Le Tour 2008 - 2 amazing facts



plectrum

New Member
Jul 26, 2007
287
2
0
Fact 1. Valverde seems to be riding clean but unfortunately is rubbish (either that or MIB have given him a distinct warnign not to pull any remarkable drug fuelled performances!)

Fact 2. Mark Cavendish seems like he is going to try and ride the mountains and hallelujah is the fastest sprinter in the world .... Boonen, Abdou, Zabel etc ... move over a new sheriff is in town!
 
158.
GBR.jpg
CAVENDISH Mark 43 TEAM COLUMBIA 44h 13' 50" + 1h 44' 41"
:eek::eek::eek::eek::D:D:D
 
plectrum said:
Fact 1. Valverde seems to be riding clean but unfortunately is rubbish (either that or MIB have given him a distinct warnign not to pull any remarkable drug fuelled performances!)
Maybe some of the riders decided they did not want to risk transfusing blood while their blood profiles are being watched. Valverde seems to ride okay when he races in Spain or in this year's one day races. He has sucked in the TdF ever since Operation Puerto.
 
Bro Deal said:
Maybe some of the riders decided they did not want to risk transfusing blood while their blood profiles are being watched. Valverde seems to ride okay when he races in Spain or in this year's one day races. He has sucked in the TdF ever since Operation Puerto.
That would give credence to the opinion expressed by many posters here that he cannot last for the duration of a grand tour in the absence of a proper medical program.
 
plectrum said:
Fact 1. Valverde seems to be riding clean but unfortunately is rubbish (either that or MIB have given him a distinct warnign not to pull any remarkable drug fuelled performances!)

Fact 2. Mark Cavendish seems like he is going to try and ride the mountains and hallelujah is the fastest sprinter in the world .... Boonen, Abdou, Zabel etc ... move over a new sheriff is in town!
Opinion 1: Im totally bummed about Valverde. I just cant stomach watching evans in yellow.

Opinion 2: The teams professing internal testing and how clean they are are producing highly suspicious results. Makes this tour even more hypocritical.
 
Klodifan said:
Opinion 2: The teams professing internal testing and how clean they are are producing highly suspicious results. Makes this tour even more hypocritical.
There is a point.

The performance of many riders is so strange when compared to a few years back that it makes the race surprising and unpredictable. It has actually made the results even less believable than they used to be. As it becomes obvious that a rider is not on the same jet fueled program he used to be on, it makes the riders who beat him even more suspicious.
 
Klodifan said:
Opinion 1: Im totally bummed about Valverde. I just cant stomach watching evans in yellow.
Why are you so anti-Evans though? He may have been a wheelsucker in the past, but at least today, he did his share of work (and then some more), and actually attacked when he sighted Kirchen catching up with the group. So, I would say that he definitely earned the yellow jersey today.
 
plectrum said:
Fact 1. Valverde seems to be riding clean but unfortunately is rubbish (either that or MIB have given him a distinct warnign not to pull any remarkable drug fuelled performances!)

Fact 2. Mark Cavendish seems like he is going to try and ride the mountains and hallelujah is the fastest sprinter in the world .... Boonen, Abdou, Zabel etc ... move over a new sheriff is in town!
I think people have overestimated Valverde's capabilities. I wrote something simililar about Cunego somewhere on here, everyone got so excited about his podiums in the Tour Of Spain, and the stage win to Courchevel, that they have made him into what he is not. Anyone can have one solid day in the mountains, but throughout a Tour, its the steady engines thatusually wins. Last year he might have had one of the most unimpressive 6th (I believe that is where he ended up) place finishes I have every seen. He hardly ever looked competitive. Everyone keeps referring him as the future, but hes 26 or 27 now I believe. With Ricco, Contador, Nibali, the future of cycling is going to come before he ever reaches the summit.

Cavendish is looking like someone who could win 6 green jerseys, because I think his closest competitor in his age range could be his own teammate, Ciolek. Its scary the difference between his speed and everyone elses.
 
Capt.Injury said:
Cavendish is looking like someone who could win 6 green jerseys, because I think his closest competitor in his age range could be his own teammate, Ciolek. Its scary the difference between his speed and everyone elses.
Yep I said last year somewhere and to people that he will dominate the Green Jersey over the next 10 years.

Cavendish could win 6 green jersey's just like Contador could win 6 yellow jerseys.

And you're right regarding Ciolek. Looking at the younger sprinters. Ciolek and Cavendish are the guns. Ciolek may move teams and we may see Ciolek and Cavendish going against each other.
 
Grater said:
And you're right regarding Ciolek. Looking at the younger sprinters. Ciolek and Cavendish are the guns. Ciolek may move teams and we may see Ciolek and Cavendish going against each other.
Edvald Boasson Hagen is around the same age and looks like a great prospect too.
 

Similar threads