Hmmmmm said:I'm with you. Big fan of Sean Kelly here - have The Sean Kelly Story video, have watched it many times, and the grit and determination of that man gives me chills. The mentality of both Kelly and Merckx is something that pushes me when I ride - I draw energy from both.
I can't argue with that - Kelly and the Cannibal were awesome racers.
What I can argue with, however, is the nature of the PEDs that were available THEN and NOW.
THEN: a little kick in the pants that would get you up to your potential if you were fatigued, and a bit more if you were ready to rock. A few moments of high-zoot performance in a GT.
NOW: the undeniable ability to modify a genetically average racer into something surpassing a genetically gifted racer. The H'crit level of people is something that they're stuck with. The ability to modify that doesn't make for better racing, it results in the *** mtn drag races that make for boring racing.
What's the average male H'crit taken to be now? High thirties, low forties? I've worked with a lot of 'genetically gifted' (and by that I mean TOTALLY unaided) athletes who have a natural 43+ H'crit.
That's the lottery that life has given them, and that's what make sport awesome! Isn't that the entire goal of sport? To see what the human genetic potential is, and to revel in that? THIS IS WHAT GIFTED HUMANS CAN DO, AND IT IS TRULY INSPIRING!
Counter that with what cycling has become. If I want to see a bunch of cranked-up freaks, appearing that they're on motorbikes, climb something at speeds that should make their hearts blow out of their chests, I'd watch motor-sports. Don't the Yanks have 500 mile races where all the competitors are 'pretty close'?
F*ck that. I want to see what a gifted human can do. Doping detracts from that, and that's why I see it as chaeating and find it utterly repelent.
As to the spectacle of Conti in another tour? I really don't care. If not him, then another few contenders who have 'magically' slipped through testing (maybe they're vegetarian?). Once LA got on the TdF scene, I stopped watching the TdF.
I'm not a big fan of having sh*t stuffed into my mouth and being told to enjoy it.