I wonder how this trend will continue.
*** will get really hilarious when they actually start breaking Pantanis records.
And then people will still claim it's clean because they're naive morons who like being lied to and I may have to force myself to never watch cycling again.
Since you mention not watching cycling again, is that what would push you away? An abundance of uneducated fans embracing fiction?
I missed quite a few episodes over the past few years. Missed most of Froome's, didn't see Thomas. Missed Roglic's "almost" and didn't catch any of Pog's. Who's this Bernal fella?
I can't find the post where some incredulous individual questioned if somehow a team has stuff that all the others don't. It's a lot more dynamic than that but there is a trend. Telekom had 2 riders they won the Tour with (Riis, Ulle), throw an oddball Pantani in there to spoil it, and only because dope can only push so large of an ass up the mountain, Jan just plain overdid the partying. Then let Postal takeover for quite a spell.
Armstrong for a bunch, then his minion Floyd wins it the year after he retires, stripped of course but... Then those Disco boys had 1 & 3 on the podium, ya Contador and the bald fella, how funny is that! with Contador carrying that torch for many more years. Then all the sudden that Wiggins team discovers the hot sauce, who woulda thunk a track cyclist and TT'er could win a GT, let alone the Tour??
And if that ain't enough, his lieutenant can have a few while you're at it. By golly, if you don't think we can get any sillier, let's get that one day racer to win one too! Geraint Thomas TDF champ! Talk about silly!
And on and on it goes.
And for some reason my curiosity and excitement got aroused this year and I started with the classics and enjoyed it all the way up to that TT. My conclusion is that this sport just isn't designed for fans who investigate things. I'm not going to go to the extent to call them naive morons, because it's the same with every professional sport that I can think of. Cycling is just now getting around to not publishing all the infractions for the world to see, hence keeping them from pile driving their own sport and livelihood into the dirt. "Performance enhancers" are so commonplace these days, I don't see how we can keep the pros off the stuff. If so, they'd be weaker than your average geek off the street. Little Johnny can get hormone therapy as an adolescent if his pappy is worried about him being a runt. Now little Johnny is operating on ill begotten physical abilities that never were his and gets to enjoy them for the rest of his life. How do you stop that? I work with guys in their 30's that are being treated for "Low T." It's a new time, and only going to get harder to get guys to compete clean.
I don't think we'll see clean professional sport.