[Closed] Cobos no drugs cheat...but

to cover the needle tracks

What's all this Cobo's a drug cheat malarky? Have I missed something?

He's Spanish, he's winning, he's part of a Spanish team on which doping has occured in the past therefore it's clear that he's doping*

*this may not be true.

DS, Cobo is spanish, no one has heard of him therefore he must be cheating, and he rode for Saunier Duval which did have a few known drug takers on its roster. (However i have no reason to believe he is and will give him the benefit of the doubt)

I see, it's just I had a quick look for official news and clearly found nothing.
*note to self* Learn the intricacies and nuances of STW kangaroo court.

I actually wasn't implying in anyway that he was a cheat, I was just being silly.

Black socks = Terry Thomas = School of one upmanship.

Seriously though, Cobos been on the way up since 2008.

DS, remember that all roadies are druggies. it is the STW way.

I didn't say you were olgit, but I noticed on the La Vuelta thread that the idea of drug cheating had appeared and just wondered.

Black Socks = Jimmy Deaton

Therefore, black socks = WIN!

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Look at those bar ends! You could have someone's eye out with those, you could!

Indeed, back then no one thought of the Baby Robins let alone childrens faces.

Helmet doesn't comply with the three point system either 8)

LOOK at the size of his big ring!

and a Downhiller wearing Lycra, will no one think of the children.

Back on topic, Cobo and his team mate piepoli won a memorable 1-2 in a mountain stage on the Hautecam in 2008 Tour de France. Totally obliterated the peloton whilst hardly appearing to breathe. Piepoli tested positive shortly after as did their teammate Ricco. Saunier duval then withdrew remaining riders from tour. Since then COBO has been relatively anonymous. This leads a lot of people to pour doubt on him.

Of course nobody doubts froome because he is (sort of) British despite being ranked 355 in the world before this Vuelta and having done nothing noteworthy before. 🙄

I'll carry on my defence of Froome on this thread too 😆

Froome hasn't done anything noteworthy (he did finish 38th in the Giro as a young rider for Barloworld riding as a domestique a couple of years back), but neither has he ridden for a team/with riders implicated in drugs scandals. He's always had promise as a rider who can climb.

The Vuelta is Froome's main aim this season, so he's pretty much been working all season with Team Sky/British Cycling's scientists and coaches (poosibly the best funded in the worlds) with this race in mind. He would've planned for his form to peak for this ride. Until Wiggo fell and hurt himself at the Tour Froome was supposed to be Team Sky team leader for this race. He's never ridden as a team leader before, always a domestique with the work they have to do. He's never prepared for a race as a team leader. Granted he may have been bumped down the pecking order when Wiggins decided to race, that wouldn't effect his form, and he seems to have been reasonably protected by the rest of the team until the final climbs.

Would we be questioning say Geraint Thomas if he pulled out such a performance? The only real difference is that GT grew up in Britain, has had the backing of British Cycling most of his life and is well known. Froome grew up in Kenya and has only had the backing of British Cycling for the last couple of years.

Surely we can have some hope that with good training, some clean sport science that people can achieve such things.