the link i posted above contains some interesting statements from Juergen Tschan about doping in the 70s.
Says with the program they had back then you couldn't compete without doping. It was necessary.
Amphetamines, cortisone. Riders injecting themselves with cortisone and other unspecified thing.
Says cortisone, if you take a lot of it, has the effect of amphetamines, i.e. it keeps you going. Says 90% of the peloton was doing it. Says that at the end of his carreer, especially in 6-day races, he took dope almost everyday.
Lol at Degenkolb, who intervenes in an attempt to draw attention away from the elephant in the room. Says he doesn't care about 'the doping problem' in the 70s, he simply admires the riders from that era because of the adventurous character. Then comes up with some (literally) fantastic circular logic: says he's clean now because times have changed.
(no, that's not a bad translation, he actually says it).
What is the role doping played at the time?
Tschan: It was widespread.
Degenkolb: The way how I admire the riders of that time for the sport that has nothing to do with the doping problem. I think the adventurism of yesteryear is cool. But I run sport clean today because times have changed. [
]
Tschan: The program that I have just described was not doable without taking anything: racing, driving through the night on car, two hours of sleep, to race again.
Stimulants?
Tschan: Yes, that was the doping of the time. Amphetamines mainly or cortisone. High doses of cortisone acts like amphetamines. You no longer sleeps almost three days. Epo at that time did not yet exist. In the six-day races I have taken at the end of my career I took something almost every day - like 90 percent of other drivers as well.
Plenty of 'new age' comments from Degenkolb in that interview.
Degenkolb: "A lot of things have changed in cycling." Ehm, like what exactly? crickets.
QS: "you, kittle, and martin have sworn to ride clean nowadays. How is that received in the peloton?"
Degenkolb: "many riders want to join our boat. Our credo: results, yes, but not at all costs..."