Professional Cycling - Eddy doped, so why does he get a pass?

A question from a newbie here: We all seem to look down on Ras and other contemporary cyclists who dope, calling them cheaters, frauds, whatever. Same thing for LA and Landis: Everyone seems to have their opinion as to whether they doped, but those who are convinced they did tend to call then cheats. Yet when it comes to Eddy, and for that matter some of the other greats, we seem to look the other way. They are our idols, after all. From what I recall, Eddy tested positive at least once (at the Giro I think), and drugs were just as rampant back then. As we all know, they've always been around -- Coppi, Anquetil, and others basically admitted they were juicing. So why do they get a pass?

A question from a newbie here: We all seem to look down on Ras and other contemporary cyclists who dope, calling them cheaters, frauds, whatever. Same thing for LA and Landis: Everyone seems to have their opinion as to whether they doped, but those who are convinced they did tend to call then cheats. Yet when it comes to Eddy, and for that matter some of the other greats, we seem to look the other way. They are our idols, after all. From what I recall, Eddy tested positive at least once (at the Giro I think), and drugs were just as rampant back then. As we all know, they've always been around -- Coppi, Anquetil, and others basically admitted they were juicing. So why do they get a pass?
I'm not sure that it was against the rules back then.
Certainly not as clearly as it is now.

A doping violation involves using a drug or substance that is barred by Tour rules, and then failing a test for that substance. Precisely how many times did Eddie fail a drug test?

I don't think blood doping was illegal back then, I think it was still legal when Moser broke Merckx's hour record. But regarding Coppi and Anquetil and many of the early dopers, I think we tend to look the other way because a lot of the stuff did (alcohol) probably hurt their performance. Today's drugs are different in that they actually increase your body's ability to transport oxygen, and to recover faster. Amphetimines don't do that. Plus, doping wasn't regarded as much of a problem until the death of Tom Simpson in 67.

Furthermore, I think many are willing to look the other way because of what the riders went through back then. 350k+ stages, bad roads, few gears (Coppi actually won on a fixed gear).

Merckx's Giro doping test was almost certainly a spiked sample. As for some of the others, doping was not illegal or tested until the early or mid-1960s (can't recall the year).

A doping violation involves using a drug or substance that is barred by Tour rules, and then failing a test for that substance. Precisely how many times did Eddie fail a drug test?

He was thrown out of the 1969 Giro for testing positive, which tells me it was prohibited back then (at least in the Giro, if not the Tour). Seems to me you were able to get away with things back then that you can't now, with the increased testing and greater media attention (along with the surrounding problems in other sports). Then again, you wonder whether today's champions will be looked upon through a less skeptical lense as time goes on...

Merckx's Giro doping test was almost certainly a spiked sample. As for some of the others, doping was not illegal or tested until the early or mid-1960s (can't recall the year).

Oops, didn't see this one. How do we know it was spiked? Floyd would say his sample was "almost certainly" mishandled. That's the bottom line: We tend to give Eddy the benefit of the doubt, right?

Yeah, the thing is, "the doping problem" is not really about the substances.

It's about systematic cheating, and subsequent lies about it.

The rules were lax or non-existent back then. You can't judge past events by present-day rules. So the ol' boys get a pass. That doesn't make it okay for everyone today.

Merckx's Giro doping test was almost certainly a spiked sample.



wink wink nod nod

They are our idols, after all.

And, by the way, no they are not, not for me. They are/were bike racers with amazing accomplishments, but it ends there. Idolizing anyone in this sport, heck any professional sport, is a set up for disappointment.

Oops, didn't see this one. How do we know it was spiked? Floyd would say his sample was "almost certainly" mishandled. That's the bottom line: We tend to give Eddy the benefit of the doubt, right?

Do some research on the subject and then comment using more than just your uneducated opinion.

It is questionable how well some of the older PED worked. Back in that day doping was very unscientific. Not much research except in Soviet Union and East Germany which was not published for others to see.

So in many instances riders were doing things which may have hindered thier performances. That is one reason for the free pass.

A doping violation involves using a drug or substance that is barred by Tour rules, and then failing a test for that substance. Precisely how many times did Eddie fail a drug test?
He failed testing three times AFAIK. Both of the later tests were probably accurate.

