The "Smash-and-Grab" Doper Thread

[Red Rick]

AdH 2008 looks more ridiculous cause the entire rest of the group was basically just chilling and laughing at Cadel Evans.

 

[meat puppet]

Papi Horner is clean, leave the smirking one-legged bandit out of this!

Does Ugrumov qualify, or was he too consistent throughout his career? True, he was already second in the 93 giro. But a mountain stage, an itt plus second overall in the 94 TDF has to count for something.

 

[Samu Cuenca]

Although he didn't exactly come out of nowhere with several top 10s in grand tours beforehand, nor did he disappear into obscurity immediately afterwards, with two respectable seasons after the smash and grab which was about as expected considering he was 33 when he nabbed his victory... I still consider it a smash and grab since his other main achievements consist of a couple grand tour podiums and a handful of stage wins, so this particular performance led to the biggest win of his career by a massive margin. If you hadn't clocked it already, I'm nominating Carlos Sastre's Tour-winning ride on Alpe d'Huez in 2008.

Bonus points for doing it in one of the dirtiest Tours in recent memory. Extra bonus points for playing the Miguel Indurain-style nice guy act for his entire career and charming the pesky ADAs into not meddling in his affairs. Absolutely textbook. Chapeau!

I don't think Sastre belongs here. He won the 2008 Tour, because he was on the strongest team (at least after Saunier Duval had left the race), the fact that Contador (as well as Klöden and Leipheimer) wasn't able to take part, and due to Evans not riding one of his very best time trials on stage 20. That race also had a shorter ITT in the first week instead of a long one, which didn't exactly hurt Sastre.

 

[Samu Cuenca]

Papi Horner is clean, leave the smirking one-legged bandit out of this!

Does Ugrumov qualify, or was he too consistent throughout his career? True, he was already second in the 93 giro. But a mountain stage, an itt plus second overall in the 94 TDF has to count for something.

Ugrumov kept it going for a little longer than the likes of Berzin or Aitor González.

 

[Breh]

Schumacher winning both TT's in the 2008 Tour perhaps?
Or was he a renowned TT'er, I don't really remember.

The rest of his career was probably too high-profile anyway.

 

[proffate]

Hirschi kinda fits, no? Went nuts in the TDF at the age of 21 (in the year of no drug testing heh), on the TV every day, looks like the next world beater; earns 4 year deal with mega team (at the time, a long contract, and no doubt big money); retires to become the most prolific UCI points farmer you never see on TV again.

 

[meat puppet]

Ugrumov kept it going for a little longer than the likes of Berzin or Aitor González.

Yeah, fair point. I misremembered Berzin was older and had a long track career before the GT years. But it wasn't that long, after all.

 

[Mayomaniac]

Yeah, fair point. I misremembered Berzin was older and had a long track career before the GT years. But it wasn't that long, after all.

Honestly, Berzin's 1996 season schedule was just insane, if you look at how little rest he got between races him failing in that Tour makes sense.

Does young Popovych fit the category? Never caught and a worldbeater at a young age, while riding for scumbag Olivano Locatelli.

 

[Nick2413]

Hirschi kinda fits, no? Went nuts in the TDF at the age of 21 (in the year of no drug testing heh), on the TV every day, looks like the next world beater; earns 4 year deal with mega team (at the time, a long contract, and no doubt big money); retires to become the most prolific UCI points farmer you never see on TV again.

The funny thing is that was probably UAE’s goal with him anyway. Those points ain’t gonna farm themselves.

 

[Squire]

Bonus points for doing it in one of the dirtiest Tours in recent memory.

Don't know the consensus these days, but previously the 2008 Tour (and that period in cycling in general) had some kind of reputation for being relatively cleaner than the years before and after. CERA test weeding out the CERA users, and perhaps a bit of uncertainty among the teams what they could or couldn't do under the blood passport that was introduced at the beginning of the year. Also it was just two years after Puerto. And the climbing times weren't stellar (Sastre on the Alpe was pretty good though). So if you look past the big number of people actually busted during and shortly after the Tour (which is pretty hard, I know!) it might not have been that dirty.

 

[Tim Cahill]

Jonathan Tiernan-Locke's iconic 2012 season for Endura would be up there if not for that damn biopassport, bit of an Aldi Froome who at 26 just seem to decide f*ck it.

Irony is he became immediately crap when he went to sky and got caught seemingly when he was off the gear.

