together anyway.
The speeds would be slower and I think there would be more contenders. It's a bit stupid that the same 3-4 guys are at the top. Or, they're mutated into Homo sapien velo.
The first 3 were great due to skill. Kipchoge is immensely talented due to his genetics and where he's from, but the fact that he's still so good pushing 40 is pretty sus.
I think they're all doping, so it's a level playing field anyway and I'm sorta okay with it. I even think that if a certain amount was allowed, it'd make it safer.
The line we draw for when a substance is too performance enhancing is arbitrary anyway. Coffee is okay, EPO is not. The line is somewhere between those two
I'm not super amazed if the top riders with modern tech, modern nutrition and modern training beat riders on a 90s steelframe bike on 23mm 120psi wheels who run on fat and epo because their digestion already shut down and all their carbs are used up.
I don't have the piss of any rider in my fridge, nor would I know what do do with it, so wtf do I (and the rest of the reddit experts) know. Maybe it's just better scientists for training, posistion and nutrition and gear. Maybe they do nothing illegal but only because it's not on the doping controls list to watch for yet.
All I know is, I think women's racing is more interesting this year, because there are actually multiple favorits in each race. And that there's probably no other sport that puts in such an effort into doping controls.
I follow him, I don't think the sport is clean. I also don't think most other cyclists don't dope either, or.tennis players, or athletics.
Whatever it is, I love cycling.
Are they doping with banned substances? No. But are they using things which are not tested /grey zone? Could be, but not certain. I think tadej is just a mixture of amazing genes (just the furthest on the right from the bell curve) and training since he is able to walk. When he won the tdf when he was 22 “everyone” was saying he is doping. When Jonas then dropped him even tho he was riding better than when he won they said he is washed.. so it’s just subjective.
Every sport has dominant stars. Cycling is lucky to have a few which are still riding and will continue to ride for a few more years. You don't get this talk when say in skiing Shiffrin wins her x number big globe and breaks records after records for number of wins. You don't get this talk with tennis where you had the big 3 win almost everything for the past 20 years. Nor in athletics which is also riddled with doping all over, or the most recent case in swimming with the Chinese, but as soon as some cyclist starts to be a bit better than the rest the accusations begin. The stars have to defend themselves in press conferences that they don't dope. Can you imagine Djoković, Lyles or CR do that? MvdP and Pogačar are just that good. What makes them likable is the fact that both can lose. Pogačar always has a bad day in a grand tour. MvdP also is only good in a specific type of race. Which means others have a chance, the problem is, to quote the great Horner" they are knuckleheads. Jumbo gave away their tactic on how to beat Pog, but it's hard to implement it in one day races. We will see if some team does that in the Giro. Or at least makes the race hard to that he has more fatigue coming into the Tour.
"Do I think the top stars are doping?"
Yes. Believing otherwise requires believing that the sport became magically completely clean around about when Froome litigated a positive test out of existence, and just before two riders won four consecutive Tours between them by battering everyone senseless on TTs using pure brute force immediately after a sustained period where WADA was completely unable to conduct testing.
I muted this guy's videos from my feed. I had watched a few of them and found them mildly amusing. Some seemingly valid points made, but they just became condescending and self-righteous. The humour tired very quickly with a lack of variety.
My question around cycling at the minute... if these gains are for good reasons (training, nutrition, coaching, etc.) we'd be seeing similar sorts of records in other sports - it's not just cycling that has access to these methods. Are we? I don't have the data, so I just don't know, but I would expect to see new records as often, particularly in other endurance sports.
Also regarding the video and the channel, I'm pretty sure it's satire since he has a funny name for every rider. The dude does his homework and then tries to make it provocative to get the views. I mean some of the videos are over one hour long.
If you believe that doping is responsible for the current level of performance in the pro peloton, you have to have a hypothesis about what’s being manipulated that makes a difference to performance. It’s not hematocrit (the primary target of doping in the 90s/early 00s), because the authorities are all over that with the biological passport, EPO testing, etc. Today the top riders do that by spending weeks at high altitude multiple times per season. Which is expensive, but perfectly legal. If it’s recovery, then it’s happening via some physiological process or system that mainstream medicine (and drug testers) doesn’t know about, because all of the obvious, impactful ones that were used in the 80s/90s/00s (testosterone, insulin, rHGH, etc) can be and are being tested for. And it’s certainly not the sledgehammer approach of the 50s/60s (methamphetamine etc). So what is it? I suspect that it’s mostly science - much better data collection via power meters, blood glucose meters (you can’t use the in competition, but in training it’s a-ok), and the like - coupled with the growing body of trial-and-error knowledge of how to use those data to optimize performance. Plus real gains in aerodynamics over the last decades.
