Apologies. I meant Lance Armstrong. Landis is a nobody

Yes. Let's hope the dopers don't succeed

Amazin they didnt win the TTT considerin the team is hyped up?? Also strange Froome was left with only Porte on the final climb considering "sky are on something new"! Portes form is in the book, Froome has battered Contador all year...Would you expect Ten Dam to take over 30 secs on Contador and Purito before the stage? Are Belkin on drugs too? Bertie has already taken to twitter to say he had a bad day. Im not attackin you for your stats or thoughts as they could well turn out to be true but as a cycling fan i would prefer to appreciate a domininant performance from FROOME today, hats off ****....and Clay its ok to admit you made a mistake, take it on the chin son

read what i wrote lurka, i said it could well turn out to be true...but i doubt it...on that point were the boys in 2010 who beat Portes time on drugs as well? Gesink for example?

Agreed but even look at Purito, hes did that mountain over a minute quicker in years gone by...anyway lets see what the rest of the tour brings

tbh, I don't see it as as dominant a performance from the whole team as we've seen it previously, only from Froome, Porte and maybe Kennaugh

I don't know why anyone was shocked or thought yesterdays performance was not normal??
Froome and Porte blasted everyone away just like they have done all year, i don't not what anyone else was expecting?? They have done that in race after race this season. The fact that Ten Dam, Nieve, Anton,Kreuziger, etc were all less than 2 mins down shows how normal it was. An on-form Contador and Rodriguez would have expected to put over a minute in to the likes of Ten Dam and Anton on climb like that, not finish along side them!. It just shows that like we suspected going in to the race, that Contador and Rodriguez just aren't on top of their form.

Agree with you or not ClayDavis (and I do not), I have to admire your optimism.

And Armstrong didn't have to climb the Col de Pailhères chasing a savage Colombian climber before recording his time on Ax 3 Domaines!!!

Happybacker, if you believe all that marginal gains guff from Sky then there is no convincing you. Armstrong couldn't dope because he had cancer blah blah. there is always something to throw you off otherwise there is only one explanation.

The power estimations for froome take into account the weight of the bike and I don't think the lighter weights over the last 10 years make that much of a difference anyway, it is not just about time/speed but about power and power takes yours and the bike's weight into account. Why weren't riders on lighter bikes doing the same as Froome 2 years ago then? You say mean times should always be quicker? Look at the list and tell me how many in the top 100 are from 2012 or 2011? There are a good few from 2010 but almost every one of them is either a proven doper or highly suspected EPO user. I can't see anyone in the top 100 from 2006-2009 inclusive. Your point that mean times now should always be quicker is not backed up by the facts. Simply put, we have seen a huge jump in the climbing rate by Froome out of nowhere. He may as well have got into a time machine and gone back to 2003.

Sky would have you believe that Europeans don't have a clue how to train or prepare and that everything they do is new, European teams have been cycling for 100 years and are vastly more experienced than the Brits. EPO increases performance 10-15%. Are you saying that marginal gains can make that up?! nonsense IMO.

PDM in the early 1990s came out with all this marginal gains guff before except British people tend not to be aware of that because there was no interest from the general public back then. It is easy for Brailsford to fool the general british public because they've only been following cycling fully for one year. Not saying you are in that bunch tho, of course. We know now what the real reason for PDM's super performances were.

You can believe all that Brailsford says if you want but the man contradicts himself nearly every time he opens his mouth. We have been told for the last few years by all cycling stakeholders that it is a new era post-Lance and that 'Climbing speeds are down, that's how you know that the peleton is cleaner.' Well that all changed in one fell swoop this year.

We are led to believe that Froome is a late bloomer who showed no cycling prowess in his youth because he had a disease called Bilharzia. But he admits that he only contracted it in Nov 2010, so that doesn't wash either. It is a parasitic disease that eats your red blood cells and he has to get treatment for it every year, giving him a readymade explanation for large fluctuations in his blood-passport.

You say Froome is a natural climber. well he couldn't climb at all until 2-3 years ago, so that is simply not true. He was kicked out of the giro for taking a push from a team car before his astonishing rise from virtually nowhere and there is a video of him on his first tour where he was zig-zagging up a climb like he'd never been up a mountain before.

And if you believe Usain Bolt is clean then good luck to you!

The Tour is over, this year and every year.

Look at the list and tell me how many in the top 100 are from 2012 or 2011? There are a good few from 2010 but almost every one of them is either a proven doper or highly suspected EPO user. I can't see anyone in the top 100 from 2006-2009 inclusive.


Ax 3 Domaines

Year	Stage	Category	Start of stage	Distance (km)	Stage winner	Yellow jersey
2013	8	1	Castres	195	Chris Froome	Chris Froome
2010	14	1	Revel	184.5	Christophe Riblon	Andy Schleck
2005	14	1	Agde	220.5	Georg Totschnig	Lance Armstrong
2003	13	1	Toulouse	197.5	Carlos Sastre	Lance Armstrong
2001	12	1	Perpignan	166.5	Félix Cárdenas	François Simon

no chance for AC - doped or not

Only a fun bet for me (not a cycling fan normally) but how do you guys rate Daniel Moreno ? I have been recommended a small bet for fun and wonder if he may improve over the last half of the tour.

treetop interested to know what bet you are thinking of? or is it a back to lay on the basis that his GC place improves?

Nice question dodge from Froome when asked about vayer's estimate of 440W for the AX3 Climb only

Froome: I don't think it's possible to do 440W for an entire stage

That's not what you were asked

Good day for you Clay. I did expect Froome to give away time at some point (not today tho) as his domination is leading to more and more people starting to ask uncomfortable questions. You never know tho, he only has 6 teammates left!

p.s - he also said he suffered with serious pollen alergy problems all day riding on the stage to AX 3 - domains.

isolation is the only way. Wouldn't expect froome to lose time to bertie on MTT

agree about the necessity for AC to attack on the flat, but this kind of attack was born in the sharp mind of Riis, not AC