Tours have no winner

“WIKI- Over the past 50 years, 25 riders have won the Tour de France at least once, and of those,the 15 listed below have all been tested positive at some time in their career,or else admitted it after they retired-
Anquetil
Aimar
Ocana
Merckx
Thevenet
Zoetemelk
Fignon
Delgado
Indurain
Riis
Ullrich
Pantani
Armstrong
Landis
Contador
There's a saying in cycling- "NO DOPE, NO HOPE" (of winning).
TdF winner Anquetil once said in a TV debate-"Leave me in peace; everybody takes dope."”

“It is good to see a topic well presented and well discussed for a change.
one noticeable missing British pro is of course Tommy Simpson, who sadly paid with his own life for taking a cocktail of drugs. a hero of that time never seen as a drug cheat.
I am still at a loss as to why the whole of sport let alone cycling has put its total weight of blame on Armstrong, i do wonder if other American sporting heroes were about to be outed ref drugs and this took all the heat off them, who knows.
It has to be bad when a sport like Snooker has drug problems. Beta Blockers.
there aint no hope. I still have Armstrong down as a hero for what he achieved.
Cav Wiggo what ambassadors for a fantastic sport...firkin”

“@merckx24 - no I can't say for sure what Wiggins and Evans may have got up to when they came into the cofidis and mapei teams respectively. In Wiggins' case, he was already an Olympic Gold Medalist in track cycling by that time and the tide was in the process of turning against the drug users in road cycling. He has always been outspoken against drugs and no-one has come out of the woodwork to suggest otherwise.

Evans also has a "clean" reputation but I know less about him, I'll admit. When I did my little list, I didn't want it to be solely Brit riders, therefore giving the impression that all Brits are clean and the problem was all with non-UK riders! We know, of course, that some Brits were involved in doping (e.g David Millar was banned for 2 years in 2004). However, we now know that road cyclists were nearly all at it in that era. I am as confident as I can (having spoken extensively to one of their medical team about all the constant testing they do) that Team Sky has been completely "clean" since its formation in 2010.”

“Even the biggest names in the sport today are testing positive, Alberto Condator and Frank Schleck have both tested positive recently. In the past the likes of Coppi, Merckx, and Fignon have all admitted to taking drugs, be it in the form of amphetamines or blood transfusions, the truth is clear for all to see. They are still regarded as heroes whilst armstrong is stripped of all his titles and seen as a massive cheat, disgraceful but just, he is definitely the scapegoat in my eyes.

It is unbelieveably difficult to ride 100-150 miles per day at speeds in excess of 25mph everyday for 3 weeks (in a grand tour) without some sort of 'recovery product'. Cycling is plauged with dopers, the sanctions are not tough enough from the UCI, 2 year bans are no where near long enough. People who doped in the past are managing teams today, the sport is infested with dopers.

There needs to be a massive overhall from the UCI to give cycling any credability whatsoever. Lifetime bans would be a good starting point.

And @philofbudo, can you honestly say cadel evans has been clean for all of his career or bradley wiggins for that matter? Wiggins raced for cofidis, a renowned doping team, and cadel evans used to race for mapei earlier on in his career, it's hard to believe neither dabbled in doping!”

“I was in an amateur cycling club years ago and have follow the sport closely ever since, and it's clear to me that all pro cyclists are on drugs or on as-yet UNDETECTABLE performance-enhancing procedures.
At my clubs races we were sometimes joined by the small band of Brit pro cyclists, and of course they beat the pants off us because they were drugged up to the eyeballs, we could tell just by looking at them.”

“@TheMercenary - Team Sky was set up in 2010 on the whole ethos of being drug-free and went about recruiting riders who would buy into building a drug-free road cycling team. They actively encourage drug testing (urine and blood) both in and out of competition. I also know one of their medical team personally.

So, short of actually living with them, I do know for "sure" they are clean. If they aren't, they are the biggest frauds in sporting history and my friend is a liar!”

“..Mercenary said- 'the way this has been dealt with, leaves a bad taste in my mouth'..

Yes, Armstrong never tested positive throughout his career and the whole flimsy case against him rests on allegations by former jealous team-mates, yet they never said a word when he was making thousands of dollars team prize money for them!”

“@philofbudo. Nobody can be sure that Sky or any other team do not take drugs. Of course we like to think they don't. As I said in an earlier post, if anyone connected with US Postal or Discovery were aware of this and did nothing, they themselves are equally guilty. Ultimately, they all benefited financially following Armstrong's victories. Why didn't they speak out sooner? Sounds as though people he thought were his mates, were clearly not. I have a lot of respect for the guy, as I was diagnosed with cancer shortly after he was and he was inspirational to me. His book helped me through a terrible time. I do not condone drug taking but the way this has been dealt with, leaves a bad taste in my mouth.”

“Every top cyclist has been caught out as a druggie at some time in their lives, even Eddy Merckx, and i've no doubt whatever that ALL todays pro cyclists use some sort of performance-booster.
The "great" Italian cyclist Fausto Coppi summed it up 50 years ago after he retired when a journalist asked him if he ever used drugs.
"Only when I had to" replied Coppi.
"How often was that?" asked the journalist.
"Almost always" answered Coppi”

“Armstrong hasn't been singled out. Many of the other top riders from that period have already been dealt with as drug cheats. However, they couldn't be stripped of the titles because they didn't win them - Armstrong did. There is no doubt that Armstrong was on drugs - just listen to the testimonies of Tyler Hamilton and Emma O'Reilly (and others) from within the US Postal team if you have any doubts. They had it all weighed off - when to come off the steroids etc and start taking the masking agents so that nothing showed up in competition tests.

The irony is that, if everyone had been cycling clean, Armstrong would almost certainly have won, as he was the best cyclist.

Thankfully, today's teams like Sky and Omega are showing that you can win clean. I also think that Sky Procycling have done the right thing by getting rid of anyone who has had any drug involvement, however minor, in the past. At last road cycling can move forward with clean role models like Bradley Wiggins, Mark Cavendish, Chris Froome and Cadel Evans.”