Bikey Things on BBC4

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  • shouldbeinbed
    shouldbeinbed Posts: 2,660
    slunker wrote:
    Beatmaker wrote:
    slunker wrote:
    Watched the Tom Simpson part and was rather good.

    But being fairly new to cycling I couldn't get my head round to why he was a cycling "legend".

    He was a drug cheat at the end of the day, along with most of the peloton according to the documentary. Now this is just my opinion but he was that much of a user it killed him, where's the legendry status in that?

    (cue the pelters)

    How could he be a cheat? He didn't break any rules. Controls came in post Simpson's death.

    So every single racer was on drugs then???

    there was a quote in the program itself basically saying that it was a closed shop to a 'clean' rider and they would be ostracised by the peloton if they didn't dope.

    For some more recent perspective (80's) have a read of Paul Kimmage's book Rough Ride (contraversial as either an expose of the reality of what it took to just be a domestique let alone a contender or a good foot in the door from a journeyman ex pro looking to get into journalism).

    TBH even as a pro cyclist with access to world class coaching, nutrition and training doing 3000odd km over some of the lumpier bits of France in 3 weeks at an average of 30mph seems superhuman without some help -and in the 60's it was 4000 odd km. its all well and good villifying pople as drug cheats but it's spectators demanding faster, higher and more spectacular that created the monster.

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