Tour De Farce

[BLUEBLOOD]

Sky Sports News are constantly dribbling on about cycling (yaaaaaaaawn) and usually about Team Sky .. now isn't there some sort of conflict of interest here ?? ... they even have banner headline/breaking news straps about how a Team Sky member has finished 47th (of 48 ??) in the Tour de Canvey (failing to mention they were behind a bunch of kids from Furtherwick Park)

Now they are showing a breaking news strap saying a rival team has been involved in a drugs raid, and the almost gleeful look on the presenters face as he recounts the story .. would the coverage be so lustful if it was a (precious) Team Sky story of ill repute ??

 

[Yorkshire Blue]

Cycling is brilliant and well done to Sky for promoting it.

I can only imagine that it makes a pleasant change to them plugging the EPL.

 

[Uncle Leo]

Cycling is brilliant and well done to Sky for promoting it.

I can only imagine that it makes a pleasant change to them plugging the EPL.

There have been a couple of posts recently where I've found myself agreeing with YB. This is worrying.

For those not in to cycling, make no mistake - should Wiggins win (and he is a huge favourite now) it will be one of the all time great achievements in British sport.

 

[C C Csiders]

There have been a couple of posts recently where I've found myself agreeing with YB. This is worrying.

For those not in to cycling, make no mistake - should Wiggins win (and he is a huge favourite now) it will be one of the all time great achievements in British sport.

Or should he crack and Chris Froome win instead it would be one of the greatest achievements in British Sport.

I have been following the live blogs on The Guardian website and have been involved in a bit of an email spat with the 'journalist' (inverted commas deliberate) Barry Glendenning who is clearly insinuating throughout that BW is perhaps not clean, as well as Team Sky.

 

[Yorkshire Blue]

Or should he crack and Chris Froome win instead it would be one of the greatest achievements in British Sport.

I have been following the live blogs on The Guardian website and have been involved in a bit of an email spat with the 'journalist' (inverted commas deliberate) Barry Glendenning who is clearly insinuating throughout that BW is perhaps not clean, as well as Team Sky.

Ha, just seen your comment. Did Glendenning follow up on e-mail off the blog then?

It's sad how it now gets mired in a 'are they doping' controversy as soon as anyone in the sport is successful. That's a legacy that the sport is going to take a long time to shake off. Part of the tragedy is that cycling is far from the only sport to have had a PED issue: athletics, football, tennis, baseball, NFL have/are all been riddled with PEDs but drugs testing in tennis, football, NFL is a joke.

Football fans need to ask themselves why when a Spanish doctor was busted for peddling PEDs it was only the cyclists who were pursued and not the footballers (and tennis players) who were also his clients.

That said, I do understand why suspicions are raised at Sky's dominance. I think it's a valid question to ask would we have the same attitude if say a Portuguese rider emerged the way Froome has emerged and are we giving Sky more leeway because they are British. I think in those circumstances I would be suspicious, but I'd like to think that British cycling should be given the benefit of the doubt particularly as it wasn't mired in the culture of doping that surrounded the sport until recently. British cycling was more geared towards the track and the Olympics which I'd like to think was cleaner. Team Sky has emerged from British Olympic cycling and people like Chris Broadman who was generally considered to be clean. Dave Brailsford is a manager in the mould of Clive Woodward, with a budget that most other teams can't simply match. The reason Sky have four riders left towards the end of the mountain stages is that they have four riders who have all finished top 10 in Grand Tours before, with something to ride for (and remember by now few teams are actually that interested in GC and riders are either hunting stages or just looking to take it easy). Physiologically Sky aren't actually producing anything that amazing - times are apparently down something like 15% from what they were a decade ago and VOx readings are apparently well within what is considered humanly reasonable (unlike a certain Texan).

Wiggins hasn't actually produced anything that he hadn't shown (other than consistency) before joining Sky. He's a multiple Olympic champion who converted to the road and finished 4th for Garmin in 2009. The three guys who beat him then are not racing. Wiggins now has a team built around him (a bloody strong team at that) and a course that could have been designed for him. People really shouldn't be all that surprised to see him in the lead.

 

[C C Csiders]

Ha, just seen your comment. Did Glendenning follow up on e-mail off the blog then?

It's sad how it now gets mired in a 'are they doping' controversy as soon as anyone in the sport is successful. That's a legacy that the sport is going to take a long time to shake off. Part of the tragedy is that cycling is far from the only sport to have had a PED issue: athletics, football, tennis, baseball, NFL have/are all been riddled with PEDs but drugs testing in tennis, football, NFL is a joke.

Football fans need to ask themselves why when a Spanish doctor was busted for peddling PEDs it was only the cyclists who were pursued and not the footballers (and tennis players) who were also his clients.

