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doubling your points in the season after your best season ever, at age 34, that's a steep curve.
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peter_v
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I don't think riders improving from a high level is that uncommon, i.e. you could make the same argument for Thomas as an example.
We have every reason to be suspicious about unexpected improvements and teams whose attitude towards doping isn't as robust as others, but, as fans, there isn't anything more we can do to address this. Instead we have to trust that the UCI's anti-doping team are increasing testing on those riders who are showing unexpected improvements, or teams who show big improvements, i.e. like NTT this year.
Added: I realise this might be naive, but I genuinely think there has been a fundamental change in attitudes towards doping by a generation of riders and it is much less prevalent now than it was ten years ago.
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Ive always followed Fuglsang quite closely as hes always seemed to be unfortunate in either not being given the chances that his talent deserved or having unlucky crashes or injuries on the rare occasions that he was given the chance to lead the team.
Despite this, he still had some pretty decent results, 4th at Amstel Gold and Giro de Lombardia, won the Tour of Luxembourg and 7th in the Tour de France so its not like he came from nowhere.
Effectively he has always been a Danish super domestique, usually for Nibali, in an Italian run team and only really got a shot at being a proper team leader (not just in the odd race but with the whole team built around him) when Scarponi very sadly passed away, leaving Astana with a shortage of proper leaders.
He has certainly stepped up and while you can of course look at Astana's dodgy AF record on the doping front, I'd like to believe that there is some reason to Fuglsang's late success other than doping
andyp
punkture
We can be suspicious, but without proof we have to assume they are not doping. It's not like Lutsenko has come from nowhere, he's been a pro for 7 seasons now I think, and has a lot of decent wins, i.e. something like 25 wins, which for a rider who isn't a specialist is pretty impressive. Most of his wins come in the early season too, he's obviously a rider who likes to start his season strongly.