Lance Armstrong... greatest doper there was or ever will be

I hadn't realised how cross I was about this whole thing until I sat down to write a short blog about it, and ended up writing 1000+ words.

I've always considered that 3 weeks riding an average of 150km a day up and down fuck off mountains just not humanly possible on "bread and water" alone, even given a certain amount of freak natural ability. Pro cyclist have doped since day one.

Seriously, if what you acutally mean is 'I can't ride for 3 weeks...' you need to person up. I am a cyclist of extremely mediocre talents, and I managed to ride from London to Basel in 5 days with luggage. I have met french cyclo-touristes well into their fifties, sixties & seventies who have done several of the diagonals (e.g. Menton - Brest) non-stop, and there's a AUKer who has done the Great Triangle (2100 MILES) in 9 days and 50 mins.

Pro road racing is much, much more sane than it was in the early days. They no longer have to ride 500k on unmade roads on bikes that weigh 20kgs and have two gears. There's also an argument that people are a lot softer now than they were then. Anyone that doubts that should read an account of Eugene Christophe's Milan - San Remo win.

Shit, people make a big fuss about road races that use unmade roads in the mountains. It's not so long ago that the majority of the mountain roads were unmade, and Hainault famously went off the side of a hill in the 1977 Dauphine on an unmade road.

so if its not possible to ride a Grand Tour without drugs, are you saying David Moncoutie took drugs, while winning 4 KOM in the Vuelta, despite all pro riders saying he is clean.

+1

Of course & you are entitled to your opinion. Charly Mottet one of the great French riders of the 80"s & early 90"s was famous for being clean. He has quite an impressive Palmares showing you can do it clean.

+1 - a big shout to Monsieur Mottet, one of the classiest riders EVER. For a master-class in descending watch his [ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_PP9ZSQVOyk"]1988
Lombardy win[/ame].

Are you not calling Beryl Burton a road cyclist, then? But yes, Ms Cooke and Ms Burton, whatever we call them.

Sorry, Beryl's palmares do not compare, speculation about what she might have won had there been more races for her to win is just speculation.

Come on guys, aren't you being a little too hard on the man? At least he's finally coming clean, and I for one think we should respect him for that.

He hasn't come clean. He hasn't told all about the organisation of the doping, and not many people believe his claim to have been clean during his 2008 comeback (his 2nd, 3rd or 4th comeback, depending on how you are counting).

And that's a load of cash for cancer regardless... still feel for the young riders who got binned for saying no.

Whether he has also done good things is irrelevant. He cheated (including cheating other people of winnings, employment etc), perjured, lied, bullied, threatened, blackmailed, conspired in illegality (doping was a crime in France at the time he was doing it).

Hm ... Voigt has surely got it wrong here, seeing as the case is still in full swing and a lot of loose ends remain

Jens is wrong, but lots of people in pro-cycling have the same attitude. They want the whole mess to go away so they can get on with their jobs. I understand why they feel that, and I sympathise, but the sporting public are now COMPLETELY disillusioned with mens pro cycling, and will take a long, long time to have their confidence restored. Everyone, the administrators, race organisers, team managers, sponsors, sycophantic 'journalists' (yes, Phil & Paul, I mean you) have conspired in this, or can be considered to have conspired, seeing as they were silent whilst all this was going on, so they need to speak up now, and tell us what they knew & when, or they won't be trusted ever again.

Indurain for 2nd place?

Look again at the 1996 Hautacam stage. Everyone in the leading group has been busted, or tainted by association. Except the Big Mig. Mig wasn't as obnoxious as Lance, he just won a lot of Grand Tours without feeling the need to grind everyone else into the dust, but he was unquestionably doped. Just because he's a humble man, and everyone likes him, doesn't mean he wasn't doping.