Shall we try to return to the topic?

It's very difficult to know what is going on, but it is true that with rare exceptions, the big climbs in the GTs seem to be slower in the last couple of years than they were in the twenty preceding years. I'm prepared to believe that this is because the top guys are doping less, or more carefully ( these may be synonyms) than in the past.

On a more subjective note, watching the GTs this year has been interesting. It is my impression that the leading riders looks more vulnerable, more often on the rivet, more subject to bad days, than they have been for a while. Having said that, I think I saw that Froome comfortably exceeded 6w/kilo for the last two kilometres on stage 17 of the Vuelta, so you pay your money and take your choice...