neilsonwheels – Member
Was he not just the best of a bunch who were all on drugs.?
Essentially yes.
He was not the only cyclist working with Dr Ferrari.
Ferrari was team Dr with the Gewiss team when they swept all before them in 1994….Ferrari then set up private practice in 1995 and worked with many other cyclists.
The ‘most sophisticated doping program in sport’ should be taken with a pinch of salt….it may be the biggest thing USADA uncovered but this kind of thing was going on in Europe already.
The Festina affair in 1998 when 250 bottles of EPO were found in a team car (with steroids too)….the same year the TVM team got busted with 100+ ampoules of the stuff….the team director of Festina admits systematic doping in the team….the Festina team Dr admits there was a special doping fund within the team used to procure doping products, at the time of their bust it had 60,000 euros in it….
Read ‘The Death of Marco Pantani’, the author uncovers evidence and records from various sports/health institutions that worked with Pantani (and others) which essentially points to state sponsored doping in the 90s around Italian cycling.
This was all going on before Lance won his first TdF, yes he doped….he was continuing a rich tradition among cycling’s elite.
Whether he was using steroids, EPO or transfusions is largely irrelevant, he wasnt the first and he didnt have some magic formula that nobody else had….he came to europe, saw what was going on (massive drug use for those who still believe doping starts and ends with LA) and played the game better than the others.