To be accurate, a doping violation may not involve a substance barred by Tour rules. The Tour is not the be all and end all of cycle racing. Merckx's later doping failures were at one-day classics.

In some instances the subsances were banned for safety reasons not because it was believed that the substances gave you a better performance. So my guess is that the consequences for being positive were far less severe.

I'm curious just what "substances" you all are talking about here? Were talking about an entirely different generation here, with totally different outlooks on the use of any and all drugs, both in medical and recreational terms.

Here's some history I have found about doping.

http://www.abcc.co.uk/Articles/DrgsTdeF.html

http://groups.google.com/group/rec.bicycles.racing/msg/45bbf68b861516de

http://groups.google.com/group/rec.bicycles.racing/msg/c55a7f0cb69d4913


and another quote


Richie (1999) In his discussion of the emergence of bicycle racing in England in the second half of the nineteenth century shows how, from very early on, the sport was a heavily professionalized and commercialized enterprise and that
(t)he use of the complex, expensive, new machine in the young sport tended to establish a functional economic, athletic, and social relationship between competitors, promoters and manufacturers...(512) These early bicycle races were staged by entrepreneurs as entertainments and were motivated by the potential for profit. For participants they were as much work as sport, with bicycle manufacturer/sponsors depending on their respective riders to perform well thus proving the superiority of their product. It was also important for bicycle companies to display the durability and reliability of their machines and so races were often extremely long and run over grueling terrain. This relationship between racers and commercial sponsorship came to define the economics of the sport not only on the professional level but also among amateurs. In its early years promoted products tended to be cycling related but, over time, came to include all manner of commodities including candy, sausage, flooring, air conditioners, super markets, automobiles, flooring, national
lotteries and postal services, etc. Termed “team sponsors” they
were, more accurately, advertisers trading public exposure for their product name in return for financial support.
In part because physical demands were extreme * with riders both past and present often referred to as “hard men” * participants often come from the working classes of Europe and also, at least in its early days, of America. Whether correctly or incorrectly, cycling was perceived as a way of avoiding a future in the coal mines of northern France and Belgium or the olive groves of Italy and Spain. It is not surprising then that the use of medications that might ease the “days work” of a rider and maximize his earning potential became a common feature of this subculture with riders as early as the 1870's routinely using a variety of substances. Rabenstein documents how early bicycle racers employed “artificial stimulants. . . cognac, beer, wine and sparkling wine. . .
kola. . . caffeine. . . nitroglycerine. . . sugar pieces containing ether.
. .cocaine-injections. . . heroin. . . bay-rum drops and cola-essence”
among other preparations. (1997: 1) The use of medications within the sport was extensive and routine. (see also Hoberman, 1992: 124; Hoberman,
2003) In his autobiography, the American world champion Marshall
“Major” Taylor commented in connection with an 1896 six-day race at Madison Square Garden that:
On the way to the track one of my trainers gave me a glass of water into which he had dumped a powder which he claimed cost $65.00 an ounce, and which would allow me to ride without any sleep until the race was over. This was only the third day of the race. Later I found out also that this powder was nothing more than bicarbonate of soda, but it kept me going for the next eighteen hours without a wink of sleep. (1971:
19)

It is not what Taylor actually took that is of interest, but the matter of fact way in which he accepted, even in retrospect, what he believed to be a performance aid. So commonplace were they that, as Maso observes, during the 1930 Tour de France founder and organizer Henri Desgrange required participants to pay for their own “stimulants and doping.”
(quoted in Ruediger Rabenstein from Benjo Maso, Het zweet der goden.
Amsterdam, 1990: 192.)
It was not, as Waddington (2000: 98) and others have observed, until the decade of the 1960's that the practice of doping was at all regulated or, for that matter, even viewed, as “unacceptable.” This taken-for-granted attitude toward doping products largely went unquestione d until the first modern documented death from amphetamines of the Danish rider K. E. Jensen during the 1960 Rome Olympic road race. Due of this death, the first tentative doping controls were instituted in 1961 in Belgium followed in 1965 by anti-doping laws. Similar laws took effect in
1966 in Italy and France. It was, however, the death of the British rider Tommy Simpson on the ascent of Mt. Ventoux during the 1967 Tour de France that first provoked a public outcry against drug use in cycling. (Rabenstei n, 1997: 4) From this point forward, cycling has been periodically shaken by drug scandals the some of the most serious of which include the disqualification of Eddy Merckx during the 1969 Giro d’ Italia and of Michel Pollentier while leading the Tour de France in 1978, the discovery that the 1984 U.S. Olympic track squad had engaged in the practice * although not technically banned at the time * of blood doping, the dramatic Team Festina scandal during the 1998 Tour de France, and the expulsion of Marco Pantani for a high hematocrit level (see below) prior to the start of the penultimate stage of the 1999 Giro d’ Italia which he was leading.
In the hot house environment of racing bicycle technology was pushed to increasing efficiency, as was the efficacy of performance enhancing substances. From the spurious concoctions of the late 19th century, to the amphetamines which characterized the post WWII era of Tom Simpson, cycling moved * as did other sports * to strength building drugs such as androgenic anabolic steroids and testosterone, adding the blood doping of the early 1980's and, beginning in the early 1990's, to new classes of drugs which began to make their way into the peleton. Two of these new substances that became been especially common among professional cyclists during this decade were human growth hormone (HGH) and erythropoie
tin (EPO), both highly effective in enhancing performance.

