Iconic dopers of La Doyenne

[benlondon]

Cycling News has just posted it's iconic images of Liege Bastoigne Liege but they might as well entitled it 'iconic dopers of the Doyenne' because it's pretty noticeable that dopers have featured pretty heavily in this hilly classic: Armstrong, Berzin, Bartoli, Valverde, Vino, Pantani, Di Luca, Ulrich, Hamilton, Heras and of course the master doper himself - Frank Vandenbroucke.

http://www.cyclingnews.com/features/liege-bastogne-liege-iconic-images

A sad indictment of the recent history of cycling...

 

[Caruut]

Cycling News has just posted it's iconic images of Liege Bastoigne Liege but they might as well entitled it 'iconic dopers of the Doyenne' because it's pretty noticeable that dopers have featured pretty heavily in this hilly classic: Armstrong, Berzin, Bartoli, Valverde, Vino, Pantani, Di Luca, Ulrich, Hamilton, Heras and of course the master doper himself - Frank Vandenbroucke.

http://www.cyclingnews.com/features/liege-bastogne-liege-iconic-images

A sad indictment of the recent history of cycling...

The same could be said about many cycling events.

 

[B_Ugli]

I alluded to this fact recently in the Best Classics Season thread which went off onto a Northern Classics Vs Ardennes Classics tangent. Suffice to say I was shot down in flames.

To me its pretty relevant when considering which group of classics you hold in highest regard, but as you are not allowed to discuss it outside of the Clinic I had to stop talking about it.

You cant talk about one without the other in my opinion!

 

[Willy_Voet]

I like the one of Bettini in the tricolor after he's been beaten by Rebellin.

Should be captioned:

Well what **** must his 'crit be?!

 

[Ripper]

LBL is over the top my friends, over the top. We have GT contenders charging big time and testing their 'performance'. We have the same idea with some classics specialists.

It's a veritable Clash of the Doping Titans

 

[Mr.DNA]

Vinokourov: Maxim Iglinskiy won Liège-Bastogne-Liège "the Vino way"

Almost blew my coffee through my nose reading that headline.

 

[The Valley]

Hmm, it's not a race with the cleanest of histories, is it? I'm not sure about Iglinsky, but at least he stopped Nibali from winning. Now there's someone the anti-doping testers should be taking a very, very keen interest in.

 

[happychappy]

but at least he stopped Nibali from winning. Now there's someone the anti-doping testers should be taking a very, very keen interest in.

You can't say that around here! They all refer to him as "nibbles". Very cringe inducing I must say.

 

[42x16ss]

The same could be said about many cycling events.

Yep. Just about all the monuments and GT's from the earlly 90's to mid 2000's were heavily dominated by dopers. To leave them out of a feature like that would defeat the purpose of having it the first place

 

[benlondon]

Yes you can't rewrite history

Yes I agree you can't write all the past winners out of history. And I'm realistic enough to admit that if I'd been talented enough to turn Pro & ride the GTs and classics in the late 80s and 90s I probably would have doped myself. It's a bit like the horrifying statistic that 80 percent of the male population in the UK smoked in the 1950s. Unthinkable now but that's just the way things were.

 

[Benotti69]

Yes I agree you can't write all the past winners out of history. And I'm realistic enough to admit that if I'd been talented enough to turn Pro & ride the GTs and classics in the late 80s and 90s I probably would have doped myself. It's a bit like the horrifying statistic that 80 percent of the male population in the UK smoked in the 1950s. Unthinkable now but that's just the way things were.

Who says that that is not the way things still are in pro cycling.

The same team managers are there, the same doctors are there, the same system that enabled doping has not gone away, the UCI/ASO/RCS. Most of the doping has been caught due to the vigilance of police or border controls, not anti-doping tests.

 

[Ripper]

You can't say that around here! They all refer to him as "nibbles". Very cringe inducing I must say.

Bwa ha ha ha ha ... Nibbs

 

[hiero2]

Yes I agree you can't write all the past winners out of history. And I'm realistic enough to admit that if I'd been talented enough to turn Pro & ride the GTs and classics in the late 80s and 90s I probably would have doped myself. It's a bit like the horrifying statistic that 80 percent of the male population in the UK smoked in the 1950s. Unthinkable now but that's just the way things were.

+1 on that, bro. There was resistance in the US - in my view, largely because of the anti-drug "war". And that resistance was largely against speed and the like. It didn't carry over much to steroids - but steroids had recognized dangers, and with the risk being higher, fewer riders were willing to take the risk. It also didn't carry over to ma huang (ephedra). But EPO didn't exist when I raced. I can only guess, from a spectator's view, that it had less resistance than speed. It seems logical. It was widely touted as being no more harmful than orange juice (famous quote). Since Europeans had an existing drug sub-culture in bicycling, I would think the EPO would have just slid right in.