I'm kinda the same (with pro sports, that is, amateur sports is different). My bucket o' outrage dried up a long time ago.

But then, I don't watch any pro sports anymore. I'll watch the Olympics every 2 years, and most major swim meets. That's pretty much it....

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^^^ Agree

I no longer am enamored with athletes. Further, once one is known to have cheated, I'll never give them a second thought.

I don't really watch cycling anymore. It wasn't a deliberate decision but after all the doping saga's I've just sort of lost interest in it. I first watched the Tdf when I was a teenager in the Indurain years and was captivated by the race. I use to watch it as much as I could every year until the festina scandal. Then my interest started to drop a bit with every disgraced winner until the point now where I just find I have no interest in pro cycling.

Will

I was happy with the race. I have said before that AC is the best GC talent in the sport right now. And the fact that I can't stand Froome made it even more satisfying to see AC win the Vuelta.

Everyone juiced, and a lot have benefited from it. But watching a good race where people are challenging and attacking each other is more important to me than who did what in their past (not too mention the boring monotony of watching the Sky-era Tours was a total sleeper to follow).

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Rick, "Retired" hobbyist athlete
Trying to come back slowly from acute A-Fib

My reaction is...

Meh.

As 25 year competitive rider and devoted fan... that should be quite scary for pro cycling.

spectacular bike racer to watch

shameful beyond words the way announcers go on about him being the greatest stage racer of our generation, and talk about him having trouble getting back to top form, without mentioning the reason being that he isn't on blood bags and EPO any more (or at least not as much)

His climbing rates do suggest he at the very least isn't doping as much as he did before his positive. Wouldn't count on him being totally clean though either.

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Kat Hunter reports on the San Dimas Stage Race from inside the GC winning team
Aeroweenie.com -Compendium of Aero Data and Knowledge
Freelance sports & outdoors writer Kathryn Hunter

He may not be eating the steak anymore, but he's probably eating chicken, right??

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Swimming Workout of the Day:

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That was basically my point about riders trying to stay 1 unit under the "threshold" for positives, just like triathlon pros staying one inch outside the legal draft zone. Different sports, different formal and informal rules of engagement. I do agree that the announcers in cycling saying, "he's not on the same form as before" are only adding to the problem. We (speaking from a fairly affluent western perspective where cycling is a hobby for rich guys, not a ticket off the farm or ghetto or out of the Khazak army) don't want Contador on his former form nor do we want anyone. In the end, when you are just watching them climb, the fastest guy in a group of undoped mules is just as exciting to watch as the fastest guy in a group of doped thoroughbreds. They could be climbing at 800 m per hour or 1600m per hour and it is just as exciting to watch.

i m another fan of cycling that simply cant get excited to watch those tour. They did the proper thing with amstrong to get him out for life. It s time to take ALL those with infraction and give lifetime band. only then would it become interesting to watch again. But for now, there is no reason to beleive he is playing a clean game. it s just a little harder to dope and cant use as powerful of a substance, but he is still this same person with the same mentality of cheating.

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I struggle with him more than anyone. I think his riding form and strength in climbing/attacking is impressive but as a person I find him to be obnoxious. I was bummed when he dropped out of the TdF because I wanted to watch him fight in the mountains but wasn't bummed that he couldn't get on the podium. We'll see over the next few.

And that just about sums it up for me....I have been a die hard cycling fan longer than I haven't, and I just don't care as much anymore. I once could cite stage winners from almost every GT, classics winners and placings, etc. Now I'll check the results, watch an occasional race if my schedule allows and move on with my life.

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Chicago Cubs - 2016 WORLD SERIES Champions!!!!

"If ever the time should come, when vain and aspiring men shall possess the highest seats in government, our country will stand in need of its experienced patriots to prevent its ruin." - Samuel Adams

To those who didn't watch this vuelta, it became really interesting, to me, because we saw an Off-form froome for the first 10 days or so, and so we got some insight into his character, or maybe the team director's character.

But the end result was a really saavy,, clever, sneaky Froome that would NOT give up and snatched seconds in intermediate sprint time bonuses, and through careful energy expenditure while others attacked each other.

was pretty fun to see it play out.

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Kat Hunter reports on the San Dimas Stage Race from inside the GC winning team
Aeroweenie.com -Compendium of Aero Data and Knowledge
Freelance sports & outdoors writer Kathryn Hunter

There really was only one "Sky-era Tour" though, and that was when Wiggins won on a course that was tailor-made for him. 2013 wasn't boring because of anything Sky did, it was boring because there was nobody there who was even close to challenging Froome. Not dissimilar to this year's Tour after Contador and Froome crashed out, GC ended up being a procession but you can't blame Nibali for that. Froome himself isn't a boring rider at all - he's a tactically naive hothead with a ridiculously big engine, which I find quite an entertaining combo. He was good value as a winner in 2013, chasing down breaks and going for stage wins even when he didn't need to. And he was good value in this Vuelta, going for time bonuses at sprints, attacking Contador on the mountains, and then being pretty gracious in defeat. Can't wait for next year's Tour, really hope we get to see Froome, Contador, Quintana and Nibali all duking it out in top form and with no early retirements, could be one of the best ever.

