Stage 2: SPOILER

[Chuffy]

Yebbut, nobut... it was in 91/92/93 that EPO really got a grip. Before then, all the dope in the world couldn't turn a donkey into a thoroughbred, so race results were fundamentally credible.

Who mentioned drugs?

Ironically, Greg Lemond (Fignon's bete noir) is of exactly the same (retrospective) opinion.

Hmmm, could that be because it was his Age as well?

I thought the Golden Age was in the 70s with Merckx? No, it was the 60's with Anquetil and Poulidor. No, tell a lie, it was the 50s with Coppi. Hang on, that's not right, it was the 30s with Magne and Leduq. Or was it the early 1900s before those cheating whoopsies started using freewheels? Etc...

 

[NickM]

Who mentioned drugs?

Er, Fignon did! At quite some length. That's one of the things that I thought made the book interesting.

PS reading the Fignon book made me go back to my collection of Kennedy Brothers/Pierre Martin Tour (Giro and TdF) annuals. They really are very good reading - possibly the best, most insightful bike racing journalism ever. There are several of them currently available on Amazon at silly (low) prices - the years most pertinent to Fignon, as it happens. Highly recommended for anybody who likes cycling history!

http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=node=10193911&field-keywords=pierre+martin&x=8&y=12

 

[NickM]

And another thing! They didn't have those pesky race radios in Fignon's day!!

 

[Chuffy]

And another thing! They didn't have those pesky race radios in Fignon's day!!

It were all fields in his day! And summer lasted forever and we had proper snow an' all.

 

[Chuffy]

Hilarious write up on NY Velocity.

Let me just run that through my SMASH to English translator (and yes, I know Thor SMASH speaks perfect English, but this is much more fun—read the following section aloud with an Ahhhnold-type accent for maximum fun). "I was looking to have the maximum SMASHing, and had made the other sprinters my peahens. Then the man who smells like tiny soaps that you keep in dish in bathtub, said there would be no SMASHing. How am I to SMASH the manliness of my rivals into dust that I can keep in small bottles on my mantlepiece?"

 

[NickM]

Unhappy news about Fignon:

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/fignon-at-the-tour-de-france-despite-battling-cancer

I always liked him - specs and pony tail, just like me in those days... I hope he sells a million copies of his book, anyway.