Johan Bruyneel on Jonas Vingegaard: "Having a child is not really a reason to finish your season"

Other dopers weren’t out to destroy others lives the way Lance did

You do know that in quite some countries this is already a legal obligation for years? Not always a few months but sometimes more.

I was in the wonderful position of being able to negotiate with my employer of the time who didn’t want to lose me, the legal options were 6 months full time or 12 part-time but as there seem tobe no legal rules as to how to organise the part-time (wouldn’t really be practical for cyclists) I managed to persuade them to work 2 days one week and 3 days alternate weeks so always had either 4 or 5 complete days off allowing me to build up post-employment life

If he's making at least 6 million euros, he should be able to afford some help after a few weeks of being home. If he's making 12mil euros, he should be able to afford a full-time nanny for the year.

Like the rich kids in Dickens’ time to create a load of stiff, emotional dimwits with perverted fetishes because they didn’t have a real Dad doing dad stuff growing up?

Yes, let’s go back to the good old times where morals were a superficial social game of one-upmanship for the rich and elite to dictate to anyone else (so long as it was a source of profitability) discussion was controlled by hierarchy, decisions were left for the spoilt remnants of dynasties to vote amongst themselves and anyone small (let alone a foreigner or coloured) that got in the way got fakely accused (of one of a whole bookload of farcical crimes) in order to be locked away or worse.

Real men, right?

It's not about the money or struggling to find childcare. It's about wanting to spend some quality time with your newborn children.

Do you write this crap with a dictionary on your right and thesaurus on your left, randomly picking out words you think make you look smart?
Jonas probably needed more recovery time so it’s good to be off.
But to think taking a month or six months off to be there for your newborn is going to make the child an emotionally stable enstein is a joke. His kids will remember nothing of this. Yes the babies need love and care. But it’s not like he would be nonexistent and they have a stay at home mom as it is.

Which the newborn will have zero recollection of

it’s not stupid. it’s true. spend a couple weeks and go back to work. it’s what everyone does. and the kids have no memory of it anyways.

He descended faster than Tadej on the steep upper section of the Col du Galibier, which had some big wet patches. It was only lower down that he lost time. His level was amazing, right from the start of the Tour.

We've had an endless parade of one trick pony TDF winners since Bernard Hinault hung up his cleats.
So incredibly boring.

Take out Jonas and even Tadej will be less exciting to watch

He was a solid time trialist, but won Paris Roubaix, LBL (twice), Lombardi, road worlds. He would attack from far out on mountain stages.

Definitely a lot more than today's kind of TT specialist.

Agreed. Jonas is a good character. Great GT rider. But his lack of versatility compared to Pog and Remco makes me root for Pog and Remco when they all face off.

Ah, that’s better :-)

I’m more of an underdog person myself but that means being incredibly patient in cycling.

He beat plenty of mountain goats in winning 5 TdF's !

Huh? He was as all-round as Tadej, won just about everything (except gravel :-)) including 2 GTs per year 3times.

Referring to GT winners.

Ok

I wouldn't say that's racing more. He has a lot less race days than Pogacar, and even Vingegaard if we ignore this year.

You are looking at road racing only which is disrespectful of someone like MVDP who is racing practically every weekend in winter whilst the others sit in the sun.

Moreover, many of their race days are basically « training » for the GTs.

I thought it was cool seeing Mathieu win the gravel worlds elite this year, it was an awesome race.

That's too easy a dismissal and justification for doping I learned is not true riding with Gene Samuels the summer he was preparing for the kilo at the Barcalona track proved otherwise.

The guy was built like a climber compared to your basic image of the muscle bound kilo specialist. He taught me so much about technique that I was able to apply in mountain biking to win races.

Another example would be Cadel Evans who was identified by her Nieuwsblad as on of the few top rivals to Lance known to race clean and never have any shady tests or nefarious doctor visits.

It is possible also to hit some real achievements with placebos as Dr. Beede showed in experiments at Manchester where an athlete set a British record in their SECOND kilo of the day.

I think the way riders space their calendar to have less travel and more racing reduces the need for dope to recover. Also, the rise of the team todeler in the peloton is a huge performance boost. A generational shift as seen when Laferve was trying to insult Alaphilippe saying he and his wife drank too much and Rouse was able to counter by saying they don't drink. Huge cultural shift!

Tea?

Not sure weak alcohol is detrimental in limited amounts just as no-one is really sure about the overall changes due to replacing all animal protein with vegetarian but you’re kind of right about the placebo because basically if you’re convinced you had the real thing you feel different, if you’re not sure, the results are far less conclusive, probably depending more on your guess of which you got or whether you are more op/pessimistically inclined.

Why would they criticize Pogacar for last year? He did the spring classics (that's why lower # of race days), only skipped preparation race before the Tour, did the Tour, did the WC, did the spring classics

I also don't think anyone should criticize Jonas for ending it early this year. Usually when you quickly improve your shape, as he did for the Tour, you then have a big dip in shape. There were no races for him towards the end of the season, excluding Guangxi, and his shape wasn't good enough to compete for others (WC, Lombardia). Let him rest physically and mentally and prepare for next season I say

I know one day races are more demanding, that's why overall he raced less days, even if his schedule was harder

Yup, no real reason to criticize him if he didn't get injured either. He should race as much as he wants and the team should decide if they're happy with his race days. They're the ones paying him, not us.

Not a big deal. Jonas just isn't good for single day races. His strength is his ability to be good day after day as the rest fatigue. Of course, Pogi was simply superior this year.

Ah, interesting, just about every single race day MVDP does 10 out of 12 months is a single day race, so does that mean he’s also way more taxed when up against Pog who can enjoy some more relaxing stage races as something akin to training?