6 ms·
It's the most tested sport by far. Mostly because a couple of huge scandals - Festina and Armstrong. It's an endurance sport which is a natural target for dopi
by sumo89 1y ago
It's the most tested sport by far. Mostly because a couple of huge scandals - Festina and Armstrong. It's an endurance sport which is a natural target for doping because of the huge gains that can be made and it's also probably the most popular endurance sport too. That said, it's a problem in other sports but they just don't test as much or publicise it as much. It's become a real problem in Rugby, https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/50785122 https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/50785122 and in Football where they hardly test anyone
https://warrenmenezes.substack.com/p/doping-and-english-football-a-deep https://warrenmenezes.substack.com/p/doping-and-english-foot...
- brrrrrm 1y ago> endurance sport which is a natural target for doping This makes a lot of sense to me. A very singular goal of "maximum output" without much need for fine motor skills and strategizing. I'd guess sprinting/marathons might have similar issues?
- david-gpu 1y agoThere is actually a lot of strategy in road cycling. Remember for one thing that there are teams -- ask yourself why is that.
- cvwright 1y agoBut like Jorgenson said this year, there’s no tactics that can beat Pogi going up a steep hill at 7w/kg. At some point it all comes down to power to weight.
- peter422 1y agoStage 21 was a great example of how tactics can beat a stronger rider. Pogacar was probably the strongest but Matteo burned up his energy chasing attacks in the final lap and then at the right moment WvA was ready to pounce and take the stage.
- cvwright 1y agoSure it was great to see Wout win again - in Paris no less! And it does kind of validate the TVL strategy of “wear Pogi out with 3 super hard weeks of racing.” Unfortunately for them it just wasn’t enough to make the difference in the GC.
- david-gpu 1y agoDid tactics have anything to do with how Pogi lost the 2022 TdF on stage 11? More generally, there is a lot more to each stage and to the race as a whole than the general classification. If power to weight is all we cared about, we could rank all riders based on their power curve as measured on an indoor trainer and call it a day.
- brrrrrm 1y agoI wouldn't deny that (and probably should have caveated this in my OP), but compared to a basketball or football team, the benefit of smart play doesn't seem as significant compared to doping up and pressing hard.
- registeredcorn 1y ago>the benefit of smart play doesn't seem as significant compared to doping up and pressing hard. For the athlete, or for the team? For professional racing strategy is in the hands of the team members on the sidelines - it's less of a team sport (as in athlete) and more of a group sport (as in information parity.) Whether it's motor races or TdF, there's a significant number of factors to consider. What you are going to have your team do? What are other teams doing? What you should do in response to what they're doing? What will they do in response to your response? What is the average performance of your team? What is the current and maximum performance? What's the condition of the equipment? What tires are being used? What is the forecast for the next few hours? How will changes in weather impact the equipment used? Will you have enough spares to make it through? Do you have good comms between you and the athletes? Etc. For example, sometimes two athletes on the same team might be one behind the other, only for the coach to tell the lead to let the other teammate to pass. For the audience, it might be unclear why or it might even feel unfair, but there are reasons why they made that call. Maybe the leader looks gassed and needs to hang back to collect himself. Maybe they want to encourage the secondary by giving him the reigns for a while, and in turn, push the lead to work harder. Maybe they want to keep the wear and tear a little lower on the lead by holding him back in case a team close behind ends up overtaking in a sharp turn up ahead. Maybe they're worried about a pile up that hasn't been cleared yet. Maybe the sun will be facing the direction of their next turn, so the secondary is providing shade for the lead. So on and so fourth. An individual athlete can only receive and process so much of that information in a cohesive way.
- brrrrrm 1y agosure, numerous examples can be shown to say smart play does help. but, would you argue the net benefits of smart play are identical between a sport like basketball and racing?
- Mawr 1y agoNot compared to any real team game like football, etc. Teams in cycling are just there to leverage drafting. It's all pretty boring and just comes down to power output in the end.
- bogdan 1y ago> it's also probably the most popular endurance sport I believe long distance running takes that spot
- chollida1 1y ago> It's the most tested sport by far. Is it? I don't know how to ask this without it sounding argumentative, but how are you measuring this? Just by the number of times an athlete is tested a year? If so where are you getting the data for this to compare it to other sports drug testing regimes?