That said, I do understand why suspicions are raised at Sky's dominance. I think it's a valid question to ask would we have the same attitude if say a Portuguese rider emerged the way Froome has emerged and are we giving Sky more leeway because they are British. I think in those circumstances I would be suspicious, but I'd like to think that British cycling should be given the benefit of the doubt particularly as it wasn't mired in the culture of doping that surrounded the sport until recently. British cycling was more geared towards the track and the Olympics which I'd like to think was cleaner. Team Sky has emerged from British Olympic cycling and people like Chris Broadman who was generally considered to be clean. Dave Brailsford is a manager in the mould of Clive Woodward, with a budget that most other teams can't simply match. The reason Sky have four riders left towards the end of the mountain stages is that they have four riders who have all finished top 10 in Grand Tours before, with something to ride for (and remember by now few teams are actually that interested in GC and riders are either hunting stages or just looking to take it easy). Physiologically Sky aren't actually producing anything that amazing - times are apparently down something like 15% from what they were a decade ago and VOx readings are apparently well within what is considered humanly reasonable (unlike a certain Texan).

Wiggins hasn't actually produced anything that he hadn't shown (other than consistency) before joining Sky. He's a multiple Olympic champion who converted to the road and finished 4th for Garmin in 2009. The three guys who beat him then are not racing. Wiggins now has a team built around him (a bloody strong team at that) and a course that could have been designed for him. People really shouldn't be all that surprised to see him in the lead.

I emailed Glendeening and he emaild back - and so, it went to and fro. He was insinuating it throughout - of course, given his history were the team called Team Setanta and led by Nicolas Roche he would be saying none of that. Just beacuse the sport has been blighted by pharmaceutical/blood-related cheats in the past he should not - given his position - be making crude insinuations and I told him as such and he didn't like it. He is a journalistic bully! My last email to him said would he have been doubting Michelle DeBruyn at the Atlanta Games because her husband/coach was a drug cheat and, alas, no reply.

 

[yogi bear up the cagire]

My wife's uncle Marcel is coming down to stay with us for a few days to take in the Tour. He telephoned this morning to say that he had tickets for entry into the enclosure ('village') at Bagnères de Luchon and that the person he was going with had to pull out, so would I be interested in going? Wasn't going to refuse a chance to rub shoulders with with the cyclists and take in a complimentary breakfast and lunch.............so, for Thursday, call me Bernard Roc (who I'm replacing)! Don't know what the policy on photographs is?.............does anyone have a message for Bradley? :winking:

 

[Uncle Leo]

people like Chris Broadman who was generally considered to be clean.

Excellent post.

Specifically on the Boardman question, a colleague of mine was a cycling journo for a few years in the mid-late 90s and told me last week that the general consensus back then was that every single rider in the peloton was on some form of banned enhancement....apart from Boardman.

And he still managed to win three TDF stages (never mind his other achievements). What a true great.

 

[EastStandBlue]

Glendenning has that rare quality as a journalist to combine sheer pomposity with sanctimony on an alarmingly regular basis. There's usually a break in form, even Paul Hayward manages to write the occasional piece that doesn't come across as a sneering nod to something that's below him from time to time, but this clearly isn't what Glendenning's about. He strives for consistency, which might go some way to explain his blatant envy of Wiggins.

It's rare to see Twitter unite in the kind of celebration it did the night Glendenning got chinned in a pub a few weeks ago.

 

[Napster]

Glendenning has that rare quality as a journalist to combine sheer pomposity with sanctimony on an alarmingly regular basis. There's usually a break in form, even Paul Hayward manages to write the occasional piece that doesn't come across as a sneering nod to something that's below him from time to time, but this clearly isn't what Glendenning's about. He strives for consistency, which might go some way to explain his blatant envy of Wiggins.

It's rare to see Twitter unite in the kind of celebration it did the night Glendenning got chinned in a pub a few weeks ago.

I was tempted to unfollow Glendenning but I can't help myself. It's like secretly watching West Ham in the hope they get beaten.

The only journo I truly respect is Martin Lipton. :smile:

 

[EastStandBlue]

I was tempted to unfollow Glendenning but I can't help myself. It's like secretly watching West Ham in the hope they get beaten.

The only journo I truly respect is Martin Lipton. :smile:

I like Lipton, but he doesn't half get miffed if you disagree with him... I thought he was going to glass Sam Wallace from the Indy on Sunday Supplement when they had a minor disagreement towards the end of last season (I think it was abou Redknapp).

 

[Uncle Leo]

I like Lipton, but he doesn't half get miffed if you disagree with him... I thought he was going to glass Sam Wallace from the Indy on Sunday Supplement when they had a minor disagreement towards the end of last season (I think it was abou Redknapp).

Or with this bird on Chelsea TV...

