I think I look on the Indurain era as the first real EPO wins, so therefore discredited in many ways. Indurain has sensibly kept his head down and himself out of the media attention.
I think Indurain kept his head down and himself out of the media attention as much as he was allowed to even while winning races, didn't he? I felt that was part of the reason why the press embraced the new range of "colourful" racers like Pantani and Armstrong a bit more than history suggests they should have.
Whilst acknowledging you said Anquetil as the first rider of the modern age, personally I would have Anquetil himself battling with Il Campionissimo, Fausto Coppi for third spot. Only IMHO, very subjective.
Coppi's better than Anquetil because he won seven grand tours and a world championship despite his career being interrupted by WW2 and cut short by an early death. However, both were unapologetic dopers so I don't think I'd put either of them there. On a straight count, surely Nibali (4 grand tours) is among the next in line unless he's discovered to be dopey? And if we're going beyond numbers, I think there's a fair argument for LeMond, for three tour wins (including
that narrow victory and his rivalry with Hinault), for his continuing love of cycling and for being right and not backing down about Armstrong.
Absolutely - for many years it was the only cycle race you could watch on TV in the UK, and remains one of only two that are free to air (ITV4 still has the Vuelta I presume?)
There's much more than two. ITV4 has the Vuelta, but also has many other ASO and Sweetspot races, although I wonder if they had to take the ASO ones in order to keep the Tour because scheduling of one-day race highlights has been somewhat erratic. Bike Channel also broadcast a lot of races free to air now.
