It still raises the question -- why is he so much better at doping than everyone else?
How was Lance better at doping than everyone else back in the day?
Lance is an ahole to certain extent combined with crazy competitiveness = not real likable. So people don't want to admit that he has a VO2 of 90+ and was beating pro triathletes at 14 y/o with little training. The guys that win the TDF are not just doping. They are the best guys/freaks who are also doping. Being a superhuman freak with legendary training and work ethic is the price of admission, doping gets you in the winners circle-- 2 things can be true at once. Lance or Mercx is the best of all time. These guys all say the same thing when pressed, they were not enthused about putting experimental foreign substances in their body, but they saw it as the standard, the price the champions are willing to pay. You don't want to take PEDs? Then I guess you are not a real champion. From the day you were a kid, when everyone changed the rules, you would say well im going to do that then. Not cheating, everyone is doing it. That was the idea behind Vaughters team way back when. Remember there are way more guys who took PEDS to just have a job. They are not as talented as the best guys and take PEDS to stay on the team or compete.
We all cheered the drama of 7 TDFs for lance, virtually all of us...and lets be real, we knew it was super unlikely that he was so good he could win 7 against people who are also good and taking PEDs? It was never likely.
How was Lance better at doping than everyone else back in the day?
We all cheered the drama of 7 TDFs for lance, virtually all of us...and lets be real, we knew it was super unlikely that he was so good he could win 7 against people who are also good and taking PEDs? It was never likely.
I don't get this. Everyone was doping, to the extent that those years have just been nullified, the titles weren't given to second or third place or whatever, because Ullrich and everyone else were also doping. The '98 Tour (year before Lance started winning the Tour) was basically just the Festina affair. Lance was a super a-hole and used his cancer to browbeat any accusers. But he still kicked everyone's ass, all of them doping, post-cancer and treatment. So the doping was the difference, it was a pretty even chemical playing field.
Lance is the dirtiest cyclist in the history of the sport.
This is untrue. There were plenty of guys just as dirty as him, many even dirtier. Lance was the sacrificial lamb that the biggest public spectacle and disciplinary action had to be made of. He also had the most to lose, so his repercussions rang even louder. he was also the most public rider in history, so naturally the press coverage will be exceptionally more than someone no one knows anything about, this holds true for all walks of celebrity life.
I can’t say either way if Tadej is doping, none of us really can unless we are the ones putting it in his body. He might be, but there is also a chance he is not. Cycling has evolved far more than running in the past 10-20 years. it used to be just go out and ride all the time, sometimes get some intervals in, but that was about it. Nutrition was a joke, just eat as much as possible of what was considered “healthy”(pasta?). Advances in specific training, technology, nutrition, and equipment make it a vastly different sport than it was even 10 years ago. The guys bridging the gap, like Cavendish, will confirm how different it is and how much it has changed quickly, so there is a possibility with all that, the massive team behind him, and his supreme talent that we are simply seeing what true cycling domination looks like when everything comes together.
This post was edited 2 minutes after it was posted.
At this point he is not believable. Sad for cycling, but it's too much.
I suspect im preaching to the choir here, but im willing to accept that one guy is the best at any given time or era. What just screams doping on some level is the fact that he NEVER needs recovery when everyone else does. Even the best have to choose between a robust spring classics, vs grand tours peak vs WC etc... he won darn near everything or was close in every spring classic --sometimes with 5 days rest, then tore everyone up in TDF grand tour, then won Worlds, then just for maximum suspicion seems to be still peaking in the bonus late fall races. If he's not doping he and Inigo should share their Nobel level discovery of the secret to limitless recovery and peak form. There was a version of this sort of success when Mercx was the man but even he couldn't sustain this level and he had less competition.
This is not completely true. Don't forget, he skipped the Olympics for recovery while many of his competitors kept right on truckin'.
This guy is just way more talented. And he has a team working for him.
You are not making the point you think you're making. Most of the people on the UAE team staff have extensive connections to doping, either as riders who tested positive or as team directors whose riders tested positive or as coaches or riders who tested positive. Far and away the biggest collection of suspect people in all of cycling.