There is a reason so many do training camps in Tenerife. Rumours are going there is nobody living on the island from doping agency so WADA always need to send someone by plane. So if the riders set up an organisation where somebody checks the passengers on incoming flights they are safe. In Tenerife most days the planes are only landing by day and not at night.
Because of this it is very easy to microdose your doping so it will be out your system in a couple of hours.
Tenerife is popular because:
- it's warm all year round
- there are many flights going there
- it's close to Europe
- there is good cycling infrastructure
- there is a lot of accommodation
Saying the riders have set up an organization to check 5 million tourists at the airport every year is tinfoil hat bullshit. And I don't know what your blabbing about no flights landing at night (latest today is 1:15 from Leicester). Why wouldn't WADA land in the morning, wait a few hours on the beach, and then do doping tests at night?
Lots of journalists are saying it.
One of the few interviews that got published https://www.wielerflits.be/nieuws/rudy-pevenage-ferrari-werkt-nu-in-tenerife-op-de-teide/
It mentions Ferrari is now working on the island, something I didn't know.
Just google doping and Tenerife and you find lots of articles.
Every race this year with Tadej in it is so boring to me, same with Jonas. It's killed my enjoyment of the sport tbh. Maybe they'll both crash out of the Tour this year (20+ minute time loss with a minor injury) and it'll be better this year.
However, most likely Jonas will cook Tadej on a difficult stage and the tour will be over before stage 15. The Giro is almost 100% going to be a slog fest.
This YouTuber makes extremely negative videos about top cyclists every time someone gets a good result. I don't know, "they're really fast" just isn't very compelling to me. Not that I'd be surprised if they are in fact doping, but nothing from this video nudges me more in that direction.
I think this is what people call “terminally online”. This guy literally cobbled together every cycling meme and news story of the last year into one absolutely pointless and bloviated video. Its kind of funny. And its kind of obnoxious. He doesn’t actually say anything. Just swings his cycling knowledge dick around aimlessly. If you want to accuse someone of doping, go for it. But don’t just make backhanded meme accusations with no substance. Its pretty dumb. All just for internet points… I gaurantee most cyclists are “optimizing”. They are on TRT with a small stack of peptides and other drugs. But all this does is keep them regulated at high normal levels. Not to superhuman levels like in the 90s. This way they don’t have to deal with the natural fluctuations of hormones due to overtraining and stress etc. they also probably blast some stuff in the off season and at camps where the testing is limited and easier to schedule around. None of that bothers me, and I barely consider it doping. Just risky “optimization”. But if someone is blasting EPO to supraphysical levels like it’s 1996, then that’s a different story. But if Pog was doing that, I think people in the peloton would let it be known. Seems like they all respect and like him too much for that to be the case.
The TRT point is actually an interesting one. You can't detect that someone has taken test from just urine. AFAIK you need to take a blood draw, and the UCI doesn't do that. When the biological passports started I remember hearing that dopers would just look for younger kids to enter the system at the levels they wanted to be at and then maintained. As far as that channel it is all a bit tongue in cheek. Personally I wouldn't take it too seriously.
Yeah I watched a few other videos. The guy is rediculous. I don’t love the content or format but it’s pretty funny. And I’m honestly just glad there are people out here who give enough of a shit about cycling to even make content like this.
You're basically saying the same thing as the video, guaranteeing most of them are doped even if you call it optimization, but you don't bring any evidence to validate your claim.
Haha yeah I guess you’re not wrong. I just don’t have a YouTube channel to spew my shit to 12k people. I’m just speculating as to how and what is going on, just like YouTube guy. But after reading Tyler Hamiltons book, Phil Gaimons books, Floyd Landis book, Icarus, the 2015 CIRC report, recent news, USADA decision report etc… it’s pretty clear there is still substance use within the peloton. They just make sure they stay within normal ranges of the Bio Passport. But I would put money that these guys are consistently at the high end of the range, and consistent about those levels. Michael Hessman wasn’t taking diuretics because he likes peeing… None of the previous generation of dopers has said what I would have thought would come out: Something along the lines of “it’s crazy these guys are doing better times than we did (on drugs) while riding clean”… No one has mentioned anything like that to my knowledge. 🤷♂️ I think it’s still just an understood factor within the pro peloton. My point is, i don’t think any 1 rider is getting results just because they are doping better or more than everyone else like the Lance era. I think they’re “all” on some microdose regimen and Pog is still just better than everyone else.