As has always been the case surrounding PES use, rumors abound concerning other substances said to be in circulation, some of these include IGF-1 (see Voet, 2001: 105) and Interluken (Voet, 2001: 128) both having effects similar to HGH and PFC (perfluorocarbon), a “synthetic blood” product that increases oxygen-carrying capacity, both still are classed as “experimental” by the pharmaceutical companies developing them. (see Wadler,1999)

wiki doping TDF (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tour_de_france#Doping)

different day

different drugs

different attitudes

If Marshall "Major" Taylor said he went 18 hours without sleep or fatigue, then he was probably taking/given meth, which was available as early as 1893.

different day

different drugs

different attitudes

Yep, that's my take as well. Even as time go on, I think the suspicion surrounding today's winners (even if there is no hard evidence against them) will remain. They are a product of their time. Here's some more on Eddy (it's on the Internet, so it's gotta be true):

http://www.cyclingrevealed.com/May06/top25-2.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eddy_Merckx (under Personal Life, says he tested positive twice)

http://www.cyclingforums.com/showthread.php?t=165112

Lots of stuff out there saying that there was a second sample to be tested in 1969 as well, but it mysteriously went missing. Would be good to find some hard facts on this (including how Eddy actually one his appeal) other than stuff by ignorant forum posters like myself, but there don't appear to be any on the Net. One thing's for sure, though: If he would have been competing in today's environment, his career would have taken a completely different (and non-legendary) turn after that first positive test.

Here's some history I have found about doping.

http://www.abcc.co.uk/Articles/DrgsTdeF.html

http://groups.google.com/group/rec.bicycles.racing/msg/45bbf68b861516de

http://groups.google.com/group/rec.bicycles.racing/msg/c55a7f0cb69d4913


and another quote

Back during Major Taylor's time, you could order morphine, heroin, cocaine through the Sears catalog. They even supplied needles and a syringe. These and all other drugs were perfectly legal and advertised as cure-alls for whatever ailed you. "Kids getting on your nerves? Give them some morphine to quiet them down." "Need a little pick-me-up? Drink some Coca-cola."


Riders in the 60's/70's would test positive for doping, most likely amphetamines, and and receive a time penalty. Joop Zoetemelke had this happen to him several times.

From the 1966 Tour,

Cycling was starting to grapple with a problem that had been part of the culture of racing almost from the very start of the sport: doping. The first races in the 19th Century were staggeringly long affairs that tested the limits of human endurance. Stages in the early Tour could take over 17 hours to complete. From the beginning riders took various substances to allow them to complete their ordeals. When the Pélissier brothers withdrew from the 1924 Tour and gave their famous interview to Albert Londres they described the long list of drugs they took. "We run on dynamite," Henri Pélissier said.

