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The 4 riders who have a legit shot at winning the Tour de France
Business Insider ^ | 6/26 | Daniel McMahon

Posted on 06/30/2017 5:24:21 PM PDT by Baynative

On Saturday, 198 of the world's best cyclists will start the Tour de France. Only four have a realistic shot at winning.

That's according to the highest-ranked American bike racer at the Tour, Andrew Talansky, in a recent interview with Business Insider.


(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Extended News; News/Current Events; Unclassified
KEYWORDS: 4; athletes; chitchat; cycling; france; letour; sportschat; tdf
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To: oldplayer

I am an avid cyclist, Baynative, but to your video clips I just say “DAMN!”

Sorry, Guys. It was ETL’s video clip wrecks that are so horrid to watch, not yours Baynative.

BTW, thanks for leading this thread Baynative. The Tour should be interesting again. It’s just my opinion, but I think the racing is cleaner than it ever has been, and better for it. (I know, I know . . . the occasional positive tests and banishments show that there is still some doping going on in the peloton.)


41 posted on 06/30/2017 8:26:05 PM PDT by oldplayer
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To: oldplayer

I ride a lot too. But not with a racing or road bike, but rather a vintage 1966 Schwinn Sting-Ray I picked up about 2 months ago. I’ve since added a chrome Springer suspension fork to it, as well as a new, thicker, better cushioned banana seat. The bike now looks very much like the Schwinn Grey Ghost of the “Krate” series of Schwinn chopper bikes.

The Krates, such as Orange Krate, Lemon Peeler, Apple Krate, Pea Picker, Grey Ghost, etc, today, go for $3,000-5,000, if in mint condition.


42 posted on 06/30/2017 8:27:36 PM PDT by ETL (Obama-Hillary, the REAL Russia-US scandal (UraniumOne Deal, Missile Defense, Nukes) See my home page)
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To: oldplayer
This is the Schwinn Grey Ghost. There is one on eBay with a current bid of $4,250.

Image result for schwinn grey ghost

43 posted on 06/30/2017 8:38:15 PM PDT by ETL (Obama-Hillary, the REAL Russia-US scandal (UraniumOne Deal, Missile Defense, Nukes) See my home page)
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To: JPJones

And now dont forget the guy who put the lithium batteries in their bike tube frames to power a hidden motor in the crank.

Like i said, if its a legal supplement anyone can buy at a grocery store or health store, they should be able to use them, whichever ones they want. Same with the blood doping, if they want to do that. Some may not want todo blood doping but will be open to supplements that others may not prefer to use.


44 posted on 06/30/2017 8:38:24 PM PDT by Secret Agent Man ( Gone Galt; Not averse to Going Bronson.)
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To: IrishBrigade
Contador hasn't done much this year. But then again, neither has Froome. And all the long money is on him.

I wouldn't write off Porte or Qunitana, or Greipl or Kittel or ...

That's what makes the Tour so fun!

And this just in ...

I ride my first Individual Time Trial next week.

I'll be with the Tour guys in spirit ...

45 posted on 06/30/2017 8:55:00 PM PDT by IronJack
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To: JPJones
"It’s been going on for a lot longer than that:

Les Forçats de la Route (The Convicts of the Road)

Was an article on Tour doping written in 1924.

For decades, it literally was NOT illegal and EXPECTED that doping should take place."


You're confusing drugs that get you stoned with performance-enhancing drugs. Prior to EPO, what they used mostly only relieved fatigue and blunted the pain of high-levels of exertion. In the early years it was "cocaine and chloroform." Amphetamines don't make you faster, they just let you ignore your body's screams for mercy. Even steroids were primarily for recovery because if you took doses big enough to make you more muscular and more powerful, you also would gain weight and, worst of all, water weight.

Blood boosting was an exception but in the early days, hauling around refrigerated blood was logistically complicated, the risk of discovery was high, and the shelf life of refrigerated blood was short, so its impact was systemically limited.

EPO was the first drug that genuinely no-bull-shizzle made a rider faster AND more durable, and it didn't show up in the pro peloton until probably the mid-1980s. From 1991 on, if you weren't on EPO, you weren't on the podium.

Lemond was the last TdF champion who there is no hint of scandal about, and they'll be gene doping before you know it (presuming they're not already)


46 posted on 06/30/2017 9:52:55 PM PDT by Paal Gulli
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To: Baynative

The fact is the sport today is as dirty as it every was. The proof of that was the 2013 Vuelta a España when a domestique who had never once been in contention for GC in a Grand Tour suddenly, at the age of 41, finds his inner racehorse and wins the Vuelta.

Pharmstrong had a term for performances like that. He called them, “Not normal.”

The most bizarre part is that Horner’s miracle win hardly raised an eyebrow, despite the fact that it came AFTER Pharmstrong’s “Come to Oprah” performance, when everyone’s rose-colored glasses SHOULD HAVE BEEN off. Yet no one (publicly) connected his performance with his past association with Pharmstrong, whose lieutenant and confidant he had been for the two seasons of Pharmstrong’s “un-retirement.”

The truth is, not not just cycling, ALL professsional sports are awash in PEDs, and most amateur sports as well. Doping, particularly in professional sports, is a classic positive feedback loop. You spend money to dope. If you do it right, you win more prizemoney than before, so you have better funding for your future doping efforts.

1. Buy dope. 2. Win more money. 3. Repeat.

Anti-doping, OTOH, is a zero sum game. WADA has “X” amount of cash to spend on anti-doping. And it matters not one whit how many dopers they catch, the next season they still only get “X” dollars for combating the PEDs scourge. There is no rewards system, no positive reinforcement. Past successes contribute nothing to future efforts.

