Avin Wargunnson wrote:

What if i told you that Bolt and rest of Jamaican stars are doped too with high possibility?

First a quick primer on altitude. Some people say air gets thinner the higher you go. But what we’re really talking about is a lower partial pressure of oxygen with altitude. There’s a linear aspect where the higher you get the more the partial pressure of oxygen drops although if it helps, it’s said once you pass 1,500 metres above sea level the body begins to adapt and 2,400m is deemed “high altitude.� These are easy labels of course because if you are at 1,499m and move to 1,501m you can’t tell the difference. Also there are other issues once people go above 4,000m but that’s well beyond any race.

Humans can acclimatise to altitude but having scanned the literature there’s little permanent benefit. In other words you can go on an altitude training camp for a few weeks, you can stay for a few months or even a few years and your blood chemistry will adapt to the hypoxia from the altitude but once you go back down towards sea level the gains are lost. This is to skip over the subtleties of altitude training but for the sake of brevity, the gains, if you get them, can be totally lost in a month.

issoisso wrote:


Chocobo's explanation in 2011 was that he fell into a depression after the 2008 Tour, barely trained and was contemplating suicide until his friends helped him snap out of it in mid 2011

Stairs wrote:
Okay, so, let's have some ranking fun!

List the most riduculous rides and riders within the last 10 years. There's been quite a few! From the top of my head:

1. Emanuelle Sella in the Giro 2008
Probably the most ridiculous ride ever to occur post-90's. I actually defended him after his first and second stage win but when he was then 2nd on Plan de Corones, it was just ludicrous - and when he even won the final mountain stage, all there was to do was just to take a bow and applause the show.

2. Chris Froome 2011-2013
We all know the story of Froome and those of us who followed him back in his U23-days will agree to the ridiculousness. The worst thing about him is that we - the spectators - have become so much smarter since the mid 00's. We know how to recognize a doper by now.

3. Santi' Perez in the Vuelta 2004
Perez had quite a few good results in his first professional seasons but absolutely no-one would have betted on the absolute ridiculousness of his riding against Roberto Heras in the 2004 Vuelta. It was fun watching and really a great race when I was still all too naive to suspect anything.

4. The CERA-gang of Saunier Duval, Schumacher and Kohl in the 2008 Tour
We were smarter by then and we could all smell doping from far away. Only Kohl were we ready to give some benefit of the doubt, at least to some extent. But no.

5. Lance Armstrong, all the way to 2009
Yes, and 2009 TdF was just the icing on the cake

6. Haussler in 2009
This is more controversial, I am very aware of that - but seriously, what an explosion of power he was in the first half of 2009. Suddenly a super classics sprinter, super cobbler and so much else. The thing was, it almost looked like he was surprised at his own strength. Had he been better aware of it, he would have won a few classics that spring. Instead, he faded back to somewhat mediocrity but has had a very fine season this year.

7. Isidro Nozal 2003 (and 2004 to some extent)
Boom! There he was! Boom! Gone forever.

8. Michael Rasmussen, Tour de France 2007
It was a wonderful summer being Danish but by the time he caught up with and overhauled Valverde on the ITT, well, it was just too obvious.

9. Hincapie on Pla-d'Adet
Not much to say. Bumblebee learns to fly.

10. Ivan Basso, Giro d'Italia 2006
I remember sitting watching the ridiculousness, first in awe but by the time of Simoni's ET-comments, I was very much in doubt. It was just too much.

11. JEG Cataluña, Giro 2006
Same as Hincapie. Come on.

12. Landis...
Yeah, it needs to be here somewhere. I don't actually think he was that suspicious in comparison to the rest of the 75 kg-guys climbing the fastest in the world back in 2006. Back then, it was all meh, today it was just a bunch of ridiculousness.

13. Di Luca - a whole career, especially Giro 2009
The Giro 2009 probably is the landmark of riduculousness of his career. He was an attacking-monster but a joy to watch. 2009 was a great Giro, much thanks to him.

14. Pecharroman
I don't actually remember seeing this guy in action - I just started following cycling later that summer of 2003 - but he's become somewhat of an urban legend of the unlikely fluke.

15. Joaquim Rodriguez - constant top shape from late 2009 to the end of 2012.
I don't get it. He even became one the absolute best climbers on all mountain-type stages and a decent TT'er along the way - how did he find the time when he's been riding all over Europe winning races and podium'ed from March to October every year?

There are many more that would deserve a spot. Mosquera, Porte, Sky, the High-Road/Columbia team of 2008/2009, Zabriskie, Julich, Vinokourov/Kashechkin, US Postal and so on.

The ranking ended up a bit arbitrary so don't put too much weight on it.

fosforgasXIII wrote:
I'm surprised Santambrogio isn't in the top 15. Everyone here knew it was just a matter of months before he got caught.

issoisso wrote:


Not everyone. There were a few who defended him very strongly, the same way there are equally clueless people defending Sky.

"@ammattipyoraily: #TDF, Stage 8. Ax-3-Domaines (first 7.85 km). Chris Froome ["67 kg"]: 21:41. I think that ‘CPL [6.51 W/kg]’ is the most accurate formula."

puts Froomes power well into the range only documented in dopers

gotlandrules wrote:
It's just too obvious, should close this thread

Alakagom wrote:


I predict, if the website is still on, this thread will keep going 10 years more at least

anager Dave Brailsford has dismissed estimates such as Vayer's as pseudo-science and says that he will not publish his riders' power data because "interpreting it is not as simple as it seems."

Interpreting Froome's improvement against the watch in recent years is no simple matter either. Prior to the 2011 Tour de Suisse, Froome had never finished in the top 10 in a time trial in a WorldTour event, yet a little over two years later, the 28-year-old put two minutes into his overall rivals in a 33-kilometre time trial at the Tour de France