As the years progressed nothing changed except the brand of dynamite. Just before World War Two amphetamines were synthesized and athletes immediately understood the advantage they gave. Through the fifties the evidence that bike racers were doping was obvious to most observers. There were pictures of racers with dried foam on their faces or of riders driven mad by a combination of heat and amphetamines stopping in the middle of a race to find relief in a fountain. Because a writer can't make an outright accusation of doping without having a positive test to back him up, and testing was not instituted until the mid-1960s, journalists would use a shorthand that was designed to hint at a rider's possible drug use. The cycling literature of the age abounds with references to "fleck-stained mouths" and faces covered with dried foaming spit. Sometimes racers would ride until they slowed and fell off their bikes, their body's safety mechanisms overridden by the dope. After riding until he collapsed Jean Malléjac lay on the ground still strapped to his bike, his legs convulsively pumping the pedals. Others would remount their bikes and go the wrong way. Sometimes one could almost follow the route of a race by the trail of syringes left by the side of the road. Roger Rivière crashed in 1960 because he had taken so much of the opiate Palfium to kill the pain in his legs that he couldn't feel the brake levers. Bahamontes said that he loved a good hot day in the mountains because the riders juiced up on amphetamines couldn't take the heat.

Marcel Bidot, the French Team manager during the 1950's, thought that three-quarters of the peloton was doped. The result of this long history of drug use by professional riders is that doping became part of the DNA of the peloton. It wasn't something that was used by just a few under extraordinary circumstances. Both Coppi and Anquetil were remarkably frank and open about their regular use of drugs. These men were professionals and they knew that these substances helped them go faster, longer, or at the very least killed the pain and reduced the suffering that the sport brought to the body. The racers felt that they had a right, a license that went above and beyond whatever rules the cycling federations may promulgate to prevent the use of these substances. When drug testing began, and still to this day, the vast majority of racers saw nothing wrong with using drugs and evading tests. It's just part of the job. If this were not true the modern code of silence about their use by riders would not be so complete. And the Mafia-like omerta is so powerful it keeps the riders silent about the subject even after they have retired. For more about the history of doping in cycling I highly recommend The Crooked Path to Victory by Les Woodland.

Knowing that something had to be done to control the completely out of hand drug situation, the Belgian federation started drug testing in 1965. Also in 1965, after Tour doctor Pierre Dumas had done extensive research on the subject, France passed a law against doping in sport. Racers in Belgium had been subjected to searches and tests in 1965 and French riders could see that these new rules would come to no good as far as they were concerned.

It had been rumored in the peloton that there would be a drug raid by the police at some point during the Tour. The racers' intelligence further said that the place and time would be after stage 8 in Bordeaux, before the Pyrenees. As it was predicted, so it came to pass. Since the riders were expecting the police they made sure they weren't in their hotel rooms when the inspectors arrived. Almost all of them, that is. Poulidor, apparently unaware of the impending raid, was walking down the corridor of his hotel and was stopped by several officers who had him give a urine sample. Poulidor noted at the time that there were problems that rendered the whole affair dubious. There was no system for guaranteeing the chain of custody or for making sure that the sample would remain uncontaminated. Further, the rider could not really know that the sample that was attributed to him when it was tested was indeed his. Eventually Altig and several others were found and gave samples. A couple of the riders who were met by the police simply refused to give specimens.

The reaction of the riders was intense. As the racers felt that doping was a necessary part of their profession, almost an entitlement, they were deeply angered over this new intrusion. Led by Anquetil they staged a strike by riding their bikes for 5 kilometers then dismounting and walking, arguing with the officials before resuming the race.

.....I caught Simpson just before the tunnel of the Galibier (that year we didn't climb all the way to the pass; instead we rode through the tunnel). I passed Simpson. He seemed tired but then, after a few curves on the descent he passed me again. He did 2 curves in front of me and then he crashed for a second time! I passed him once more and at the end of the curves, just before the finish he passed me again. There was a beautiful sun but I felt some drops hitting me. He was not drinking so it could not be water. He was very focused on speeding up on the descent! So I thought it was sweat. Then at the finish my masseur asked me if I had crashed...I was covered with blood! Simpson's blood... I still can't get that day out of my mind." One cannot read Bitossi's story of Simpson's descent without being struck by Simpson's almost manic riding and his indifference to the effects of 2 crashes. Nor can one escape the conclusion that Simpson was drugged that day.

