Statistically, there's a decent amount of probability that another doping scandal will involve the Liquigas team, especially given the shady past of some of their riders.
Thanks, I was running short on examples.
I could also mention all the heavy dudes who suddenly became top climbers in the early 90's.
Who won mountain stages before ? Either super talents like LeMond, Fignon, Hinault, or pure climbers (small size, explosive, but not worth anything in long flat ITT, you get the idea).
From the moment EPO was introduced, the fat arses could climb as well as the climbers, when not better.
Even better, a former professional was a climber at the amateurs, in the late 80's. He's used doping all his career long. Depending on what he was on, he was a good sprinter (not what you'd call world class, but enough to win a sprinter jersey in a Grand Tour, thanks to his sprinting skills).
Then he turned into a classics riders. Why not, after all... I suppose classics were not enough for him, he suddenly grew an amazing skill to target G.T. general classifications, heck, he even won one.
Want to hear a better joke ? The man became such a good time-trialist that he... won the world championships.
What more could he achieve ? How about king of the mountains several times in Grand Tours ? He did that too.
I'm not sure it's humanly possible to change that much in one life time, without the help of any dope. And that made the rider some sort of superman, no matter what natural talent he had/has.
As far as I know Armstrong and Jalabert both participated in triathlon and Ironman events well (no, they didn't change that much in a lifetime, they just have outstanding physical performance), I guess they don't use EPO there... I don't know too much about biology, but I've read that Lance had unique muscle regeneration, I guess Jaja is outstanding somehow too. Did they use dopes while cycling? Probably, as all of their opponents, but if you want to become the winning rider in any type of race, you have to train a lot first, doping is just secondary.
Yeah, most people think that the professionals spend their whole day on the bicycle, but I think they train less on the bike than before - some riders sit on the bike as if it was stolen (especially russians), or another example is the increasing number of accidents and falls in the races. But that's another topic...
I don't know if it's EPO they use there, but when Armstrong whines he won't participate if there's an antidoping test in the end, people shouldn't be too naive, and see him as a man and as the cheater he is, instead of some sort of hero (no matter how Mother Nature physically gifted him a few decades ago).
I don't know that much about how much time riders spend on the bike, but figures I have are around 4 to 6 hours (average), sometimes even up to 7 or 8 for top G.C. riders or guys targeting very long races (world championships + Monuments, basically), with a yearly amount of km somewhere around 40 000 (up to 50 000 for the hardest workers).
Concerning the yearly kms, I remember that when Jesús Hoyos talked about how strong Valverde would come back, he said he'd ridden 48.000 kms in 2011. And then this small article said the amount was about the double a pro normally rides: https://inrng.com/2011/11/sunday-short...l-edition/
lluuiiggii wrote:
Concerning the yearly kms, I remember that when Jesús Hoyos talked about how strong Valverde would come back, he said he'd ridden 48.000 kms in 2011. And then this small article said the amount was about the double a pro normally rides: https://inrng.com/2011/11/sunday-short...l-edition/
I'd take that with a grain of salt. He also said Valverde had done a ludicrous number of situps that worked out to one every 3 seconds for several hours every day
I remember reading of Devolder and Rominger (in different times of course) both giving the same training times: 2 hours for TT training, 4 to 6 hours for road racing training.
(Devolder's case was the year after he won his 2nd Flanders, and he said he'd been training strictly TT because he was too lazy to train longer anymore....that was the first warning sign that his career was pretty much done)
Jalabert said that when he became french coach he instantly realized why french riders don't do well in top races and said it's because they don't train enough each day, that you need to train for quite long.
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"I love him, I think he's great. He's transformed the sport in so many ways. Every person in cycling has benefitted from Lance Armstrong, perhaps not financially but in some sense" - Bradley Wiggins on Lance Armstrong
That's pretty much when Chavanel became a serious contender/helper/outsider in the longer classics.
He realised he'd better train for six hours instead of the four he used to do.
I'm not sure about every other well-known French rider, but Voeckler's been known for his frequent very long training too.
