Tadej Pogacar and Mauro Giannetti

[Red Rick]

LeMond's opinion on Pogacar is probably based on his early success at the Tour (the youngest ever double Tour champion: while still only 22 yo), he certainly described Pogacar as "big talent" a few years back.

LeMond is someone in the good graces of the cycling community, he'd never talk *** about the new golden child. They really don't drive the public opinion they usually just parrot it.

It's so weird that former riders, busted or not and confessed or not, are given credibility. Their entire platform is by the cycling community, they will not break with the party lines, and because of their dependence on cycling to be relevant if anything they are less reliable.

 

[Extinction]

LeMond is someone in the good graces of the cycling community, he'd never talk *** about the new golden child. They really don't drive the public opinion they usually just parrot it.

It's so weird that former riders, busted or not and confessed or not, are given credibility. Their entire platform is by the cycling community, they will not break with the party lines, and because of their dependence on cycling to be relevant if anything they are less reliable.

Actually they know, but refrain to not lose the only graces they have left.

 

[Unchained]

Nobody questions LeMond because there is nothing to gain by questioning him. He's basically sanctified as America's Clean Jesus of Cycling. Bonus points for near-fatal accident and comeback story.

He can claim *** because nobody questions him. Like a VO2 max of 92.

Sort of a social tap dance done for LeMond. Everyone around him was a doper, and all the Greg vs world rivalries are allowed to exist in folklore.
Fignon and Kelly, Delgado, Jalabert, Indirain, the list or popped and probabilities is just too long. UCI doesn't have the energy or money to rewrite history. And irony abounds with the ability to subject old samples to modern testing.. Cycling should have an asterisk for when they started really caring as a definitive era.
LeMond always a gentleman not to trash dead and damaged who were all gassed to the gills..Greg is always allowed the odd man out status in cycling history, just because.

 

[Cookster15]

I did use doping but no EPO" seems just like the standard reply for those days

I always thought the standard reply for those days is yes I took EPO but not after 1998.

Right, but since then? Unimmaginable feats, and all to be explained by "natural talent," because he won the Tour young. No suspicion riding for Gianetti, no raised eyebrows? No questions? Mind you, it isn't just Lemond, but apparently the entire cycling journalistic world. It's baffling.

If being the 2nd youngest ever Tour winner isn't talent then what is? Riders like Paul Seixas are an extreme outlier. Pog is still one of the youngest to arrive. Pog is 21 months younger than Vingegaard and only 16 months older than Remco.

On Lemond and Pogacar, Pogi was riding under Gianetti from 2018. Lemond praised Pogacar from his first wins at the ToC and his Vuelta podium of 2019.

But again, why do we think Gianetti is this god of doping? Because he was stupid 17 years ago with Ricco and even stupider as a rider back in the EPO era? Gianetti is a former doper who turned businessman. He is no Michele Ferrari. Gianetti would not have a clue how to safely circumvent the biopassport without triggering an adverse finding. But he can employ doctors with that expertise. That is where I think we should focus here. Doctors like Dr Inigo Millan.

 

[aphronesis]

Milan may know enough then to lower his profile. Gianetti could then be useful and affable in letting and having a program move as it needs to.

 

[Cookster15]

Milan may know enough then to lower his profile. Gianetti could then be useful and affable in letting and having a program move as it needs to.

I think there must be more to it than this. "Affable" Gianetti would need to influence the UCI / testers (ITA). Because there are 14 markers supposedly tracked by the biopassport. You can't fool every marker by simply micro dosing EPO.

There must be some kind of collusion going on so the ITA don't check his samples closely enough. Or else it costs too much to get a result which would remove any doubt that lawyers could exploit in court.

 

[aphronesis]

Sure, I was opening a separation of roles for the sake of specificity and not arguing figureheads.