Tour de France 2018

karlypants wrote:

Travelodge wrote:And again....see?

I thought you said you weren’t hanging round here?  

Nice to see him back though KP. The false beard fooled no one though.

Certainly not where he was wearing it.

karlypants wrote:

Travelodge wrote:And again....see?

I thought you said you weren’t hanging round here?  

Si - vete a la mierda Dave! Ese es mi trabajo. Ve y construye un bote o algo....

In the words of Magoo. Oy bread, stop being a pussy and come back

Boggersbelief wrote:In the words of Magoo. Oy bread, stop being a pussy and come back

Too right Boggers. Anyone who can start a 'farts in the bath' thread,needs to be heard.

Although not in a bubble blowing way.

boltonbonce wrote:

Boggersbelief wrote:In the words of Magoo. Oy bread, stop being a pussy and come back

Too right Boggers. Anyone who can start a 'farts in the bath' thread,needs to be heard.

Although not in a bubble blowing way.

Deserved win by Thomas, clearly the best rider in the Tour.

Fair play to Froome battling back to reclaim third spot from Roglic, I didn't think he would.

Not a classic Tour to remember really though.

As you know Sluffy,I'm not a fan of the sport,so I don't have the right to judge if this was a classic,or not,but,from what I can see,this win has been achieved by sheer hard work,and a passion for the sport.
No TUE's,and no drug cloud on the horizon.
If Thomas can start to put a little polish on what has become a badly tarnished sport,then I think,classic or not,he'll have done a sterling job.
Well done to him.

boltonbonce wrote:As you know Sluffy,I'm not a fan of the sport,so I don't have the right to judge if this was a classic,or not,but,from what I can see,this win has been achieved by sheer hard work,and a passion for the sport.
No TUE's,and no drug cloud on the horizon.
If Thomas can start to put a little polish on what has become a badly tarnished sport,then I think,classic or not,he'll have done a sterling job.
Well done to him.

I guess it is all about perception really.

If people are drawn into the sport because of Thomas's win then that is a good thing for everybody and greatly welcomed.

Fwiw I've never though either Wiggins or Froome have ever been drug cheats.

If you did though, then you would have to wonder if Thomas is too because he's been with Brailsford (GB cycling then Sky Team supremo) from the very beginning and won two Olympic golds with Wiggins and has been with Team Sky right from the start, even before they signed Chris Froome.

So if people believe Wiggins and Froome are somehow tainted, I can't see why they wouldn't think that Thomas must be similarly tainted also?

I tend to think there is sort of an anti-Anderson analogy here, in that people (including yourself) have doubts about Anderson, then everything Anderson does must be doubtful - and similarly people have doubts about the integrity of cycling, then everything about cycling must be doubtful also.

If Thomas win helps break that sort of thinking for people, then that may very well become a watershed moment for the sport.

Let's hope so anyway because it really is a great sport to follow if people would only give it a chance.

I agree about Froome and Wiggins. There have been a few odd things happening ,but certainly no smoking gun.
I'm not even against TUE's,if they're needed. Being asthmatic shouldn't mean you're barred from top level sport.
And for the record,I'm not anti Anderson,but,for obvious reasons,I tend to wear my 'concerned' hat.
We're in a better place than we were,so fair play to him for that.

boltonbonce wrote:I agree about Froome and Wiggins. There have been a few odd things happening ,but certainly no smoking gun.
I'm not even against TUE's,if they're needed. Being asthmatic shouldn't mean you're barred from top level sport.
And for the record,I'm not anti Anderson,but,for obvious reasons,I tend to wear my 'concerned' hat.
We're in a better place than we were,so fair play to him for that.

Just for clarity, I was saying that you had 'doubts' about Anderson, not that you were actually anti-Anderson.

As for TUE's, I've no doubt they have been used to gain unfair advantage BUT have stayed just the right side of the rules to do so.  Pushing the envelope no doubt but all professional teams in all sports do that.

I don't think it is still allowed but what used to happen in football was that home clubs used to reduce the width of the pitch when playing against teams who liked to spread the ball wide - unethical and unsportsman like - probably, against the rules at the time - certainly not!

Rather than start a new thread that hardly anyone will read I thought I'd use this to congratulate Bury lad  Simon Yates on his victory in the Tour of Spain (better known in the cycling world as Vuelta) and who will be crowned tomorrow after the ceremonial procession into Madrid for the final stage.

In the road cycling world there are only three stage races that count (a stage race is one that last more than a single day), being the Tour de France - which is acknowledged as THE race, the Tour of Italy (better known as the Giro) and the Vuelta.

For the first time in cycling's history three separate people representing the same country have come first in all the three major races in the same year - Thomas (TdF), Froome (Giro) and now Yates at the Vuelta.

This win marks Yates out as a major contender for future Tours (and he has a twin brother Adam, who is equally as good as he is).

In reality Chris Froome will be the man to beat next season, with a Dutch rider Tom Dumoulin as a close challenger but now it puts Yates into the elite group that will be challenging them.

As a side note it will be interesting to see how Thomas will fit back in to being Froome's main support rider again - as Froome will be given team leadership to go for his fifth TdF win (which will equal the total of the Tour's four other 'immortals' - nobody mentions Lance Armstrongs achievements any more of course!

In reality it is all but impossible these days to win all three Tours in the same year and more often than not riders target if they want to commit fully to the TdF or go all out to win either/or the Giro and Vuelta (like Yates did this year).

Yates is young in terms of top riders, so his time will come to win the big one - the TdF, but he's already got a Tour victory to his name now, which many top riders have never achieved in their careers.

Well done Simon Yates, as technically the first born and bred Englishman to win a tour!