Plus, anti-doping has to play by the rules, and the dopers know exactly what those rules are. The dopers (obviously) DON”T have to play by the rules. They can do whatever they want (so long as they don’t get caught). They’re constantly testing, tweaking and amending, changing substances, administration strategies, masking agents and adulterants, because that’ the only way to #1) stay ahead of the competition and #2) stay ahead of anti-doping.

So WADA/USADA are shooting at a moving target. By the time they’ve figured out what it is the dopers are doing, the dopers are on to something else.

Ergo the axiom, “You can’t fail the drug test unless you first fail the I.Q. test.” Meaning as long as you follow the established regimen, as long as you don’t break the protocol, you won’t get caught. So they dope with impunity.

Which is why anti-doping will NEVER catch up unless there’s an internal change in the sport and the athletes themselves decide to give it up. Because right now, as a risk/reward proposition, ...doping is looking pretty damn good.


47 posted on 06/30/2017 10:08:31 PM PDT by Paal Gulli
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To: Baynative

It’s here! My first of 2 TdF t-shirts arrived just in time today. Yes, I’m a dork. Thanks for the ping Baynative!


48 posted on 06/30/2017 10:34:34 PM PDT by Ms. AntiFeminazi
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To: Secret Agent Man
I also think blood doping with your own blood should be allowed

I can see your logic, and I have pondered the point myself, but as a practical matter, if they allowed it they would all have to do it, and it would turn into a freak show of sorts. Anyway, they don't want it that way.

49 posted on 07/01/2017 12:11:21 AM PDT by dr_lew (I)
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To: Baynative

Mark, Alberto not Marc, Roberto for the record.


50 posted on 07/01/2017 12:34:38 AM PDT by pluvmantelo (We Americans like dogs & music. If you don't then stay out.)
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To: Paal Gulli

Truth forever on the scaffold, death forever on the throne!


51 posted on 07/01/2017 2:01:51 AM PDT by dr_lew (I)
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To: Baynative

Well, NBCSN is starting the TV Marathon although with today’s Time Trial in Dusseldorf, nothing is real before 9:15am EDT as the first rider goes off at 1515 CEST (Central European SUMMER Time) [6 hour differential]. The final rider, Chris Froome (2016 TdF winner), goes at 1832 CEST which is our 12:32pm EDT.

My enthusiasm is enhanced by the fact that, for the 1st time in my life, I have actually ridden my bike for more annual miles, 3,400, than the Tour will OFFICIALLY do in the next 21 days! I do say OFFICIALLY because there are so many scouting miles done by these pros that I can see them doing those same miles. The idea of doing what has taken me 6 months in 23 days makes me know how hard this is, in all weather and in the Peloton, WOW!


52 posted on 07/01/2017 5:16:19 AM PDT by SES1066 (Happiness is a depressed Washington, DC housing market!)
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To: Noumenon
"Rode a silver-brazed Columbus tubed Bottecchia for crits (all you had to do was think about turning and you were there)"

Ah the memories of the good old days. I still have my classic TT bike. I just can't seem to dump it. I even had it on my office wall for a while...


53 posted on 07/01/2017 6:51:29 AM PDT by Baynative ( Someone's going to have to pay for these carbon emissions, so it might as well be you.)
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To: pluvmantelo

My apologies for rushing to get the thread up while finishing my work for the week. I’ve often suggested an edit function for FR, but I can understand why they don’t offer it.


54 posted on 07/01/2017 6:54:45 AM PDT by Baynative ( Someone's going to have to pay for these carbon emissions, so it might as well be you.)
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To: nutmeg; whattajoke; Aeronaut; jern; concentric circles; Petronski; Voss; glorgau; Cecily; ...

Bike Ping

1/2 hour into the prologue and it's starting to rain. - NOT GOOD

Since this thread started with semi strong interest, I'm thinking of staying with it for the LIVE TdF thread ...maybe I'll ask the mods to change the title. Any comments?

55 posted on 07/01/2017 7:04:41 AM PDT by Baynative ( Someone's going to have to pay for these carbon emissions, so it might as well be you.)
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To: Baynative

Nice! The only bike I have now is a Cannondale touring frame that I rebuilt into a sorta cross bike. Used spin my own wrenches. Should get my old fart butt back in the saddle. Lost a bunch of weight over the last 9 months, and I’m feeling a lot better.


56 posted on 07/01/2017 7:04:44 AM PDT by Noumenon ("Only the dead have seen an end to war.")
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To: Baynative

Bike ungggh.


57 posted on 07/01/2017 7:05:16 AM PDT by Noumenon ("Only the dead have seen an end to war.")
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To: Baynative

Of course that’s not the interesting part of the story. The interesting part is how many years will they have the title before one of their stored samples comes up dirty and the title is stripped.


58 posted on 07/01/2017 7:11:03 AM PDT by discostu (You are what you is, and that's all it is, you ain't what you're not, so see what you got.)
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To: Husker8877

Heh. I left pieces of my hidenon the pavement all over Northern California back in the day


59 posted on 07/01/2017 7:12:16 AM PDT by Noumenon ("Only the dead have seen an end to war.")
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To: Baynative

Fortunately for them they’re Europeans and untouchable and can’t be hunted down by the USADA.......


60 posted on 07/01/2017 7:13:08 AM PDT by Hot Tabasco
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