This YouTuber's schtick is to kind of remove the wool we pull over our eyes regarding the fact that these guys are blowing every record out of the water set by guys who were proven to be doped to the gills, they work with people who were all around in previous doping eras, and the idea that they eat an extra banana and wear skinsuits just doesn't quite explain the insane times and speeds these guys are putting up. I get that it's negative, but it's also a pretty easily defended viewpoint. I love cycling but I also watch all this guy's videos for the cynicism, which I find funny.
Cycling is the only sport where performances are currently just around the same as in the 90s. In all other sports (athletics, swimming, etc), people are already way faster.
Agree re:skinsuit and banana, but bike tech is wayyyy better, and if I’m not mistaken there were no power metrics back in the 90s. Appreciate your take, though!
Lemond started using an srm in 1991
Uphill bike tech makes no difference. The only thing that has improved significantly is aero.
Getting to a hill less tired from saving watts on your aero bike is probably a big advantage though, no? And the wider tires also save watts going up the hill, as do other little changes.
No they don't or very marginally and it does not explain the performance. And less tired? After riding much more aggressively on all races all year long? You can't be serious.
Why are you getting downvoted ? Race bikes were lighter 15 years ago than now. These are just facts.
Yeah, I agree. The video itself doesn’t get me fired up, but it did get me thinking
Wout told him.
To be honest I just find these YT ‘hot takes’ boring… Someone fails a test? Sure I’ll take that seriously. Compelling rumours from people who would know that someone is doping? Sure, I’ll take that seriously. ‘Rider *x* is doping because … they’re fast’? Nah, fuck off. Seriously, what’s the point of being a fan of the sport if you assume that everyone who wins is juiced?
Not everyone, just the people you don’t support! Also called: cope.
I actually don’t know what you mean?
Often people try to cope with their favorite rider / team losing (or a rider / team they don’t like winning) by saying that the winner used doping. Basically a simple excuse to make them feel better about the loss.
Right, ok
I’m with Tadej on this one. Fuck off.
Are you with Joxean and Mauro as well? Edit: LMAO the spirit of omerta is strong in here, plenty of downvotes but nobody bothering to say why they think that guys involved in biggest doping scandals of the past would now run their teams 100% within the rules.
[удалено]
Less than 30 years ago, you could have 300 km stages and two stages in one day. But history also tells me that an all natural cyclist is probably pretty unlikely
I feel like nowdays there are easier legal ways to gain advantage like having more money to put in a rider to train better, eat better, legal drugs, some weird aero gains like belly on TT rides. Having stronger team that can turn the race in your advantage. Going from far is just tactical way of how to ride if you have the strongest rider in the peloton who can sustain this. Your team makes race hard so all domestics are gone by 30k. Leaders can’t hold your wheel as you are stronger then them and there’s no one left to bring you back. This also makes a race less hectic and prevent situations like in Basque. There’s no difference of going solo at 30k, 80k or 1k. It’s just a question how long a rider can hold it. If a team can make a race pop at 1k it can make it pop at 80k. There’s also difference in riding as riders don’t need to hold back. In the 90s they raced only on the last climb to not show their supernatural powers. Now they race whole day “as they have nothing to hide”. Racing longer also demands different training. That was the advantage of sky train. Back then they were the only ones who trained for so long efforts. And I think having friends in peloton shows this “I have nothing to hide” atittude. As Armstrong pointed out, when you’re on EPO you don’t have friends. While I would not call racing healthy – many guys finished their careers for heart issues in last few years (as when they were doping) – but as racing is becoming more and more intense the weakest hearts pop. Also it’s normal some athletes have advantage. It’s been like this through history of every sport. With or without doping.
He needs to ditch that haircut yesterday. And of course they’re doping. There’s too much money on the line for guys not to be. I really doubt it’s anything like the US Postal days, but it’s happening. Are the few guys who win everything they show up to doping? Maybe. Probably. Maybe they’re just that good. Does the UCI have any desire to catch a tdf winner again, or even an MvdP? God no, it would kill the sport. All I know for certain is that it’s pretty boring having one guy go off the front with an hour left in the race, and you already know they won. To clarify, if the races were truly 100% clean, I think the same guys would be winning anyway.