[video=youtube;Wt9elfwV8cU]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wt9elfwV8cU[/video]

 

[EastStandBlue]

I'm with Lipton on that one... He's hardly likely to make an appearance on a ChelseaTV programme and reveal his sources on an exclusive he's delivered for his paper, and she's just trying to goad him into a reaction. Paddy Barclay's loving it though. The best video of Gigi Salmon on YouTube is of her getting pelted with celery at Chelsea's Champions League parade.

 

[yogi bear up the cagire]

From SkyNews
Bradley Wiggins has scaled one of the great heights of British sporting achievement, to be the first person in 109 years to win the Tour de France is an immense feat of physical and mental ability and aptitude and I think the whole country wants to say well done, brilliant - the perfect backdrop and start to the Olympics."

Well the Sky team may have won the Tour de France but Sky News are still unable to be accurate with their reporting!

 

[Billy is the best]

From SkyNews
Bradley Wiggins has scaled one of the great heights of British sporting achievement, to be the first person in 109 years to win the Tour de France is an immense feat of physical and mental ability and aptitude and I think the whole country wants to say well done, brilliant - the perfect backdrop and start to the Olympics."

Well the Sky team may have won the Tour de France but Sky News are still unable to be accurate with their reporting!

The first Tour de France was held in 1903. Next year will be the 100th tour. They were not able to run the race through the war years but there are some fantastic photos showing the Tour going through bomb ravaged towns.
i went to Paris for the finish. For me Bradleys win was the greatest sporting achievement of any British athlete. I still feel a little uneasy about subscribing to Sky TV. Has their money not ruined Football? That is another debate. But for today i will reflect on Bradleys performance with a glass or maybe bottle of Cremant de ALsace.

 

[blues_r_best]

.......................

 

[yogi bear up the cagire]

The first Tour de France was held in 1903. Next year will be the 100th tour. They were not able to run the race through the war years but there are some fantastic photos showing the Tour going through bomb ravaged towns.
i went to Paris for the finish. For me Bradleys win was the greatest sporting achievement of any British athlete. I still feel a little uneasy about subscribing to Sky TV. Has their money not ruined Football? That is another debate. But for today i will reflect on Bradleys performance with a glass or maybe bottle of Cremant de ALsace.

Yes indeed you're right. I put the same message on FB and then realised my mistake and took it off.........forgot that I put it on here! I hope that this victory will help restore the somewhat tarnished image of the Tour, which, as is indicated by the title of the thread, has suffered greatly from problems of drug taking. I'm not a great follower of cycling but am always drawn to the sheer spectacle of this event and have the good fortune that it doesn't pass very far from my home every year. I have certainly been sucked in even more this year by the success of the Sky team and had the privilege to get an invitation (thank you AG2R) to the TdeF village in Bagnères de Luchon. A little shamefully, when we went out to the coaches housing the teams, I didn't spend too long with AG2R but slinked off quickly to find the Sky bus. Understandably, access to the riders wasn't quite as easy, although I did get a number of photos of Bradley and his team-mate Bernhard Eisel.
I'm even surprised how much I've been touched by this achievement..........AN ENGLISHMAN WINNING THE TOUR DE FRANCE..................just have to keep repeating it, in order to believe it!!!! INCREDIBLE performance by Wiggins and his team.

 

[Uncle Leo]

All those years of a Chris Boardman TT/Prologue win being our only hope of any success
All those years of hoping that David Millar might sneak us a breakaway victory
All those years looking out for the likes of Charlie Wegelius and hoping they'd maybe finish top 100 in the GC
All those years of feeding off crumbs (Oh, look, Max Sciandri has decided to be British, he'll do!)

And now this. 1-2 in the GC, a third of the stages being won by British riders and a British team utterly dominating the race. It didn't make for the most exciting Tour de France in terms of the outcome being in doubt right up to the end, but it has certainly made for one of the all-time great achievements in British sporting history.

I am absolutely thrilled.

 

[EastStandBlue]

I was tempted to unfollow Glendenning but I can't help myself. It's like secretly watching West Ham in the hope they get beaten.

The only journo I truly respect is Martin Lipton. :smile:

Back on the subject of Glendenning, he's charted quite highly on the brilliant '100 Worst People on Twitter', with an absolutely fantastic anecdote about him that he's so desperate to hide away - http://100worstpeopleontwitter.tumblr.com/post/30998986697/37-barry-glendenning

 

[Napster]

Back on the subject of Glendenning, he's charted quite highly on the brilliant '100 Worst People on Twitter', with an absolutely fantastic anecdote about him that he's so desperate to hide away - http://100worstpeopleontwitter.tumblr.com/post/30998986697/37-barry-glendenning

Thanks - was just about to have lunch.

:stunned:

ps some negative comments about Slipperduke there. can't be having that.