 

[meat puppet]

Don't know the consensus these days, but previously the 2008 Tour (and that period in cycling in general) had some kind of reputation for being relatively cleaner than the years before and after. CERA test weeding out the CERA users, and perhaps a bit of uncertainty among the teams what they could or couldn't do under the blood passport that was introduced at the beginning of the year. Also it was just two years after Puerto. And the climbing times weren't stellar (Sastre on the Alpe was pretty good though). So if you look past the big number of people actually busted during and shortly after the Tour (which is pretty hard, I know!) it might not have been that dirty.

For what it's worth this has been my understanding, too.

Probably the powers that be drew the conclusion that no, if cleaner in reality means appearing dirtier, let's not go there. Didn't UCI wrestle testing back into its own hands the next year?

 

[Mayomaniac]

Also, 1995-1997 Enrico Zaina, the only guy who got faster after leaving 1994 Gewiss-Ballan...
2015-2016 Diego Rosa is one of the first riders that comes to my mind, was scary good when he was on, then he cashed out with a seven figure salary for 3 seasons at Sky (3.5M over 3 years) and took it easy.

 

[will-10]

Melchor Mauri probably has too good a palmares overall, but I always thought him whupping Big Mig in an ITT to win his Vuelta was in keeping with this sort of thread.

 

[zlev11]

Aitor Gonzalez, 2002 Vuelta

 

[MJR]

Yes, a Roubaix specialist. It's the one race he was perfectly suited for. Other than that Sunday in April every year, he mostly did lead-outs and domestique work on the flat. Being a Roubaix specialist doesn't mean you need to be the best in the world for that race. I would call Bert de Backer and Sebastien Turgot Roubaix specialists, too. My point is that Vansummeren's lucky tactical Roubaix win is not the first thing I think about when the conversation is about riders doping their way to big results and then not doing much before or since.

Heartily agree with all this.

Plus, a rider like him who tended to do pretty well in that race pulling off a lucky but well-earned victory is one of the reasons I love the sport. It would get boring pretty quickly if the same few hammered the competition and won 'em every year.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

For what it's worth this has been my understanding, too.

Probably the powers that be drew the conclusion that no, if cleaner in reality means appearing dirtier, let's not go there. Didn't UCI wrestle testing back into its own hands the next year?

Yes, but this was also affected by Lance coming back as well. The 2008 is the cleanest tour in living memory. The ones that didn't get the memo stood out like a sore thumb.

 

[proffate]

what happened with Carlos Betancur? Was there a drugs angle there or did he just become addicted to pie? Maybe Movistar just too toxic? Why do they keep hiring non-Spanish Spanish speakers and then treating them like crap

 

[Mr. 64%]

Many good suggestions, many good laughs at these memories of ridicule...
To me, there can only be one.

Rodolfo Massi.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

what happened with Carlos Betancur? Was there a drugs angle there or did he just become addicted to pie? Maybe Movistar just too toxic? Why do they keep hiring non-Spanish Spanish speakers and then treating them like crap

He was already off the rails before signing for Abarcá. He's more one of their cut price flyers on someone that might rebound, similar to Rujano or Antón, because the talent was there but the motivation wasn't.

 

[Ripper]

My pet theory regarding Papa Horner is that he rode paniagua his whole life but before Vuelta'13 he said to himself:
"The end is near so let's have coca-cola, no risk no glory!"
The best climber ever, all things considered.

Except, I'm pretty sure he didn't

 

[Ripper]

Raimondas Rumšas- a true smash and grab legend.

But he ended up getting sanctioned because wifey got caught, yes?

 

[Nomad]

His wife initially took the rap for the doping products found in their vehicle on the last day of the Tour telling authorities they were for her mother-in-law.

Rumsas then tested positive for rocket fuel in May, 2003, and a couple years later was charged with illegally importing drugs into France in reference to his wife's incident. Amazing, since those doping products were meant only for his mother. LOL!

Raimondas Rumšas - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

 

[laarsland]

Covi flew close to the sun then faded very quickly.

 

[Cassirer]

The existence of smash-and-grabbers seems like a good counter argument to the "they all are doing it anyway so nothing to see" theories/justifications for long-term-grabbers armstrong/froome/vinge/pogi. If seemingly as a nobody you can decide to crank it up and smash, the big mass of the peloton obviously is not all in at most times.