kurtinsc said:
To be honest, I don't remember who won the gold in 2001 without looking it up. In general I know what riders have won a world championship, but more then 3-4 years in the past I won't know what year they won.
And going back and actually looking at the riders... is it bad that I had no idea Astarloa ever won a WC? And I don't even know who Romāns Vainšteins or Oskar Camenzind are.
They were actually both very good riders, but if they were before your time, they were before your time....
Camenzind was versatile, not only classics specialist winning Lombardy, LBL and the worlds, but also winning tours like the Tour de Suisse, 12th in TDF 1997.
The fact that he was a doper doesn't change much since almost the entire top of his time was later caught or at least very heavily suspect. So he wasn't doing it differently than his competitors.
Vainsteins is your classical 'strong' sprinter. Just like Hushovd is nowadays. 3rd in Flanders, 3rd in San Sebastian, 3rd in San Remo, 2nd in HEW... not fast enough to win mass sprints in GT's but always in the mix when he could place himself.