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@andyp
Cheating and professional cycling are so intertwined that you cannot seperate them, so there is always an element of not taking what you see at face value.
The last 20 years have seen rampant doping that's completely changed the way races are ridden, with a subsequent effect on tactics. The way races are ridden now is changing back, and the ridiculous, unbelieveable attacks are slowly becoming a thing of the past. It'll take time for riders to adapt, but there are signs that they are beginning to understand that varying tactics can earn them results.
I genuinely think the bulk of the peleton now are riding clean and the performances are credible. There are obviously still some who are clinging to their old ways, and as along as discredited active doping advocates like Riis, Bruyneel, Saronni and Ekimov are running teams, then there will be a some who won't change their ways, but the biological passport is slowly making the benefits of doping a thing of the past.
During this twenty year period there's been am almost complete lack of leadership at the highest level and that has to change. But turkeys don't vote for Christmas so maybe it's time for some with a genuine vision of how the sport develops to step up and wrest control of pro cycling away from the amateurs at the UCI.