its fun seeing someone rip a race to pieces too

and its not over yet!

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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

Is it possible that he won't win? I got the impression from the commentators that he can't not win.

sure - he could bonk, he could crash, he could get sick, he could get tired, bad mechanical problems

odds are, yes he will win

but that fat lady has not yet sung

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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

if AC is allowed to race the tdf, what are your predictions in the showdown btween AC and AS?

he can't not win. its not bad if your contador fan and root for him. its like watching your favorite sports to rout another . does anyone else believe that contador is killing it without any performance enhancers? i mean, how stupid does someone have to be to dope during an investigation/appeal?

IT WILL BE A FIRE FIIGGGGGHT

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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

Not if Schleck rides like he did up Mt. Baldy a few days ago ;-)

Really want to see Horner on the podium at the TdF (3rd will do just fine).

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Fatigue is biochemical, not biomechanical.
- Andrew Coggan, PhD

AC is not to blame, the organizers are. When you make a course this brutally hard, you don't get a more competitive event, you get less. On a hard course, the strongest rider(s) simply impose their will on the race because no one else can keep up.

If you want a tight race, make the course "easier", not harder.

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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

AS is a head case. If there is a reason not to win, he will find it.

but andy wasn't *peaking* for the race and maybe horner was

ugh, thats what is frustrating about this sport =)

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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 grand tours are hardly even road racing anymore. What's supposed to be interesting about a bunch of sprint stages + a bunch of almost-vertical mountain stages?

It's why I very much prefer the classics.

I think this is the best Giro I can recall (last 15 or so years of watching it regularly). Spectacular stages, every day something different and spectacular. I am pretty tired of hearing that AC "must be on something because he is so good". I think I will refrain from expressing my actual opinion about that comment. Could it simply be that AC is the best stage racer the World has ever seen? A talent we are lucky to get to experience? I think the chances of AC being on drugs is about as high as every other riderin the top 10 being on drugs, and I choose to believe that the chances of that actually being the case is reasonably small, at least much smaller than 10 years ago.

No way, It'll be a DING-DONG BATTLE!!

well said

No, hasn't ruined the Giro

This Giro has been incredible, never mind that Contador is imposing his will whenever he wants.

He makes a late acceleration to gain a few seconds on the pack in an uphill finish and nobody matches him as he takes 2nd on the stage.

Then watching him accelerate away the next day on Etna was incredible. That was a Tour de Force, spectacular stage win. Scarponi trying to go after him for 100 meters and giving up, all the other contenders shell-shocked.

Then he goes again on the Grossglockner - gets out of the saddle but didn't look as impressive as his attack on Etna but nobody would match it. Again puts time on his opponents and lets Rujano take the stage win.

Next Day? Zoncolan
Puts more time into his opponents although Nibali hangs tough Scarponi loses more.

Next Day? Maybe the hardest grand tour stage in 30 years and he continues to chip away. This time Nibali takes serious losses.

After a day off the uphill ITT lets him show off his talents again. The announcers are saying he is struggling the whole time he is on camera but when he emerges in the last kilometer he is well ahead and takes the win with a huge time gap on the field.


Hard to compare him to those guys that 'lost sometimes'. Contador loses sometimes too - his losses were the warmup classics and stage races he did earlier this year and got few (no?) results.

Just like Jordan - you arent going to go 82-0 in the NBA but when he gets to the finals he is undefeated.

In case you can't tell I am loving this Giro and watching Bertie bring the wood!!

He tested positive just a few months ago. He will be sanctioned by the CAS and all of this racing since the tour will be for naught. I've been watching the 2 guys battling for second with the thorough understanding is that it's really the race for first. The reason Armstrong didn't like Contador is that he saw in him the same things he saw in himself, a want to win so bad, that he'll follow the "medical programme", and push aside anyone or anything (including honor, dignity and the rules) in order to get there. But we also saw the positive test result, which is what happens when Brunyel isnt your DS anymore... you dont get the advance notice of when tests will occur or the discipline to dope in the right way every time.

Is he the dominant rider? Sure, but he's also a douchebag and a cheat, and unlike armstrong we have a publicly reported positive test to point at as we see him watching the TdF and the next year + of cycling from the sidelines. Frankly, I think his ban should start from day CAS rules, but that his prior results should still be wiped out.

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You don't have to like what I say but you should respect my right to say them and I'll do the same to you.

Yes, I absolutely love domination over competition. I love it when someone is undisputedly the best at what they do. I didn't watch this years Giro, and I'm not speaking about Contador, just what I enjoy seeing. When an underdog wins because of a fluke, or rises to the occasion (when they would normally lose 9 out of 10 times) it just annoys me.

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I kind of hope he is allowed to race. In his view, he is claiming he didn't cheat and now has a huge chip on his shoulder. I would like to see him try to win all three Grand Tours in the same year in hopes that it will redeem himself in the public's eye.

Don't understand your point, really... Scarponi has served a 2-year ban for doping, Menchov has had doping questions, Rujano comes from nowhere, much of the rest of the field is likely as dirty Contador, or has been proven to be.

If he doped last year, he should be suspended... otherwise what's the point of having a punishment?

I agree. AS doesn't look anywhere close to being the shape he was in for the last TdF, so I'm hoping the Shack pulls off some miracle of teamwork to deliver Horner to 3rd. I would also be happy if Tejay Van Garderen (aka the Next American Hope) could make top 5.

To answr the OP: Contador has ruined the Giro with his stupid pistolero salute.

Did you guys not see how shitty he looked at last year's TOC? He had a solid classics season, just happened to run into the machine known as "GILBERT".

Sure, AS might (and probably will) improve in condition, but Contador will too. Even at the level he is now, the dude is in another galaxy altogether. Barring mechanical karma or judicial intervention, I think the yellow jersey is pretty much his. I sincerely hope im wrong though, I really dont like the dude.