Tour de France legends to ride in Absa Cape Epic

[N-I-N-J-A]

[428 others]

[428 others]

[nonky]

I feel like an amnesty/truth and reconciliation approach to the 90s and 00s era of cycling would be pretty productive. By all accounts, riding clean during that area was so rare that they had a special phrase for it ("Pan y agua"). I'm pretty sure the imminent outcome of the operation puerto investigation will show us that most of the guys we loved were doping. 

 

And the more top riders that are shown to have been dopers, the less likely it becomes that the remaining "clean" riders at the top of the pile were actually clean, because it must have meant they were superhuman. I loved miguel indurain, but honestly, that he was able to dominate so many other riders during the glorious days of EPO when it existed but there was no test for it? To blindly assume he was clean is naive. 

 

In the 1950s and earlier riders were open about their use of performance enhancing drugs. Fausto Coppi (who won several Giri and a couple of tours) famously said that he took amphetamines all the time, simply because it was necessary. It wasn't a big deal. Riders used drugs, and continued to do so through the decades - the drugs just got better. Then it got secretive, and then it got ugly. 

 

I don't judge them. I think doping was par for the course. The riders from that era just need to lay it all out on the table in the same way that Tyler Hamilton and few others already have. I think it would be really interesting and good for everyone involved. I'd love to read Jan Ulrich's account of that period. 

 

But where all that leaves one with regard to ex-dopers riding the epic? I have no idea. Using them to publicise the race does seem wrong. But I do think they should be allowed to ride. We would probably love it if pantani (RIP) could ride the epic - somehow he is one of the "cool" dopers. 

 

Obviously all just my opinion.

 

Great comment!