Cycling/ Cheating etc
-
@scribe said in Cycling/ Cheating etc:
@sparky I'm reading Freeman's book at the moment. At the risk of taking a naive view, I must say he does not come across as dodgy or unethical at all. He talks at length about the whole Jiffy bag situation and provides a sound, rational and lawful argument in my view.
what's his explanation for having the most 'professional' team that cyclings ever seen medical records being on a single laptop and not backed up ANYWHERE???
-
anyway why you guys blabbing on about Sky when Paddy Bloody Bevins tearing up the Tour Down Under.
This finish is the best ever performance by a kiwi on the world stage as far as i'm concerned - blasted the worlds top sprinters winning yesterday and he's paying $4.50 to win the race which i suggest he will defo do as he can climb!
It's always stuck in my mind the time he turned up in Auckland at a crit when he was about 17.. at the time the guy i was doing leadouts for was unstoppable and won every race with ease. I was on Paddys wheel out of the last corner - in 2 pedal strokes he opened about a 5m gap and was gonneeee. won by about 50m. Had grown up racing against Julz Dean who went on to become one of hte best lead out guys - and always thought farrrk if Julz can get there where can Paddy get to cause he has pure speed.
He went overseas and to race in the US domestically but struggled a lot with homesickness and never really performed - so taken him a long time to make it on the world stage.
He's kinda NZ's Peter Sagan - he can climb pretty damn well and obviously in the last couple of years he's been smashing the TT's with i think an 8th at the last worlds which is just awesome.
Anyway he should hang on to win - TDU is usually decided by less than 5secs he's got 15.. if he gets through today his odds will shorten .. 10km to go today and he's still there (and one of the favs).. 10 sec time bonus on the line..
get yer telly on now gonna be farking GOOD
-
4.5KM to go and he's still hanging in.. last climb to go.. he's holding on against some of the biggest names in the sport!
and George Bennett there as well!
this is BRUTAL!
-
he's survived the attacks on the climbs and still there! sitting on Sagans wheel.. 1km to go!
this is epic!
-
Sagan wins.. Bevin in 5th just got a bit far back in final corner. just waiting to see what the GC looks like
-
@WillieTheWaiter I just happened to be watching that without your prompting!
I'm surprised at the quality of the field - lots of pretty big names appearing - not the likes of Froome, Dumoulin and Thomas - but the next level down - Porte, Bennett, Pozzovivo, Poels, etc.
I think Patrick's now got just a second over Sagan, several others with various time bonuses a bit further back - and there's about 30 riders who haven't picked up any bonuses that are 15 seconds back.
A couple of little climbs to come that might break up the field a bit - but no real reason that Bevan can't hang on. The Wirri-something hill on the last stage likely to be the decider - I've seen them climb that a couple of times in other years and Richie Porte seems to have it mastered - So Bevan's challenge will be not to hand many seconds back to anyone in shouting range - and of course, to somehow keep his nose in front of Sagan in the meantime.
The bloody heat might be as much of a factor as any hills!
-
@WillieTheWaiter Ha - did you see the end of that stage? Awesome for the NZers!
George broke away on the corkscrew with Porte, Woods and Poels - and looked possibly the strongest.
They looked to have put about 15 seconds on the chasing group and for a minute it looked like it might be enough - but, the chasers took more risks on the descent to the line and ran them down with about 1500 metres to go.
Then Bevin sprinted to the front, looked like he might take it, but lost by a short head in a dogfight with Impey. Sanchez third I think.
George ran on for about seventh (edit: sixth).
-
Injuries put paid to Paddy Bevin on the first climb up Willunga Hill.
So Impey is (I think) 19 seconds ahead of "the field". The winner will get a 10 second time bonus - and assuming they're one of quite a decent group 19 second back - they need to beat Impey by 10 seconds.
Go George!!!
-
...and Impey does more than enough. Porte wins the climb, but Impey comes third on the stage and wins.
George got caught back in the field at the start of the climb and had to work to get up to Porte. Initially went with Porte when he kicked, but quickly obvious he didn't have the gas.
Pretty unfortunate for Paddy Bevin - very good chance of winning the whole thing goes west.
Stuff