Re:
Norks74 said:
Has it ever been stated anywhere what the 'anti-anemia' treatment he received twice in 1989's Tour was?
Lemond's own version (which in fact is an abstraction of a variety of different versions) is that he received iron shots, three in total I think in the 'official' version (if there is one).
Unfortunately there are several contradictory versions of what happened. If you put them all together, it is not clear (a) who diagnosed his anemia (some accounts say it was Jacome, others say Vanmol); or (b) how many injections Lemond got exactly, when he got them, and who administered them.
Lemond's last version of it is given in the Kimmage interview from 2009(?) I think. Here is the 3rd part which is about the iron shots:
https://web.facebook.com/2Rmag/posts/534227359949423?comment_tracking=%7B%22tn%22%3A%22O%22%7D&_rdr
As you see even Kimmage wasn't sure. (Kimmage: "I always thought it was Jacome [who did the injections]". Lemond: "It was Vanmol"). Loads of vague stuff and eyebrowraisers there.
Like why the hell would Lemond need Otto's help when his wife Kathy, a nursing student and daughter of David Morris MD, was there with him in Italy.
I had to figure out how to get Otto to help me, because I could not do it myself.
Don't tell me Kathy and Greg didn't know how to inject a needle, but Jacome did.
And so apparently Vanmol did the first injection, but then we don't get to hear who did the other two injections.
It's all vague and not straightforward.
One shot? Two shots? Three shots? Needle adverse? Otto, Vanmol, Vanmol, Otto?
And it puts some new 'facts' about Lemond on the table, like the chronic kidney infections as a kid that nobody knew anything about previously.
Then there is anohter story about LEmond that he'd been riding around with only one kidney, though again nobody exactly knows where that story comes from, or when he lost the other kidney, or how it relates to his chronic kidney infections.
Another story where his kidney (the one remaining kidney?) got damaged in the shooting.
Etc. Nothing really adds up here and nobody knows the real story(ies). It's all rather consistent with somebody who's been making stuff up as he went along.
Personally I also find it funny that Kathy Lemond needed to hold Greg's hand in that Kimmage interview, and when the topic goes to the iron injections, she basically answers for Lemond whilst conveniently deflecting away from the "when?" question.
To Froome fans, that interview setting must sound rather familiar.
I'd love to see the press release where Lemond discloses the iron shots for the first time, and I've asked for it many times but it seems untraceable.
Note that the iron shots themselves contradict other Lemond interviews where he says he never took anything other than vitamin pills. And in the Kimmage interview he says "I never succumbed [to the needle]", whereas one minute later he's telling kimmage about the iron shots. Mkay.
Here's a link to an article (translation included) where Vanmol describes how he treated two anemic ADR riders in 1988.
ttp://forum.cyclingnews.com/viewtopic.php?p=1896069#p1896069
One of those anemic riders was Planckaert who later admitted to using EPO. In his admission he says he used it only in 1991, but note that the year 1988 was perhaps Planckaert's best year ever.
Vanmol himself was later fingered by Sandro Donati as one of the early EPO enablers besides Conconi and Ferrari.
In the above linked article from 1988 Vanmol also says he thinks testosterone should be legal.