The 1967 Tour followed a clockwise direction across northern France before dropping south through the Vosges and Alps. Simpson survived these tests fairly well, although he'd had to put down the hammer very hard on several occasions.
"July 13 began in Marseille, and as he awaited the call to the line a Belgian journalist noted that Tom looked tired and asked if it was the heat. 'No, it's not the heat.' Tom replied. 'It's the Tour.' As events were to prove, this was a telling comment.
"Still the heat could not be ignored. Already it was approaching 80°F in the old port city, and many riders winced at the thought of what lay before them. 100° was quite possible, and there was no protection whatsoever on the rocky face of Mt. Ventoux which they were scheduled to tackle around 2:00 in the afternoon.
"The long approach slope to the base of the 'Giant of Provence' (as Mt. Ventoux is known locally) served to shred the field and leave the big guns clustered at the front. Simpson, as expected, was the only member of his team to be in this group. After 7 miles of grueling toil Tom began to slip back to a group of chasers about a minute behind. In that group was Lucien Aimar, the '66 Tour winner. He remembered how Tom hadn't been content to sit in the group, but kept trying to bridge the gap back up to the front bunch. But no matter how hard he tried, Tom simply could not maintain the tempo necessary to move up.
"Suddenly Tom dropped from his little cluster of riders. Barely able to turn the pedals he began to weave across the road. In a hundred yards he collapsed. Immediately he was surrounded by spectators.
"The well-meaning fans lifted him onto the saddle and got him going with a good push. When the momentum dwindled in a few feet Simpson began his former zigzag course. Another hundred yards and Tom again tottered from the bike, this time utterly spent. He immediately lapsed into a coma and nothing the Tour doctor or a local hospital (where he was taken by helicopter) could do brought relief. In 3 hours Tom Simpson was dead, victim of his own indomitable will and the sorcery of his supposedly magical pills."
In the hospital, Simpson's jersey pockets were found to contain amphetamine pills. Blood tests showed alcohol (he had stopped at a bar at the base on the Ventoux) and amphetamines in his system. He suffered heart failure from the heat and severe dehydration. The drugs had made it possible for Simpson to ignore his body's screaming signals that it was in danger.
Gimondi, who was to be his teammate the following year, wept when he learned of Simpson's death. Simpson was brave and driven, willing to take terrible chances. He was suffering from terrible diarrhea (his mechanics had to hose his bike down before working on it) at that point in the Tour, a condition that surely contributed to his dehydration. To make things still worse Tour management made it hard for the riders to get enough water, making hand-ups from team cars illegal. They feared that the riders would get a free tow while holding on to the bottle. The riders often finished the stages terribly dehydrated. Despite his illness and exhaustion Simpson not only had no intention of quitting, he was intent upon getting a high placing that day. Franco Bitossi says Simpson would not have died today because the riders are more carefully monitored. At the earliest signs of trouble he would have been pulled from the race. Also, he probably would have been able to get enough water.

1968. This was to be the last year (so far) to have the Tour run with national teams. With the death of Tom Simpson the previous year doping controls had to become mandatory. The government made it clear that if rigorous, transparent, effective testing was not instituted the government would do the testing itself. Under that threat, the riders and sponsors gave up their resistance to the idea. The winner of each stage was now tested by the Tour organization. The Giro had instituted testing and the result was a series of disqualifications that almost reads like a Who's Who of cycling: Raymond Delisle, Gianni Motta, Peter Abt, Franco Bodero, Franco Balmamion, Victor van Schil, Joaquin Galera, Felice Gimondi and Mariano Diaz. The riders at this point had not learned how to outrun the testers. It was a skill they would soon perfect.

In addition, from now on the riders would be able to get water from their team cars. The sport was finally recognizing that dehydration was not a sign of toughness but a terrible danger to athletes riding at the very edge of human tolerance. Rest days were reinstituted. Tour boss Goddet wanted the Tour to remain "inhumane" in its difficulty but he did have to respect the physiological needs of his racers.

http://www.bikeraceinfo.com/tdf/tdf%20history/tdfhistory1960.html

As we noted in 1997, Pantani had suffered a horrific racing accident in 1995 that shattered his femur. He became determined to return to his former high level and through assiduous training he exceeded his former level. There was a telling flag that wasn't made known until later. Technologists checking Pantani's blood after the accident in Turin found that his hematocrit was over 60 percent.

