UKH

On Friday just 10 minutes walk from my house. Yeah!

In reply to MikeTS:

I'm looking forward to it as it is on freeview Quest.

Wave for ukc!

In reply to elsewhere:

thanks for the remind . iknew it was on a freeveiw channel . 

In reply to MikeTS:

I would have been looking forwards to the Grand Tours starting but this winter's Salbutamol revelations and the on going bad taste in the mouth and horrible lingering stench of cheating from the Sky jiffy bag fiasco has dampened my enthusiasm somewhat.  Why Froome isn't serving a self imposed ban whilst the Salbutamol case is being investigated is beyond me.

In reply to Gone for good:

It's like the old days

In reply to Gone for good:

Enjoy the spectacle. 

In reply to Gone for good:

Possibly because its his job and his life ? its hard to know how people would react to him withdrawing - maybe as an admission ?

 

That and jiffy gate and Wiggo's evasiveness does leave a bit of a taste, though, doesn't it ? 

Do some research into Salbutamol:

http://thorax.bmj.com/content/56/9/675

If you were serious about abusing a drugs for performance benefits, this would be a long way down your list, likewise Brad's corticosteroid. Saying this is like the 90s is ridiculous where you had guys hopped-up on amphetamines, EPO and blood transfusions

In reply to MikeTS:

not really . the recent EPO positive or Leuwe  Westra revalations about astana cortisone abuse do though

In reply to MikeTS:

So is Froome aiming for the double or is he just treating the Giro as a warm up?

In reply to elsewhere:

Any idea who they have commentating? Not that it really makes much difference, but I've grown fond of ITV's current Ned 'n' Dave combo

In reply to nufkin:

im trying to remember last years . could have been an american feed with phil liggett and bob roll . 

 

In reply to kevin stephens:

The triple of holding tdf (2017), vuelta (2017) and Giro (2018) simultaneously.

 

In reply to elsewhere:

I'm having trouble finding out what time it's on. Can anyone help please?

 

In reply to nufkin:

I shall be relying on Stages podcast

In reply to Rog Wilko:

7pm

https://www.questtv.co.uk/tv-listings?type=day&channel_code=QUUK-ENG&am...

 

In reply to dovebiker:

Agree entirely that this is small beer, but it may well be beer nonetheless

Sky's approach is to go right up to the line of what is legal, but not over it. With Wiggins it seems like what they did wasn't ethical, and not something they would want to admit to, but was ultimately within the rules.

With Froome it is possible that they got careless.

The paper you refer to looks at inhaled Salbutomol and concludes it is a performance enabler, not performance enhancer.

But ingested or injected it can help burn fat whilst retaining muscle mass, which is obviously very useful. And the test can't determine how the Salbutomol got into your system. And when using an inhaler it is very imprecise as to how much of the drug will end up in your urine - so many factors at play - so there is a big margin for error built in.

But Froome was double the limit, and I would say that a plausible explanation of that is that he was ingesting Salbutomol via other means, having assumed that he could still stay within the limits. Up to the line, but not over it, until whoops you had a bad day. 

I reckon he could win the Giro, then be stripped of the Vuelta (but not the Giro) and be banned from the Tour    

 

In reply to Chris the Tall:

 

 

You should say; every competitive athelete's approach is to go right up to the line of what is legal, but not over it.

 

Because that's how marginal gains are found and you win.

 

Should bike frames only go up to 2.9:1 because to use the aerodynamic benefits of 3:1 is to "Go too close to the line of what is legal"? Who decides where this line of "reasonability" is? Some random punter on UKC?

You set rules. People play to them. If you get upset that someone played to the rules better than you then you should put more effort in.

In reply to elsewhere:

Thanks.

In reply to neuromancer:

And the most important rule is don't get caught.

I agree that if the rules state that you must not exceed a certain amount of the drug then some people will see that as permission to use it up to that limit. Likewise if it is only banned in competition then you can interpret that as meaning you can as much of it as you like out of comp. We might not like the ethics of it, but it isn't cheating if you stick within the rules.

But you are playing with fire, and can't expect any sympathy if you make a mistake

Team Sky may have been using Salbutomol as a marginal gain, and trying to keep within the rules, but by eliminating the margins they have blown 3 weeks hard graft!  

 

In reply to Chris the Tall:

I see Tom Dumoulins team is a member of the movement for credible cycling and Dumoulin himself has come out and said if he was in the same position as Froome, in relation to doping allegations, he wouldn't be taking part in the Giro. 

