tinofbeans

he wishes. not even a 3rd of the talent. intellectually similar, and less likely to start a fight in an empty room.

what for?, he needs a team built around him i reckon. At the moment its Froome as No1 at sky (rightly) I'd suggest Konigs a better bet for a GT than Thomas in sky's ranks. But not this year as he's already done 2! 22nd august it kicks off. Agree re the tiredness, think the bigger players that did the tour won't be able to do this at the same intensity. Pozzovivo for a podium? (if he stays on his bike).

mid table mediocrity. play better footy than last year. beat a couple of the big teams.

vuelta is up soon, can't see Froome winning it can we. he must be spent from the tour. Qiuntana/ Valverde perhaps?

conditions (tail/ head wind) and the ability to follow wheels and other aspects come into this. also the stuff about 800 watts and no realheartrate increase. ther'es a lag when you do a vo2 effort as your heart is called upon, dependant on your fitness that can take a short while (not minutes but seconds). he also jumped right onto the moto's wheel thus the real values (650Watts) are easier to acheive and keep a lid on, i mean even after doing 40 minutes at 335 watts i can still put out nearly 1000 watts for 20 seconds.... that was more time than froome gassed it for up Ventoux. I'm a different kind of rider though, more suited to sprinting up short hills rather than timetrialling up as he does. I see nothing too suspect, its all physiologically acceptable. i see a lot of fear as the other riders simply don't have an answer for him except making his team work for him, and hopefully working him over. the last few days in the alps are going to be great. did anyone see the itv interviewer eviscerate Laurent jalabert? thats a scummy doper. i find it an awful shame that he's getting treated like this.

So, what other online sources are there that are actually any good. I use Spotify a bit. but don't actually listen to much music nowadays and gave up creating cheesy dance music in 2012.

true, doesn't cut the mustard. he's steady and can get teams performing for a season (perhaps), but is not savvy enough.

recently, Westmalle Tripel, La Chouffe, and a few veltins.

Probably my favourite commentator, his ability as others say was to describe situations very economically, a great talent that will be missed. Also a top quality bowler/ batsman.

recently: westmalle Tripel. bloody lovely. 9.4% as well.

That was something else wasn't it? can't beleive they allowed this to happen. Amstel was a weird one this weekend gone, Gilbert so nearly got away and then Kwiatowski times his finish perfectly. its the big one this weekend. Liege Bastogne Liege. I'm doing the full distance, and it looks like bloody rain! lovely....

Exactly. or am I? Agree re the mastering processes used nowadays. one of my racing club mates does or did PR for an alien looking tall talentless gimp (who shall remain nameless), and said when they heard the album, that it was so well put together. what of course he meant was sterile and boring and very possibly cliche'd. some modern music is so very dull. some really really good, and its rare to see groundbreaking stuff. Different strokes and all that.

Public Service Broadcasting. couple of their EP's, not bad.

the law of diminishing returns with this lad. he drives a tank to work for gawds sake. talented, but occasionally to clever for his own good.

I rate: Janmaat, Perez, Colback. Krul is very good when he's not making basic mistakes. the rest are all a bit inconsistent or shit. LIke the analogy of heart and brain for Steven Taylor. Could be good if he actually had 2 brain cells to rub together (or whatever the analogy is). I think we'll be around the edges of the top 10 come the end of the season. 9th or 10th would be about right.

Leinders wasn't THE doping doctor at Rabobank. Though he did have some involvement. As for Wiggins's win, his form was really good from April 2011 (before his tour crash) until the olympics 2012. I'd suggest Wiggins was clean, or no more dirty than the other GC riders at the time. Remember he came second to Cobo at the Vuelta, Cobo who peaked a bit too well for that race... and has a track record. also the courses for those races you list absolutely suited his characteristics... since then he's done well only when he's wanted to ( a typical by product of the way he works). the other thing about his wins is he was protected by a group of riders that were all top 10 riders in GC's for various grand tours, he literally was protected by a team that could have pretty much have got positions 5-10 in the tour if they were GC riders. that makes it so much more easy.

if you can do one overseas sportive / race, this is definitely up there Gemmill. the climbs are all short sharp shocks, some cobbled, some not, its crazy. best fun i've had on a bike. This years race is on https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dRRkB6Bt41w I was talking to one of the riders and he casually said, oh yeah we do the koppenberg in 39x23 gearing. last year i was on 34x27 as my lowest and i struggled! this year 39 x 28 should be fine.

Me too. Looking forward to it like you wouldn't believe. Will absolutely smash the course if its the same as last year and i do hope there aren't too many fat slow people falling off their bikes on the Koppenberg again... last time round some fatty fell off their bike in front of me... not happy! Look out for Kingston wheelers. I'll be one of the 30+ we have going along to this.

Think Nibbles and his core of domestiques are clean, but some of the Kazakhs (4 have been busted this year that are on Astana’s or Astana junior squads books are on the juice and testosterone). It’s a shame for him as he defines what a decent cyclist should be, he has all of the skills except a sprint ( you should see him descend, he’s utterly fearless), and is widely respected in the peloton, from what I can gather. Saw Mcfauls post about a nice 80+ miler in May, any of you up for doing Flanders this year? http://www.sport.be/rondevanvlaanderen/2015/en/ I did it last year and it was epic. Some meaty bergs ( the short hard climbs that on some occasion are cobbled (think the Koppenberg ( its hellishly tricky to get up)). For around £200 to get there and get into a hotel for 2-3 nights, its well worth it. I’m staying in Gent with a few others from my cycle club (Kingston Wheelers). Honestly the best few hours I’ve ever done on a bike. You need decent tyres, preferably 25mm (something like vittoria corsa’s or gp 4 seasons) and a cassette that allows you to get up a 22% climb or two...

the book is excellent though it effectively tells most of us that know about climbers from the 90's ( and indeed most of the General classification Riders of the time). Pantani himself seems the most oxymoronic of characters. not a sociopath like the American guy, but willing to really stick the knife in when things get steep, yet shy, but charismatic off the bike. Watch the film as well, it was clearly shot on a budget, but there are some parts of the film that make you think if he were 10-15 years younger and clean, he would pretty much have been up towards the top of the GC contenders nowadays. i mean these guys were big ringing some of the hardest climbs you can go up... (Big ringing is where you power climb in the 53 or 52 ring). Literally sprinting up some hellish climbs. I'm a huge fan of Pantani, was a real showman on the bike, but blemished as you'll read and see by the time he got into the cycling biz and his associations.

oh dear. not good.

i do lots of medium length rides, around 35-45 miles during the summer at tempo. during that i do sprint drills and other things like climb rubbish hills. its about getting and making time. and being lucky with the weather and getting people out with you who want to push themselves!

I'm there now lads. looking forward to some pm's to organise a ride in the near future. some one will have to put me and the bike up mind!

Glad to see you've all enjoyed the tour and in Gemmils case got out there on a new bike. Sorry to hear about your wrist/ hand Wyki. good FTP btw. Looks like i need to come up there and do some of your hills sometime soon. Gemmil, rather than hitting that segment cold, get your self going for a bout 20 minutes at tempo first, then smash it. stay low as you can, aero helps beleive me. anyone fancy organising a toontastic hill climb challenge?

its boring and predictable but a specialized allez is pretty much good enough to start out on. that has rather racy geometry, but can of course be adjusted. cross bikes are really good all rounders and offer 90% of the full fat race bike experience for not much out lay. other good bikes in this price bracket... Caad8 ( from cannondale), Fuji sportif, Giant defy, cannodale synapse. all are good bikes.