Alberto, prouve-moi qu'on peut croire en toi, par G.LeMond

[Andrew G]

[rant]
Very good Marco.

No doubt Wiggins' own DS was lying about the cramp, Wiggins had to bury himself in the days before to minimise time loss and this would have no effect whatsoever on his potential performance in the TT? Cancellara commented in his own post race interview that the final TT after the hard mountain days would show different results as he'd suffered badly the day before.

Of course it's far more plausible that the timing system was iffy and that's why Wiggins lost time. I'd say the most plausible answer is that his previous efforts played a part and by your own junkie marking system it would have been overly suspicious if he had recovered "miraculously" overnight without any signs of the previous days efforts.

Your conspiracy theories do tend to run a bit wafer thin on facts and supporting info at times. It's as bad as Kimmage. He may sometimes ask a good question about why x or y happened but he loses all credibility by doing so in a manner that immediately makes him look like a small child having a tantrum.

From what you've said you don't believe that there has been a clean Tour winner since Lemond. Whether I do or not is irrelevant but following your comments about other winners makes Lemond sound too impossible to believe too by your own standards.

Lemond was racing at a time when you say that drug use was rife in the peleton. Which drugs and who gave what to whom doesn't matter, if they gave a benefit then they would give an unfair advantage over a clean rider. Therefore winning 3 Tours combined with a miraculous comeback to win the Tour after having been shot in the back by his brother, and all done against a group of top riders who cheated by using performance enhancing drugs, surely this is "incredible" and "unbelievable"?

I've improved my times a fair bit this season without any real change in equipment or position on the bike. I'm also small and farily light yet have regularly beaten a reasonable amount of people who are bigger and more powerful than me. Does that mean the obvious conclusion is that I'm on drugs to assist my performance? There are many factors that make up any cyclists performance at any given time on any terrain.
[/rant over]

[Ben]

It’s when you start making a list etc.

Johan Museeuw
Gilberto Simoni
Macro Pantani
Claudio Chiappuci
Evgeni Berzin
Alexandre Vinokourov
Ivan Basso
Raimondas Rumsas
Richard Virenque
Floyd Landis
Djamolidin Abdoujaparov
Laurent Brochard
Tyler Hamilton
Roberto Heras
Riccardo Ricco
Bjaine Riis
Erik Zabel
David Millar
Frankie Andreu
Christophe Moreau
Jorg Jaksche
Daniel di Luca
Laurent Figon
Steven Rooks
Bernard Kohl
Davide Rebellin

[Dominic]

[quote="Andrew G"][rant]
Lemond was racing at a time when you say that drug use was rife in the peleton. Which drugs and who gave what to whom doesn't matter, if they gave a benefit then they would give an unfair advantage over a clean rider. Therefore winning 3 Tours combined with a miraculous comeback to win the Tour after having been shot in the back by his brother, and all done against a group of top riders who cheated by using performance enhancing drugs, surely this is "incredible" and "unbelievable"?

[Andrew G]

I didn't intend a personal dig Marco, and apologies if that's how it came across.

I've not saying x or y is clean or dirty and yes Ben it is a horribly long list. All I was trying to say was prove not presume, and when they are proven guilty they are banned. It's a simple system and how most courts work. You can't prove unless the evidence is sufficient, if it isn't sufficient then what worth is it?

I don't doubt there is also some corruption in cycling in the same way they is in all walks of life. Personally I don't believe there is anywhere near the level or corruption that is intimated on here though. Corruption is about risk and reward and the reward in cycling simply isn't big enough to overcome that level of risk. You'd have to bribe the UCI, WADA, Olympic organisation, race organisers, other teams (management and riders, press. You'd have a far greater reward for far less risk in numerous other sports where the drug testing is much more lax and the financial reward much greater.

If everyone believes the sport is full of cheats and corruption then why follow and watch it. I can't stand reality TV, so I don't watch it.

Dom, that's post ride recovery not pre-race preparation .

[Stu Merckx Man]

i love reading marcos stuff and find it all really intresting, i look forward to the next batch of info. From what i have noticed, most of the riders he tips do end up POZ+ some where down the line.... keep it coming marco !!

[Mike I]

I shan't believe anything I see until Mr posts his flapjack recipe here .

[Paul H]

Ill put money on Armstrong not getting caught.

I think the clean athletes (and some of them will be clean) who you have accused are the real victims of personal digs.

[Andrew G]

[quote="Mike I"]I shan't believe anything I see until Mr posts his flapjack recipe here .