This year's TdF - Cleanest in years? or just less wiggle room for dopers?

joker77

Have been hearing a good few anecdotal points on how this years Tour de France was the cleanest in years, but haven't read anything from the likes of Kimmage or Walsh or guys like that on it - does anyone have any links to articles from those kind of journalists and their opinions on this year's Tour?

The kind of anecdotal points I'm talking about are the fact that there were so many French stage winners compared to other years, and how the times were down in general.

Could it be that with stricter controls, blood passports and all that, that the wiggle room is smaller for the dopers? What I mean is that the number of dopers hasn't changed, just the amount of doping that they can do without getting caught has gotten lower. Would this be a more realistic scenario?

BryanL

http://www.sportsscientists.com/

Lumen

BryanL wrote: »

http://www.sportsscientists.com/

Very interesting, particularly the link to this.

I have mixed feelings about the power data. On the one hand it's nice to get some real information rather than numbers guestimated from VAM figures (which are themselves questionable), on the other hand it does rather take away the mystique.

Now all we need is a hill TT prologue and we can see what ContaSchleck is really capable of.

mtbireland

http://bikepure.org/2010/07/a-clearer-picture-of-the-sport/

some interesting comments too...

papac

I have been arguing recently that the way the grand tours are developing seems to indicate less doping.Whether this means more people clean or lower levels of doping across the board is debatable.
Certainly no ridiculous superhuman efforts are obvious.
Its interesting to see this borne out by the science.(Accepting its limitations).

BostonB

Or sand bagging just enough so not to stand out.

JacksonHeightsOwn

BostonB wrote: »

Or sand bagging just enough so not to stand out.

I doubt that very much, I don't think that's possible

I think what showed the lack of doping for me was the final time trial

Last year contador blitzed cancelleras time, while this year he was well down, plus he had no crazed 15 minute full pelt attacks while standing up

It certainly seems he was alot more "human" this tour

And wasn't it great for it!

sorry for the previous typos, fecking predictable spelling on my iphone

Liamo08

chrisbonnie wrote: »

I doubt that very much, I don't think that's possible

I think what showed the lack of doping for me was the final time trial

Last year contador blitzed cancelleras time, while this year he was well down, plus he had no crazed 15 minute pull pelt attacks while standing up

It certainly seems he was alot more "human" this tour

And it wasn't it great for it

Have to agree that Contador looked a lot more human alright, he really looked to be suffering on a lot of the climbs this year - something we really didn't see last year. And the final TT was what you might expect from a climber who's a decent in a TT instead of beating guys who are almost 20kg's heavier and TT experts.

Still doubt he's clean but certainly looks cleaner which is progress.

ednwireland

Liamo08 wrote: »

Have to agree that Contador looked a lot more human alright, he really looked to be suffering on a lot of the climbs this year - something we really didn't see last year. And the final TT was what you might expect from a climber who's a decent in a TT instead of beating guys who are almost 20kg's heavier and TT experts.

Still doubt he's clean but certainly looks cleaner which is progress.

nothing to do with him having flu just before the tour and a pan flat TT (with a rising wind) instead of a hilly one :rolleyes:

Liamo08

ednwireland wrote: »

nothing to do with him having flu just before the tour and a pan flat TT (with a rising wind) instead of a hilly one :rolleyes:

I'm not really sure what your point is here, are you saying the flu before the tour is responsible for his more human performances? Because he rode a very similar level of TT in the Dauphine before he had flu.

Also Menchov rode in the exact same wind conditions on Saturday and put almost 2 minutes into Contador, so I don't see how the wind can explain away what was a relatively average performance.

IM0

I was looking at the giro, and feeling these guys are much more human, also add in how well Evans was doing, and how he has been doing in general, and how he is known for his cleannliness, it fits doping is well down this year overall.