As to Contador, he's certainly one of the most GT talented riders there's been and I love his racing brain, but for me the doping is still a big black mark against him. I realise that cycling is never going to be completely clean, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't keep it as clean as it can be so that at the very least a clean rider has a chance of winning. I hate that Contador has never come clean about his past and that it seems to be getting conveniently forgotten, and I hate that the likes of Vino and Riis are still so involved and influential in the sport without ever really showing any remorse or desire to change things. While I'm no Lance fan, I also find it hypocritical that he's completely persona non grata while Vino and Riis are allowed to run teams.

Quite apart from the moral/ethical/health reasons for wanting a clean sport, I also think clean cycling is much more fun to watch. Riders having more bad days, paying the price the next day if they dig too deep, etc.

Yeah, I was kinda disappointed I missed some stages because they sounded good, but life got in the way....IMWI, for one.

But, like I said, it really didn't matter much to me.

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Chicago Cubs - 2016 WORLD SERIES Champions!!!!

"If ever the time should come, when vain and aspiring men shall possess the highest seats in government, our country will stand in need of its experienced patriots to prevent its ruin." - Samuel Adams

False.
I understand the cynicism but repeating that lie is a disservice to the people who did not cheat.

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Kat Hunter reports on the San Dimas Stage Race from inside the GC winning team
Aeroweenie.com -Compendium of Aero Data and Knowledge
Freelance sports & outdoors writer Kathryn Hunter

Couldn't agree more! It made this years vuelta like last years, more exciting than the tour. The only thing more exciting was Paris-Nice of this year, some very very entertaining cycling. Just wish Quintana was around to make the GC a little more competitive.

http://veloclinic.tumblr.com/...performance-analysis

"the 2014 Vuelta performances from Contador and Froome would likely have been fairly competitive with the 2002-2007 period of known doping."

competitive with dopers.. doesn't give me much confidence that they are clean now..

it was a better show than TDF at least.

It doesn't but that guy just said those words, without showing his data (all of which has an error of +/- .5 w/kg or so)

So lets look at once specific claim:
2014 Froome on par with 2013 Froome, and fairly competitive with 2002 to 2007

Let's then compare the climbing times up Alpe Duez over this time period, which is not subject to this massive w/kg error:

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Kat Hunter reports on the San Dimas Stage Race from inside the GC winning team
Aeroweenie.com -Compendium of Aero Data and Knowledge
Freelance sports & outdoors writer Kathryn Hunter

and as a bit of trivia, Froome's performance on the Alpe in 2013 is about equivalent to the mid 1980s times once you take into account equipment changes since then.

which is kind of neat.

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Kat Hunter reports on the San Dimas Stage Race from inside the GC winning team
Aeroweenie.com -Compendium of Aero Data and Knowledge
Freelance sports & outdoors writer Kathryn Hunter

The thing about using w/kg to measure "likelihood of doping" is that, while it serves as a starting point for discussion - it can't be the final word on whether someone is doping or not.

Never mind tactics/wind/freshness/etc though that has its own story to tell. Given that training and equipment advances continually push the boundaries of what is possible, it is theoretically possible that non-doped performances one day equal or beat historical doped performances. Usain Bolt's records, for example, are quicker than that of the 80-90's steroid era, for example. There's a logical threshold to human performance, obviously, but...

One useful thought experiment to take would be to ask ourselves what happens if the next Mercx shows up in the sport. Would he not be routinely accused of doping, even if he (she?) is clean?

to your point, it's really only later when we read post-race sportsscientists or others do we know *how* fast they're going. Perhaps once and a while the announcers might reference past ascents of some of those climbs, but for the most part, we're just watching these guys go head-to-head. Who really cares what rate they're going... it's a lot faster than I can go!

I'll confess that my interest in the grand tours has waned. Some of it is that I'm sick of listening to Phil and Paul but I think the race has lacked personalities in recent years. Perhaps I just haven't invested enough time to get to know Quintana. I still *love* the one-day classics. The simplicity of the "strongest man wins" of Flanders, Roubaix, and Ardennes classics makes for better tv viewing. I appreciate the complexity but the grand tours are so calculated strategically that the individual stages can be dulled. YMMV.

Usain bolt is a bad example because probably doped too.

In fact such a huge % of records in the last two decades are dope fueled it makes many question whether training has advanced at all. I question it.

But, yes, it remains that there is no law of biology saying a human can't be born who could beat Pantani's and Lance's alpe duez times, and cycling *has* had legit equipment advances since the 80s, we should absolutely expect the clean stars of today to go faster than the clean stars of the mid 1980s

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Kat Hunter reports on the San Dimas Stage Race from inside the GC winning team
Aeroweenie.com -Compendium of Aero Data and Knowledge
Freelance sports & outdoors writer Kathryn Hunter

I agree with the comments of JACKMOTT.

One thing that I find interesting while watching the coverage was when the announcers pointed out how many Grand Tour's Contador had won but LA was not on that list. Both cheated but one name was missing.

I am more impressed with ADAM HANSEN and the win that he got as well as his 10 consecutive Grand Tours. I also liked Ryder getting a win as I am a Victoria boy so seeing someone from home winning was good. I also liked Froome doing his YOYO act on the climbs.