Originally Posted by
Litespud
when did Armstrong ever race clean? According to the “hospital interview”, he was using various performance enhancers before the cancer diagnosis. He admitted to using all through the Tours. Maybe he was clean during his comeback, but he wasn’t competitive at that point
I was watching one of the many documenteries on Lance, it was when he was fairly new & before he got on with USPS team. I am totally going from memory, but the gist of it was he was run ragged and flagging, out of breath & at his limit when the Spanish team rode by like the wind. He asked: "How in the hell?" One of them responded: "Well, you don't know? You gotta do xyz to compete." It was from then on he says the rules (unofficial) of the game became obvious to him. So that's the rules he played by, USPS team owner asked are you willing to do anything to win. He said yes, and from then on history is made. Even when the rest of the field got warnings or inconclusive results, he simply took that as just the risk of the game & carried on where others got clean to avoid further scrutiny.
Originally Posted by
Litespud
that makes no sense - riders at that level are analyzed, physiologically speaking, to within an inch of their lives. They know to the nth degree how well they’re performing, and to what degree performance enhancers effect that performance. Do you really think they would continue to dope, risking disqualification, loss of livelihood and criminal charges if doping didn’t improve performance?
It's not the performance, (a watt is a watt is a watt) it's the recovery. Day after day they wouldn't wear out & fatigue at the same rate. If the other racers are on day 4 or 5 of a race, & you are as fresh as day 2 or 3, that's an advantage they felt was worth risking.