Hematocrit is the measurement of the percentage of blood volume that is occupied by red blood cells, the tools the body uses to feed oxygen to the muscles. Normal men of European descent have a hematocrit in the low to mid 40s. It declines slightly as a response to the effects of training. It would not be expected to increase during a stage race, as some racers have asserted. Exceptional people may exceed that by a significant amount. Damiano Cunego, winner of the 2004 Giro, through a fortunate twist of genetic fate has a natural hematocrit of about 53. To improve sports performances endurance athletes took to using synthetic EPO or erythropoietin, a drug that raises the user's hematocrit. This is not without danger because as the hematocrit rises, so does the blood's viscosity. By the late 1990s athletes were dying in their sleep as their lower sleeping heart rates couldn't shove the red sludge through their blood vessels. Until 2004 there was no way to test for EPO so the only thing limiting how much EPO an athlete would use was his willingness to tempt death. A friend of mine traveled with a famous Spanish professional racing team in the 1990s and was horrified to see the riders sleeping with heart monitors hooked up to alarms. If the athlete's sleeping heart rate should fall below a certain number, he was awakened, given a saline injection, and put on a trainer. In January of 1997 the UCI implemented the 50% rule. If a rider were found to have a hematocrit exceeding 50% he would be suspended for 2 weeks. Since there was no test at the time to determine if a rider had synthetic EPO in his system, the 2-week suspension wasn't considered a positive for dope, only a suspension so that the rider could "regain his health". There were ways for cagey riders to get around the 50% limit, but that story is for 1999.

The prologue for the 1998 Tour was on July 11 but the story of the Tour starts in March when a car belonging to the Dutch team TVM was found to have a large cache of drugs. Fast forward to July 8. Team Festina soigneur Willy Voet was searched at a customs stop as he was on his way from Belgium to Calais and then on to the Tour's start in Dublin. What the customs people found in his car set the cycling world on fire. Among the items Voet was transporting were 234 doses of EPO, testosterone, amphetamines and other drugs that could only have one purpose, to improve the performance of the riders on the Festina team. For now we'll leave Voet in the hands of the police who took him to Lille for further searching and questioning.

The first stage was run under wet and windy conditions with Tom Steels, who had been tossed from the previous year's Tour for throwing a water bottle at another rider, winning the sprint. But the cold rain didn't cool down the Festina scandal. Police raided the team warehouse and found more drugs, including bottles labeled with specific rider's names. Roussel expressed yet more mystification at the events and said he would hire a lawyer to deal with all of the defamatory things that had been written about the team.

Stage 6, on July 15, turned the entire cycling world upside-down. Roussel admitted that the Festina team had systematized its doping. The excuse was that since the riders were doping themselves, often with terribly dangerous substances like perflourocarbon synthetic hemoglobin, it was safer to have the doping performed under the supervision of the team's staff. Leblanc reacted by expelling the team from the Tour. Then several Festina riders including Richard Virenque and Laurent Dufaux called a news conference, asserted their innocence and vowed to continue riding in the Tour.

Virenque announced that the Festina riders would not try to ride the Tour after their expulsion. That took Alex Zülle, World Champion Laurent Brochard, Laurent Dufaux and Christophe Moreau, among others, out of the action. The reaction from the Tour management, the team doctors and the fans was indicative of the blinders all parties were wearing. The Tour subjected 55 riders to blood tests and found no one with banned substances in his system. The Tour then declared that this meant that the doping was confined to a few bad apples. What it really meant was that for decades the riders and their doctors had learned how to dope so the drugs didn't show up in the tests. And, in 1998 there was no test for EPO.

On July 24, the day of stage 12, the heat in the doping scandal was raised a bit more, if that were possible. Three more Festina team officials including the 2 assistant directors were arrested. A Belgian judge performing a parallel investigation found computer records of the Festina doping program on Erik Rijckaert's computer. Rijckaert said that the Festina riders all contributed to a fund to purchase drugs for the team. Six Festina riders were rounded up and questioned by the Lyon police: Zülle, Dufaux, Brochard, Virenque, Pascal Herve and Didier Rous. The scandal grew larger. TVM manager Cees Priem, the TVM team doctor and mechanic were arrested. A French TV reporter said that he had found dope paraphernalia in the hotel room of the Asics team.

On July 25 several Festina riders confessed to using EPO, including Armin Meier, Laurent Brochard and Christophe Moreau. The extent of the concern over the drug scandal was made clear when the French newspaper Le Monde editorialized that the 1998 Tour should be cancelled. It's important to note that what should been outrage from the riders of the peloton, when confronted with the undeniable fact that they were racing against cheaters, was never voiced. Instead, the peloton defended the cheaters.