It's disappointing to see Team Sky have not signed up to the MPCC, probably because the first requirement is a provisional suspension of any rider who has returned an adverse finding on a drug test.

In reply to Gone for good:

Looks like Froome has crashed before its even started, wonder if he was reaching for his inhaler 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cycling/44003792

 

In reply to the sheep:

Ouch!

Maybe just 'cuts and grazes' as they say but they can be super painful and those hip grazes can take forever to heal.

greetings live from the first day.    First individual time trial I have they are seriously fast. I am getting blurry pics panning at one 4000 th MikeTS:

 

In reply to MikeTS:

anyone got a link for a live stream? (Free)

ps I’m abroad

 

In reply to nufkin:

ok i was wrong , it`s eurosport coverage . carlton kirby and sean kelly

In reply to Kimono:

Eurosport is cheap

In reply to MikeTS:

Awesome, enjoy!!!

In reply to ianstevens:

Much more so now that they've got Matt Stephens onboard FT.

Only kidding, Matt! Luv ya really!

In reply to bouldery bits: Yes it was a great atmosphere. Although in individual time trials you just see occasional brightly dressed riders go by at 60 Km. I got some great pics in the end, once i had figured out how to do it. 

 

In reply to MikeTS:

Unfortunately not everyone in the region can participate in cycling races.

http://www.middleeasteye.net/in-depth/features/israeli-sniper-ends-palestin...

In reply to Some time some place:

Illegal arms used against unarmed civilians. Isn't that why we bombed Syria ?

That said I don't think the civil rights record in Bahrain, UAE, Qatar, Kazakhstan or China is exactly exemplary and all could be accused of trying to whitewash or normalise through putting money into cycling and other sports.

Anyway with the Tour de Yorkshire now finished we can focus on the next grand tour. Not looking good for Froome so far. I suspect we is hoping to peak late in the race and carry that form into to the tour - same strategy as last year - but will he end up with too much to do ? Some reckon if he loses more time on Etna tomorrow he will cut his loses and save himself for the Tour, but that assumes he will be allowed to ride it.

 

In reply to ianstevens:

Eurosport not available where I am.
Anyone got a good live stream to share?

In reply to Kimono:

fubo ?

In reply to Kimono:

You might be able to get 5 mins worth of highlights on the Eurosport channel on youtube

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cBLkjrcd82Q&t=0s

Whilst on the Eurosport web page the GCN team are doing a nightly show that's worth watching

http://tinyurl.com/ycvtagp8

No idea if either of these a geo-locked

In reply to Kimono:

Not even Eurosport Player over the internet?

In reply to MikeTS:

there will be something on steephill.tv

In reply to balmybaldwin:

I'm watching the Israeli feed in Hebrew on steep hill right now.

In reply to JLS:

nope

In reply to ClimberEd:

again, not available here in the DR.

But I did find a stream on Rojadirecta 
Thanks all

Some great stages so far.

Notable for lots of narrow roads stringing he peleton out into single file - even on the wide roads of Israel the roundabouts into Eliat did that.

Didn't think Yates stood a chance of catching teammate Chavez for the finish on Etna. 1,2 on the stage and 1, 3 in the GC - that is one hell of a day for the team.

Early days but Froome and he's always been a diesel (plodding and effective response to attacks) but looking human rather than invincible. 

In reply to elsewhere:

I'm sure there will be an attack soon. Of asthma, that is.

 

In reply to elsewhere:

Froome looks like he's just hanging in right now (as do a few of the team) but that doesn't mean he's out of it.

Yate's attack came from left field, didn't it ? but that's probably the point - he'd kept anonymous in the front of the peleton right until the attack.

In reply to Chris Harris:

2 minutes and 27 seconds down after 9 stages.
The drugs don't work.  Oh, he's squeaky clean.

In reply to Lusk:

Not necessarily squeaky clean, just that the people faster than him are better at drugs.

In reply to MikeTS:

This is building up to a cracking race. OK I doubt if much will happen this week, but Yates will hope to take more time on Zoncolan, Dumolin will almost certainly retake the lead in the TT and then we have 3 summit finishes in the last week.

Wonder whether Froome's appearance fee stipulates depends upon how many stages he finishes. His GC hopes are pretty much dead - Peols didn't even wait for him yesterday - but will he stick around and look for a stage win, or drop out and recover for the tour? Assuming of course he is allowed to ride the tour.....   

In reply to Chris the Tall:

Seems he's sticking around for the stage win.

Excellent racing, so who's going to crack first.