So – Who really WAS/IS clean?

Lemond?
Sastre?
Julich?
Beloki?
Menchov?

Bassons

Tom Howard was/is.

Bassons?

Peut-être non.

Tommy V?

Me, but then I have just had a bath…..

Do they just disregard the results for the EPO years?

folklore says Lemond, sastre from your list though I find it hard to trust sastre given Riis.

Boardman was well known for it.

Graeme Obree was, that’s why he was sent home after refusing to blood dope for the tour de france prologue in 1995.

In my opinion he’s the greatest cyclist this country has ever produced, he’s brutally honest, he’s inventive, he’s done everything off his own back.

i don’t think that many cyclists have ever been ‘clean’ just how far you were willing to push the grey limits.

I do think it got taken to an extreme in the ’90s though.

Coppi, Merckx, Simpson etc there has always been drugs.

I am just waiting for some other sports to ‘fess up. Little things, why are Rugby Players so much bigger since the game went pro, how far can a golf player drive, there will be doping going on in almost every pro sport. Cycling has for better or worse decided to do something, it might be because of outside forces in part, but it is going in the right direction, unlike many sports which have chosen to ignore drugs and thus have no problem.

David Moncoutie is widely regarded as clean.

Millar
Evans
Boardman

All results from these years should go to Graeme Obree, Obree 10 times tdf winner. 😀

Boardman.
Smith, Brian.
Moncoutie.

I rode up on of the hills during the 1994 Tour when it came to Portsmouth so I think I should at least be awarded the Polka Dot Jersey for that year, maybe even the Maillot Jaune 🙂

Boardman, Wiggins*, Froome and me.

*-because he’s English, so of course he’s clean! and he signed a thing for Sky, saying he wouldn’t do that naughty stuff…

Menchov?

Looks like he’s being investigated at the moment for links to Ferrari so I reckon he might not be so clean.

I’m not convinced that Lemond is clean either, no matter how much he goes on about being anti-doping.

Poulidor

Not Julich, thought to be one of the redacted names on the USADA document
Not Beloki either, nobbled during Puerto

I think that most of the names from pre 2010 are mucky to be honest, Boardman and Obree were clean, hence why they were used as TT/prologue specialists for the conti teams and left to suffer in the grupetto

don’t know what to think to be honest….

Menchov is starting to look pretty dodgy, he was successful, so alarm bells immediately ring 🙂

So, are we saying that no GC contenders were/are clean? Assuming we’re looking back beyond The Angry Frog* and Wiggo? And also assuming that they’re clean?

Cadel Evans

Angry Frog

Depends what you mean by clean?

Clean as in never took anything, and never knew any thing about specific ongoing cases of doping (rider or doctor)? I would say very few indeed. Some were probably glad that Lance was a scapegoat just because it takes the spotlight off of them. Some had odd instant retirement from the sport and faded in to obscurity never to be heard from again.

Millar

Robert? or David?
One iirc was seen to be the cleanest out there (but had and “anomalous” positive iirc?), the other probably is clean. Now.

I’m not convinced that Lemond is clean either, no matter how much he goes on about being anti-doping.

Lance can probably give a lot more dirt now. Depends if he can be taken seriously. Lots of Lemond/Trek/Lance commercial history too. Lemond is on my suspicious list, along with Big Mig. All others on my suspicious list eventually owned up. Must suck to be a doper and be beaten by someone clean in a comeback from being shot (plus other medical ailments) 😉

I’ve been told Boardman doped, in that his hour time in training went up too quickly to be natural.

No idea whether it’s true…EDIT it’s more authoratative than “from a bloke in the pub” but I don’t have a +ve test.

Boardman was reknown for being clean. if he had been willing to cheat he’d not have had the testosterone issues he did.

I’d like Carlos Sastre to be clean, but following 20 odd years of pro-cycling, one always holds back a little.

He has a charity, Smilekers, which helps out disadvantaged kids and adults.

Care to elaborate Al?

Nice wee lawsuit coming Al’s way. I would be careful if I was you.

that’s pretty much it really, IIRC the source would have been a top amateur or someone within BCF and the story filtered to me through cycling folk. It was mentioned as if it was well known, but like I say it’s not proof and I certainly have no axe to grind.

Well given the current climate why even say something like that unless you are mischief making.

Anyone watch the vuelta this year? The acceleration and speed of contador on the most severe gradients looked completely un-natural. I’ve been watching pro cycling for years and have never before seen something that just looks so unfeasible. May well be clean now, but there will always be the doubt now.

That’s hardly an answer Steve…didn’t the Lance camp take a similar line?

Eh! An answer to what? You are making alligations that Chris Boardman doped, I’m just point out that you probably shouldn’t.

Hmm, repressed testosterone production and osteoporosis…

Can’t imagine how a professional cyclist might end up with strange endocrine and hormonal disorders ❓

All pro riders are as clean as the OP is real…….

I’m not clean.

Every win I have had has been won with the assistance of a few beers, in a team enduro with 30 minutes sprint laps…. hydration is worth 1.2 racey factor points, beery bravado is worth 1.6 points.

Seriously I hope pro cycling is clean from here on. It clouds your trust of the whole thing, doped racing is a little like that hammy wwf wrestling thing… Yeah sure the wrestlers are strong, have the moves, put on a Show, hard as nails…. But it’s not real.

A colleague told me today a tri-athlete was just done for doping, an amateur 58 years old. Sport is worth a huge amount of money, sadly this problem exists in a lot of sports, IMO cycling will never be clean as the potential benefits from doping are too great.

Anyone watch the vuelta this year? The acceleration and speed of contador on the most severe gradients looked completely un-natural. I’ve been watching pro cycling for years and have never before seen something that just looks so unfeasible. May well be clean now, but there will always be the doubt now.

IMO he’s the best climber in the world by miles so it could be natural ability. Or he could just be off his mash?

Who knows. Who knows with any sport? It’s all a load of old crap.

Contador’s a convicted doper – what more needs to be said on that front?

Given that there is no evidence in any way shape or form that suggests salbutamol can enhance athletic performance, then I would suggest Indurain.

This may no longer be the case (especially in the sky era), but he was the only professional cyclist and grand tour winner to make all of his test results public; including all of his lab’ tests (this is why we know about his daft lung capacity, low heart rate etc.)

IMO he’s the best climber in the world by miles so it could be natural ability.

In the same way Lance at his peak was the best rider in the world by miles and that was all natural ability?

From the OP’s list, the obvious candidates are Lemond and Sastre. Unfortunately you have to have your suspicions as they beat riders who undoubtedly weren’t riding on just water. Like mildred I’m quite tempted to put Indurain on the list.

Bassons?

Peut-être non.

êtes-vous sérieux?

http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/blogs/blazin-saddles/really-won-tours-lance-153516263.html

Danielle Nardello it would appear. Blazing Saddles claiming you would need to go down to 13th place to find a rider that was clean, never dealt with Ferrari or implicated in Puerto!