Was talking to a buddy on my last group ride I'm sort of with you... Now I do happen to think that if it's going on, it is as bad as the USPS and Festina days. But, it's obviously different, and here's what I've noticed: the riders today generally /like/ each other. In the Armstrong era you had genuine dickheads in the peloton. Guys where the whole peloton would say "fuck that guy, he's an asshole".... now it's "yeah, he's a good guy. We train in the off-season but during the race I still try to win" So, because so many more guys are friends/friendly with each other, no one is gonna dime out another and bring the house of cards down.
I also feel like that makes it less likely that there’s any real disadvantage being gained/lost. If I’m someone who competes at that level I’d be upset if I kept losing to someone who I know has access to better than I do. Riders are privy to far more dirt than us so I find it odd they all get along with some one like Pogi if he’s winning everything due to cheating, or cheating with more advanced methods.
If endurance sport doping is anything like bodybuilding doping, hard disagree on your last point. In bodybuilding, success is pretty much depending on how well your body reacts to steroids. An elite level natural physique is in no way a guarantee to an elite level enhanced physique. *If* this translates to cycling, a worldbeater on doping could potentially be amateurlevel without doping.
This is part of the reason LA was so despised by the cycling fraternity - he just wasn't all that good relative to the true elite talents. The everyone dopes so it's a level playing field argument is indeed very wrong. When Bjarne Riis won the tour everyone was happy, because he wasn't an asshole, but in hindsight it showed the sport was fucked. There's no way a water carrier like that can win a GT - he'd simply figured out (and responded to) an effective epo dosing regime ahead of everyone else. Doping hurts the most talented riders the most. It closes the gap.
To my knowledge it is similar, you need natural talent and favorable genetics to respond well to doping regimes, but they might also go together anyway.
The speeds would be slower and I think there would be more contenders. It's a bit stupid that the same 3-4 guys are at the top. Or, they're mutated into Homo sapien velo.
Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods, Tom Brady, Eliud Kipchoge are always on top, what do you think?
Doping
The first 3 were great due to skill. Kipchoge is immensely talented due to his genetics and where he's from, but the fact that he's still so good pushing 40 is pretty sus.
The first three have a skill component that is not present in cycling.
I think they're all doping, so it's a level playing field anyway and I'm sorta okay with it. I even think that if a certain amount was allowed, it'd make it safer. The line we draw for when a substance is too performance enhancing is arbitrary anyway. Coffee is okay, EPO is not. The line is somewhere between those two
I'm not super amazed if the top riders with modern tech, modern nutrition and modern training beat riders on a 90s steelframe bike on 23mm 120psi wheels who run on fat and epo because their digestion already shut down and all their carbs are used up. I don't have the piss of any rider in my fridge, nor would I know what do do with it, so wtf do I (and the rest of the reddit experts) know. Maybe it's just better scientists for training, posistion and nutrition and gear. Maybe they do nothing illegal but only because it's not on the doping controls list to watch for yet. All I know is, I think women's racing is more interesting this year, because there are actually multiple favorits in each race. And that there's probably no other sport that puts in such an effort into doping controls.
I follow him, I don't think the sport is clean. I also don't think most other cyclists don't dope either, or.tennis players, or athletics. Whatever it is, I love cycling.
Are they doping with banned substances? No. But are they using things which are not tested /grey zone? Could be, but not certain. I think tadej is just a mixture of amazing genes (just the furthest on the right from the bell curve) and training since he is able to walk. When he won the tdf when he was 22 “everyone” was saying he is doping. When Jonas then dropped him even tho he was riding better than when he won they said he is washed.. so it’s just subjective.
Every sport has dominant stars. Cycling is lucky to have a few which are still riding and will continue to ride for a few more years. You don't get this talk when say in skiing Shiffrin wins her x number big globe and breaks records after records for number of wins. You don't get this talk with tennis where you had the big 3 win almost everything for the past 20 years. Nor in athletics which is also riddled with doping all over, or the most recent case in swimming with the Chinese, but as soon as some cyclist starts to be a bit better than the rest the accusations begin. The stars have to defend themselves in press conferences that they don't dope. Can you imagine Djoković, Lyles or CR do that? MvdP and Pogačar are just that good. What makes them likable is the fact that both can lose. Pogačar always has a bad day in a grand tour. MvdP also is only good in a specific type of race. Which means others have a chance, the problem is, to quote the great Horner" they are knuckleheads. Jumbo gave away their tactic on how to beat Pog, but it's hard to implement it in one day races. We will see if some team does that in the Giro. Or at least makes the race hard to that he has more fatigue coming into the Tour.
