TdF '96 Riis stripped, who wins?

OffTheBackAdam

Let's look at the top 3.
1 Bjarne Riis
2 Jan Ullrich
3 Richard Virenque

So,
1 Self-Confessed Dopper
2 Convicted Doper
3 Convicted Dopper

Where's the jersey going eh[?]

Anymore for the chop? How about..
1997
1 Jan Ullrich
2 Richard Virenque
3 Marco Pantani

Oooh, common theme here?

1998
1 Marco Pantani
2 Jan Ullrich
3 Bobby Julich

Aha, couple of familiar names there!

And just for the sake of it, let's revisit 1988

1 Pedro Delgado
2 Steven Rooks
3 Fabio Parra
"Err, why's that Adam?" do you say, anyone else remember the "Delgado's failed a dope test, no he hasn't" story?
For those young 'uns. Pedro's sample of piss was found to have a drug called "Probenicid" in it, at that time, it was on the IOC's list of naughty-naughties, because it could mask steroid use (ie, you test the sample on a mass spectrometer and the peak casued by a setroid is swamped by one caused by Probenicid)
At that time, the TdF's list didn't have it on. His manager's comments were something like "He's using it to help excrete uric acid" Prone to Gout was he?

Interesting that Prudholme isn't knocking on Virenque's door, asking for all those spotty jerseys back.
(They should have a "stirrer" Smilie!)


Remember that you are an Englishman and thus have won first prize in the lottery of life.

Spiralpro

Don't think anyone can argue with that. I do find it interesting nobody has knocked at Mr R Virenque' door looking for his KOM jerseys back. But then I think what country is he from????????MMMMmmmmmm. Incidentaly has he actually said anything about all this?? He commentates for French Eurosport doesn't he?

drenkrom

I don't think it's any good trying to rewrite history. For 90s cycling, we're gonna have one hell of a problem if we try to weed out the dopers. The only people left are going to be those that never were doubted, which in no way means they were clean. If Christian wants to collect Riis' jersey to show us how good and clean he is, good for him. Whatever they may have been taking, Riis still stuck it to the others in 96, just like Ullrich destroyed the competition in 97 and Pantani flew upwards in 98. Those were still great races (bah....96 and 97 were OK, not super). And the "beaten" were no much cleaner than the "beater".

And it would be hell with the unrepentent French dopers (OK, you can take the "s" off of "dopers"). Taking the title away from Ullrich for 97 and not giving it to Virenque would without doubt provoke the first "National Revolution of the French Housewives", who find Virenque so adorable with his childish looks and tearful interviews were he dedicates his victories to his grandma. You will never know how good the French are at "doping criticism a deux vitesses" before you try and do that. We all know he doped, it is a judicial fact, but you can never say that to the face of a Frenchman, and especially not a Frenchwoman.

Being a French-speaker (but not French, don't confuse the two!) I've had the chance (?) of listening to Virenque comment races and it must be somewhere in his contract that he is not to be asked about doping. In the middle of the Puerto fiasco, whenever Richard was on air, there was not the slightest word uttered about doping. As soon as he was gone, it was the "let's insinuate all non-French cyclists are doped" festival.

If we try to go in the direction of rewriting past Tours, Hell awaits us. I think we've gotten enough of that lately.

Stark.

I think you're right drenkrom. Once you start trying to rewrite the history books, where do you stop? The five-time Tour winner Jacques Anquetil openly admitted taking a little something to keep him going and there's Tom Simpson's famous quote: "If it takes 10 to kill you, I'll take 9".

Earlier still, riders trying to survive tough climbs used to drink anything they could lay their hands - champagne and cognac being two favourite tipples. Although I wouldn't say they were performance enhancing substances. They just make you think you're doing well. If I knocked back a glass or two of brandy on a mountain road I'd be weaving around so much I'd end up doing twice the distance.