Clean cyclists 1990-2010

[Pedrosanchezo]

No his positive test was Testosterone. He denied it, as almost all do, and has done ever since. He did though work with a doctor who believed quite strongly that pro cyclists should be allowed to micro dose natural hormones back to normal and safe levels after races. Millar said something like "i took whatever he gave me, i trusted him". I forget the doctors name.

This website has some interesting bits and bobs on who has doped, failed tests etc. It is also linked straight to Millars page.

 

[lukesdad]

Anyone who has ridden for Riis is dodgy at the least.

Anybody that rode a bike professionally was dodgy.

 

[lukesdad]

Evans is the interesting one considering how consistently highly he placed in fields of dopers.

 

[Montelimar]

Looking for clean riders who were successful during the EPO era is like looking for the needle in a haystack. After reading Tyler Hamiltons book I get the impression only some kind of superman could have cleanly won a GT in that time. I dont think its entirely in the past either although things have certainly improved. Watching the leaders sprinting madly up Col de Manse on the Gap stage this year I had to wonder. Not normal.

 

[Dave Davenport]

Evans is the interesting one considering how consistently highly he placed in fields of dopers.

I believe Evans' power stats and times have been pretty consistent, just off the known dopers performance and didn't win the TdF until they weren't there.

 

[thom]

Was Miguel Indurain clean?

 

[smutchin]

Sastre really won that stage by default tho' didn't he , he really wasn't considered a contender and the others marked each other . One of the biggest errors of judgement I've witnessed in the tour.

Good point.

My recollection of the 2008 Tour is very vague - I have a feeling the events of 2007 might have killed my interest slightly, and I might even have stopped watching after Cav pulled out - but I do recall seeing this new young "British" rider on the Barloworld team and thinking, "Oh look, it's the new Charly Wegelius." Wonder what became of him...

Anyway, surely the 2008 results were skewed by the fact that Astana weren't invited? There was no Contador, Kloden or Leipheimer at the race, and they would have been three of the main contenders. Valverde seems to have had variable form, Cunego abandoned, Ricco was chucked out, Menchov might have been a bit tired after riding to 5th overall in the Giro...

So maybe it doesn't seem so odd after all that a probably clean rider could pull off an unlikely win with a bold bit of racing, with a probably clean rider finishing second as well.

 

[ohnovino]

Sastre attacked early and nobody wanted to work to bring him back, because doing so would mean towing the Schlecks (who were his team-mates) up the mountain for the win.

If a clean rider's going to beat a dirty field then that's probably the way they'll do it, but I wouldn't say I have a lot of confidence in that particular stage.

 

[smutchin]

If a clean rider's going to beat a dirty field then that's probably the way they'll do it, but I wouldn't say I have a lot of confidence in that particular stage.

But aside from Ricco and Kohl, just how dirty was the field in 2008? What was it about the 2008 Tour that made Lance call it "a joke" and make that fatefully hubristic decision to stage a comeback in 2009?

 

[rich p]

But aside from Ricco and Kohl, just how dirty was the field in 2008? What was it about the 2008 Tour that made Lance call it "a joke" and make that fatefully hubristic decision to stage a comeback in 2009?

He called it a joke, IIRC, because C Van de Velde finished 5th and he regarded him as a domestique. He assumed that he could come back and win it again if CV could do so well.
The rest, as they say...

 

[rich p]

But aside from Ricco and Kohl, just how dirty was the field in 2008? ?

I have no doubt that some were doped but not caught, such as Valverde, and Cobo but Piepoli was caught at the same time as Ricco. Stefan Schumacher and Fofonov also fingered in that one.
Oh, and Manuel Beltran too!

 

[rich p]

Sastre really won that stage by default tho' didn't he , he really wasn't considered a contender and the others marked each other . One of the biggest errors of judgement I've witnessed in the tour.

That rings a bell - I missed most of the race on my hols that year. So Evans didn't have a go at chasing him and lost the race to Sastre because he was worried that the Schlecks would be dragged along too?

 

[ohnovino]

What was it about the 2008 Tour that made Lance call it "a joke"

Does it have anything to do with the power struggle at the time between the UCI and the grand tour organisers? I could imagine Lance thinking he would be at greater risk of getting exposed if his "friends" at the UCI lost control of the sport, and belittling the ASO-run tour probably helped their cause.

 

[lukesdad]

That rings a bell - I missed most of the race on my hols that year. So Evans didn't have a go at chasing him and lost the race to Sastre because he was worried that the Schlecks would be dragged along too?

Basically Cuddles assumed he could do him in the ITT. What he hadn't counted on was Sastre had never had to put in a performance in a TT in his life and Cuddles got a nasty shock, he really should have won it that year he watched the wrong geezer. Not the first time and it won't be the last.

 

[lukesdad]

The big one to miss out in 2008 from Sastre a point of view of course was Basso