Whatever was the cause (blood bags, masking agent, etc), you cann bet that ol’mate froomey is VERY pissed at the SKY doctors for screwing this up.
Being this far out of the allowable range is something I’d expect from a self-medicating italian on one of those hyper-colour teams or an amateur-level masters racer, not from Brailsford’s Boys. They pay for better service. Armstrong would have had the whole medical team sent back to wherever they came from and never allowed to work in cycling again!
More cynical people who don’t believe in miracles!!
The miracle at this point (and it has been for years) is people getting caught out AND being handed an appropro punishment.
"This is a process that in normal circumstances would be confidential,” Team Sky said in a statement. “However, in light of media interest, we believe it is important that the facts are set out clearly for all.”
This statement blows my mind. “We would have got away with it too if it weren’t for you pesky journalists!”
this is it exactly. goodnight cycling.
Sarah Gigante absolutely killed this week at Nationals. Killer.
Cyrus Monk put on a good show too.
Rohan Dennis snapping up his third ITT National championship was fantastic.
Caleb Ewan picking up his third Crit championship was also impressive - insane speed!
Caz Cooke also ripped the legs off many a rider.
The elite women’s crit was a ripper too.
Damn we have some talented riders in this country and how fantastic is it to see them at Nationals going against each other like this. Very much looking forward to tomorrow’s racing
yeh but caleb ewan still looks terrible in knicks - why has no sorted this out? Where is Haus dog?
mate… no-one looks good in knicks
Fuck me
Watching the SBS telecast of the Women’s race - coming down the last lap with a couple of klm remaining - Garfoot makes her move and pulls 200 metres in front. All 3 commentators (Liggett, Keenan and I forget the female’s name) were saying that the group has to chase immediately - they didn’t - then they are saying that Garfoot has it won - no way she can be caught.
Wrong wrong wrong.
Easy mistake, she looked the clear winner. She was flying. Amazing finish.
That looked exactly like my attempts at winning a satday morning Coburg Crit. go heaps early, pop with 100m to go, get rolled 10m out ;(
Phil Ligget’s transformation into grumpy old man seems complete. It was basically Keeno, Dr O’Donnell and Abe Simpson doing the call.
Totally unfair, Edmonson was wearing an onion on his belt!!
For the Men’s Elite - thoughts?
Let me start by prefacing this with it was a great race, loved the attacks and the breaks, great to see so many people having a go. However…
I got the impression Edmondson probably should have been a passenger for the last 3kms-2kms to set up Ewan and that was possibly what the plan was? Also looked like he pulled a huge turn (the pain face was impressive) around 1.5kms to go and then kinda sat up? Was the plan for Ewan? Was Edmondson always plan B? Was it simply to ensure the stripes were in Mitchelton Scott and not on Chris Harper?
Nah, Orica just backed themselves either way. Back Edmondson to stay away, then if he gets caught Caleb is there to outsprint everyone.
thats the opinion around the crew i was with.
also - apparently getting rolled with 500m to go after leading all race is the story of chris harpers life.
likely not seen on tv - adam hansen taking beer handups in the last couple of laps. legend.
whispers are that ewan was extra backed by M-S as they are scared of losing him as well.
also garfoot trained specifically to get both titles just they wouldnt go to her old team - nothing like a bit of spite to fire you up. womens race was a ripper.
great to see two young guns get the jerseys.
I missed the womens race and stumbled upon the men’s while flicking towards abc kids… for the second year in a row I had a surprise hour of tv that emptied everyone else out of the loungeroom. Took me a long time to work out which team used to be which, and I didn really get them all.
I was surprised that mitchelltown chose livestrong-esque colours, and from what I saw I was happy that edmondson won. I was pumped with Ritchie’s effort on the last lap too. I was also going for pat lane (i think that was his name?) from inform, they seem a small team and I’ve seen an old mate of mine wearing their kit on instagram.
Overall, I’m still happy that this is our national champs course. I think it has played a part in moving us towards having more allrounder type riders. Durbo’s crash was a good thumbs up for the course for me, to create a point of opportunity and force riders to corner hard enough to bin it (gravel or not, it was the same for clarke seconds before) is a good thing, and again adds to the allrounder proving ground.