timbasile wrote:
- Dumoulin follows Froome over the Finestre
Shoot, that's why I didn't win my last road race. Because I didn't just follow the guy who attacked up the big climb.
That's kind of the issue. How for more than two weeks Froome is, at most, on par with Pozzovivo, et al. Maybe a bit less. Then on one day can open up a minute on everyone during a climb. It wasn't because he caught anyone by surprise. As soon as Wout Poels, et al started going full gas at the base, everyone knew it was coming. No one goes to sleep on Froome. No one. He took that first minute because no one could go with him. No one.
Generally speaking, that's pretty rare in cycling. Where suddenly you get better than everyone. Of course Sky/Froome was "planning to reach top form in week 3." I'm not sure how that works. But kudos to them if they such a fine handle on Froome's physiological progression during a Grand Tour that they can predict that sort of thing. When all the other teams, who also employ very smart people, are pretty much in survival mode. If he'd *started* in obvious better shape, then fine. I'd understand that. It's a huge advantage to just show up fitter and ride at, say, 80% FTP on average when everyone else is at 90%. Then you show up in week 3 in really good shape, comparatively. I don't get how you get that much better from the same starting point. #marginalgains. It's possible, of course. It's just eyebrow-raising.
I get that you can't use performance itself a a reliable indicator of doping.
But you can add it as a puzzle piece to the circumstantial body of work. And Sky and Froome have a body of work that suggests there might be some discrepancy from their public statements and reality. Maybe.
Truly remarkable performance at just the right time? Check.
Adverse analytical finding? Check.
A whole slew of team doctor shenanigans? Check.
(and I could list a few more)
Any one of those things can be explained away. After all, who here hasn't accidentally received anabolic steroid shipments because of a shipping snafu?
But when you look at them in totality, the piece starts to reinforce each other, and gel into a narrative. At least for me. But half my daily nutrition is Sky h8erade shakes. So there's that.