Monthly Archives: April 2007

Climb like… George Hincapie (yes, really)

It was the toughest mountain stage of the 2005 Tour de France: starting at Lézat-sur-Lèze then 205.5 kilometres to St-Lary Soulan up the Pla d’Adet climb. Before this 8.3%, 10.3 kilometre final ascent, one cat.2 climb and 4(!) cat.1 monsters for over 5,000 metres of climbing.

April 27, 2007 – 7:31 am | By Guy WR | Posted in Classic Climbs, Classic Stages, Climbers, Climbing Skills | Comments (4)

Climb faster now..!

A popular magazine title is always some variation of ‘climb faster now’. While there is a plethora of good climbing advice, which le grimpeur is planning to explore, at the most basic physical level it all comes down to two options.

April 18, 2007 – 4:41 pm | By Guy WR | Posted in Climbing Skills | Comments (3)

Doping and climbing – conclusions – Jan Ullrich

There is much more that can be written on doping and climbing. Of particular interest is the apparent disappearance of the ‘pure climber’ in the peloton, the gifted grimpeur that can blow a major race apart with specialized climbing skills. This disappearance is probably overstated, and many grimpeurs have shone in races other than the …

April 9, 2007 – 6:53 pm | By Guy WR | Posted in Climbers, Doping | Tagged , | Comments (2)

Doping and climbing: Marco Pantani – part 2

This post is continued from part 1. Although it was never proven, observers often speculated that the first race to be won by EPO was the 1994 edition of the Ardennes classic Fleche Wallonne. Both Greg LeMond and Laurent Fignon have dated the appearance of EPO to the early 1990s, with LeMond pointing to 1991 …

April 2, 2007 – 7:37 pm | By Guy WR | Posted in Climbers, Doping | Tagged , , | Comments (3)