King of the Mountains Jersey

[Vonn Brinkman]

You have all probably noticed, with Pellizotti joining the list of caught dopers, he is the third king of the mountains jersey winner of the Tour de France to be caught over the past three years!
In 2007 Rasmussen was pulled out by his team and convicted,
In 2008 Kohl stood on the podium and only days later was caught,
and now the tour of 2009, Pellizotti seemed to have used doping just before and perhaps during the tour to have the honour of winning the jersey.
I myself think that the jersey is perhaps one of the most exciting and challenging aspects of the tour, and I regret it is discredited by all these dopers. What do you guys think? Will this continue? And do riders specifically target the KOTM jersey when doping to be less-profiled?

Give me your opinions!
Cheers,

Arthur

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Rasmussen didn't win the KOM. He was thrown out of the Tour. Juan Mauricio Soler won it.

But if you're going to include Rasmussen, then it's actually four, because Ricardo Riccò was thrown out of the 2008 Tour while wearing it.

It's worse than that if you add other races to it though. The Giro KOM in 2009 had served a doping suspension, the KOM in 2008 was Sella (doped), in 2007 Leonardo Piepoli...

The reason for trouble with the KOM is that it is often a fall-back prize for people whose GC ambitions fail (Pellizotti, Garzelli) or a nice addendum prize for people who are announcing their arrival on the scene (Rujano, Kohl) and so are not sure of their GC abilities, but neither are their opposition so they're allowed to collect mountains points. There are only a handful of people who are the traditional KOM riders who go chasing the points but have no GC ambitions for themselves - Piepoli was one of these, and Moncoutié, de la Fuente and perhaps Soler are at present. Sometimes they're a combination of all of the above (Sella, who specifically targeted the KOM from the first day of that Giro, was able to secure it after his GC ambitions failed when he lost 17 minutes in one stage, and was still something of an unknown quantity to many).

There will be dopers in the KOM race, just as there will be dopers in the GC race. Just do what I do, cheer for David Moncoutié and feel safe.

 

[Big Doopie]

I myself think that the jersey is perhaps one of the most exciting and challenging aspects of the tour

agreed. or at least used to be. with epo and blood doping you can be pretty much assured that the winner is (by necessity and logic) abusing.

What do you guys think? Will this continue?

yes. blood doping and epo give a huge advantage -- no greater than in the mountains and during a grand tour (let alone both). at the inception of generalized epo abuse in the early 90s the biggest difference could be seen in the climbing. clean riders could still "compete" in some one day races or even in some TTs but were absolutely no match for the motorcycle speeds that took over up successive mountains.

watch the climb to superbagneres in 1986. then watch any similar finish in the mid-90s. the difference in speed and perceived difficulty is eye-popping.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

agreed. or at least used to be. with epo and blood doping you can be pretty much assured that the winner is (by necessity and logic) abusing.

David Moncoutié, Vuelta KOM winner 2008 and 2009?