On Wednesday July 29, stage 17, the riders staged a strike. They started by riding very slowly and at the site of the first intermediate sprint they sat down. After talking with race officials they took off their numbers and rode slowly to the finish in Aix-les-Bains with several TVM riders in the front holding hands to show the solidarity of the peloton. If the reader thinks that the other members of the peloton did not know that the TVM team was doping I have ocean-front land in Arkansas for him to buy. Along the way the Banesto, ONCE and Risso Scotti teams abandoned the Tour.

Why all this anger now? First of all, the day before drugs were said to be found in a truck belonging to the Big Mat Auber 93 team. The next day this turned out to be untrue. Then the entire TVM squad was taken into custody and the team's cars and trucks were seized. They, like the Festina team, were handled roughly by the police, sparking outrage from the riders not yet in jail.

Thursday, July 30, stage 18: Kelme and Vitalicio Seguros quit the Tour. That made all 4 Spanish teams out. Rudolfo Massi, winner of stage 10 was taken into custody. At the start of the stage there were now only 103 riders left in the peloton, down from 189 starters.

Friday, July 31, stage 19. TVM abandoned the Tour. It turned out that ONCE's team doctor Nicolas Terrados was also put under arrest after a police search found drugs on their bus that later turned out to be legal.

After stage 5 in the 1999 Giro, the Italian National Sports Council (CONI) subjected 16 riders from 3 different teams to a new comprehensive blood and urine test. Two of the riders tested positive for dope but no sanctions were applied. The riders, as they have always been since the start of testing, were incensed. Marco Pantani, Oscar Camenzind, Laurent Jalabert and Mario Cipollini held a press conference and declared that if the national sports organization intruded any further upon the testing regimen which had heretofore been the responsibility of the UCI, they would stop racing. Of that group of 4, Pantani was not the only rider who would have drug problems. In 2004 Camenzind retired after receiving a 2-year suspension for EPO.

Before the start of the penultimate stage of the 1999 Giro, Marco Pantani was awakened so that a blood test could be administered. His hematocrit of 52 percent resulted in his being ejected from the Giro after he had won 4 stages and was leading in the General Classification. The cycling world was stunned. Pantani's squalificato seemed to affect many racing fans far more deeply than the Festina scandal, probably because of Pantani's powerfully heroic image. He had triumphed over a horrible accident and saved the Tour during its greatest crises. Partisans of Pantani made accusations of a conspiracy. In fact, the riders have long known how to foil the hematocrit test. When they knew they would be subjected to a test they would take saline injections and aspirin and in no time the rider's hematocrit was within the legal limit. Some teams even provided the riders with small centrifuges so that they could "manage" their red blood cell concentration. By waking Pantani up to take the test he wasn't able to take measures to bring his hematocrit down. He was a goner. Pantani was too devastated by the disqualification to consider riding the Tour.

When Armstrong was diagnosed with cancer, he had just inked a $2.5-million, 2-year contract with the French team Cofidis. When Armstrong told Cofidis he was ready to return to racing they responded by firing him. After a hard search for a new team Armstrong signed with the American US Postal squad and it was in their blue outfit that he was riding the Tour. While Armstrong was not on many possible Tour winner lists, Miguel Indurain had said that he thought Armstrong had a serious chance of winning the Tour.

Armstrong showed that the first component of a successful Tour rider, time trialing, was in good shape when he won the 6.8-kilometer prologue, beating Zülle by 7 seconds. Armstrong said that this day was doubly sweet, that he got more than the pleasure of the Yellow Jersey. After completing his ride and learning that he was the winner, he went by the Cofidis team who were there with the team managers. These were the managers who had come to his hospital bed when he was in the worst throes of chemotherapy and told him that they needed to re-do his contract. "That was for you," he told them.

http://www.bikeraceinfo.com/tdf/tdf%20history/tdfhistory1990.html

Some great posts by the way.

merckx is ancient history... it would probably just be bad for the sport as a whole to go after him... let's do what matters most, and wage an intense war against doping in the present, in hopes of wiping it out of the sport and creating a new mentality in riders. the young riders don't want to take drugs to go faster, they are made to feel like they have to in order to survive.. everyone should be clean, and all should be tired and in pain :D