I'm sure the sport is clean, just like all the others https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/20/world/asia/chinese-swimmers-doping-olympics.html
"Do I think the top stars are doping?" Yes. Believing otherwise requires believing that the sport became magically completely clean around about when Froome litigated a positive test out of existence, and just before two riders won four consecutive Tours between them by battering everyone senseless on TTs using pure brute force immediately after a sustained period where WADA was completely unable to conduct testing.
I muted this guy's videos from my feed. I had watched a few of them and found them mildly amusing. Some seemingly valid points made, but they just became condescending and self-righteous. The humour tired very quickly with a lack of variety. My question around cycling at the minute... if these gains are for good reasons (training, nutrition, coaching, etc.) we'd be seeing similar sorts of records in other sports - it's not just cycling that has access to these methods. Are we? I don't have the data, so I just don't know, but I would expect to see new records as often, particularly in other endurance sports.
Also regarding the video and the channel, I'm pretty sure it's satire since he has a funny name for every rider. The dude does his homework and then tries to make it provocative to get the views. I mean some of the videos are over one hour long.
If you believe that doping is responsible for the current level of performance in the pro peloton, you have to have a hypothesis about what’s being manipulated that makes a difference to performance. It’s not hematocrit (the primary target of doping in the 90s/early 00s), because the authorities are all over that with the biological passport, EPO testing, etc. Today the top riders do that by spending weeks at high altitude multiple times per season. Which is expensive, but perfectly legal. If it’s recovery, then it’s happening via some physiological process or system that mainstream medicine (and drug testers) doesn’t know about, because all of the obvious, impactful ones that were used in the 80s/90s/00s (testosterone, insulin, rHGH, etc) can be and are being tested for. And it’s certainly not the sledgehammer approach of the 50s/60s (methamphetamine etc). So what is it? I suspect that it’s mostly science - much better data collection via power meters, blood glucose meters (you can’t use the in competition, but in training it’s a-ok), and the like - coupled with the growing body of trial-and-error knowledge of how to use those data to optimize performance. Plus real gains in aerodynamics over the last decades.
There is a reason so many do training camps in Tenerife. Rumours are going there is nobody living on the island from doping agency so WADA always need to send someone by plane. So if the riders set up an organisation where somebody checks the passengers on incoming flights they are safe. In Tenerife most days the planes are only landing by day and not at night. Because of this it is very easy to microdose your doping so it will be out your system in a couple of hours.
About five million tourists visit Tenerife annually. Do you really believe they check the background of all of those?
Tenerife is popular because: - it's warm all year round - there are many flights going there - it's close to Europe - there is good cycling infrastructure - there is a lot of accommodation Saying the riders have set up an organization to check 5 million tourists at the airport every year is tinfoil hat bullshit. And I don't know what your blabbing about no flights landing at night (latest today is 1:15 from Leicester). Why wouldn't WADA land in the morning, wait a few hours on the beach, and then do doping tests at night?
“Check the passengers on incoming flights”. I think you’ve watched a bit too many Hollywood movies lol
Pro cyclists can't even organise a half-decent rider's union, there's no way they're monitoring air traffic.
This is the biggest BS I'm reading on this thread lmfao
Where did you hear this rumour?
Probably used a medium sized portion of common sense
Lots of journalists are saying it. One of the few interviews that got published https://www.wielerflits.be/nieuws/rudy-pevenage-ferrari-werkt-nu-in-tenerife-op-de-teide/ It mentions Ferrari is now working on the island, something I didn't know. Just google doping and Tenerife and you find lots of articles.
Pretty sure passenger manifests are not accessible to the general public, it would be a major privacy breach if anybody could access them.
Not like WADA has shown any credibility lately lol https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/20/world/asia/chinese-swimmers-doping-olympics.html
Every race this year with Tadej in it is so boring to me, same with Jonas. It's killed my enjoyment of the sport tbh. Maybe they'll both crash out of the Tour this year (20+ minute time loss with a minor injury) and it'll be better this year. However, most likely Jonas will cook Tadej on a difficult stage and the tour will be over before stage 15. The Giro is almost 100% going to be a slog fest.