CYCLING: UAE Team Emirates ascendency: Should the rest of the peloton be worried?

The best part imo.
Totally nothing to see here

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Vingegaard was left isolated on terrain which shouldn’t have been difficult enough to drop the Danish rider’s domestiques which included Vuelta a España winner Sepp Kuss and promising climber Ben Tulett. However, the reality was Vingegaard being beaten on a climb that suited him after being forced to the front without teammates – and not even beaten by Pogacar himself but by the 26-year-old’s support men. The same can be said for Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe and Roglic who conceded over 15 seconds to stage winner Jan Christen.

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UAE riders 23 or younger total pro wins = 25
Visma riders 23 or younger total pro wins = 3

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I think people will think twice about snitching on UAE unlike on US Postal.

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Only reason things fell apart for Lance and Co was the Feds deposing people and pissing off Floyd landis

UAE def has the deepest roster 1-30 but I think Visma’s 8 can match UAE’s best 8 assuming everyone arrives in July healthy

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UAE def has the deepest roster 1-30 but I think Visma’s 8 can match UAE’s best 8 assuming everyone arrives in July healthy

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I hope you're right. It would make for spectacular racing. Sepp doesn't seem like the same guy since winning La Vuelta, though. I'm also hoping all the big names (looking at you Primoz) can keep the bike right side up as well. Pogacar is fun to watch, but I don't want to see him run away with everything.

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Chemistry is undefeated. Pog should stay with UAE because I think people will think twice about snitching on UAE unlike on US Postal.

I would love to be able to go back to my 20s and be on Pog's cycle for a season just to feel what it is like to be otherworldly. I still wouldn't have been even close to a WT rider but I would have smashed the local Cat2s like they were dragging an anchor.

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Still have the opportunity to vacation on the British coast for some lugworm harvesting to dominate the masters fatties.

Good point.

It was on once Betsy heard Lance admit the doping products he'd used to his docs. I'm sure when it was happening Frankie was like, "oh shite", and knew that Betsy would be all over him about it immediately after they left the hospital room.

As for doping's health risks...blood doping can kill you if it's not done properly and it's not like these guys were using the best medical practices. I remember stories about Floyd and Lance storing blood in a fridge in their apartment in Girona and doing transfusions themselves in hotel rooms. Manzano of Kelme, the guy that blew the Puerto scandal wide open, talked about guys almost dying from getting bad blood bags.

And there were stories of guys wearing heart monitors while they sleep after pounding EPO because it could turn their blood to sludge.

I'm not some anti-doping purist and am glad the hysteria is over, and proper medical supervision could have gone a long way to mitigate risk, but I'm pretty sure it's not legal in a lot of countries for docs to treat athletes with performance enhancing methods just to win athletic competitions. Those laws weren't going to change so sanctioned doping was never going to be on the table.

And with Lance specifically there's the question of whether anything he took could have potentially re-ignited his cancer. I don't know the answer to that but there a chance that he was fricking around on some level. Plus who knows the list of what he actually took as these guys were willing to try stuff that was not approved yet or has never been approved.