But sure, the team is clean now. You keep on believing that, buddy.
How is he the "dirtiest"? Because he started from a position of being supremely talented and probably the best off drugs then was the best on drugs against people on drugs? Nice logic.
Lance revisionist PR has genuinely been incredible. Dude was the definition of mid before he went full-throttle. His natural hematocrit is also like 42. Hematocrit = talent.
So no, Lance was not "the best off drugs" which so many people who have no understanding of cycling seem to think.
How was Lance better at doping than everyone else back in the day?
Lance is an ahole to certain extent combined with crazy competitiveness = not real likable. So people don't want to admit that he has a VO2 of 90+ and was beating pro triathletes at 14 y/o with little training. The guys that win the TDF are not just doping. They are the best guys/freaks who are also doping. Being a superhuman freak with legendary training and work ethic is the price of admission, doping gets you in the winners circle-- 2 things can be true at once. Lance or Mercx is the best of all time. These guys all say the same thing when pressed, they were not enthused about putting experimental foreign substances in their body, but they saw it as the standard, the price the champions are willing to pay. You don't want to take PEDs? Then I guess you are not a real champion. From the day you were a kid, when everyone changed the rules, you would say well im going to do that then. Not cheating, everyone is doing it. That was the idea behind Vaughters team way back when. Remember there are way more guys who took PEDS to just have a job. They are not as talented as the best guys and take PEDS to stay on the team or compete.
We all cheered the drama of 7 TDFs for lance, virtually all of us...and lets be real, we knew it was super unlikely that he was so good he could win 7 against people who are also good and taking PEDs? It was never likely.
Lance had the most sophisticated doping program in the entire peloton. He Literally was the "best at doping". People who think he was the best on an even playing field are clueless. His doping program would've cost more than the average riders yearly salary.
Lance is the dirtiest cyclist in the history of the sport.
This is untrue. There were plenty of guys just as dirty as him, many even dirtier. Lance was the sacrificial lamb that the biggest public spectacle and disciplinary action had to be made of.
No it is pretty close to the truth. Lance had Ferrari on a retainer because he knew that he was the best doping doctor out there and did not want others working with him and benefiting from the way he figured out how to prepare riders and pack in those red blood cells. The drug schedule (and training) Ferrari wrote for him absolutely puts him up there with the dirtiest ever. It wasn't just maxing EPO, it was the mix of EPO, testosterone, withdrawing blood then reinjecting the packed red blood cells during the tour that they figured out.
How is he the "dirtiest"? Because he started from a position of being supremely talented and probably the best off drugs then was the best on drugs against people on drugs? Nice logic.
Lance revisionist PR has genuinely been incredible. Dude was the definition of mid before he went full-throttle. His natural hematocrit is also like 42. Hematocrit = talent.
So no, Lance was not "the best off drugs" which so many people who have no understanding of cycling seem to think.
At 21 LA won the world championship (the youngest at that time), won several stages of the tour & some one days classics before 1999. So definitely not mid so do some research.
He's a "nice guy" and too big to fail for the sport at this point. The only reason Lance got punished was because he was a mega a**hole who pissed off a lot of people in the sport. If he also would have kept a low profile after retiring instead of a comeback he may also have been left alone.
How is he the "dirtiest"? Because he started from a position of being supremely talented and probably the best off drugs then was the best on drugs against people on drugs? Nice logic.
Lance revisionist PR has genuinely been incredible. Dude was the definition of mid before he went full-throttle. His natural hematocrit is also like 42. Hematocrit = talent.
So no, Lance was not "the best off drugs" which so many people who have no understanding of cycling seem to think.
so if my hematocrit is 46 do i have more or less talent than lance armstrong 🤣
From 2021 to now in 2025, Tadej Pogacar's power levels have increased an astonishing 12.8% from a threshold of 6.4 W/kg to now at an insane 7.22 W/kg. Remember that back in 2021, 6.4 W/kg was already world class elite power. This would be the marathon equivalent of Pogacar going from 2:05:00 in 2021 to 1:49:00 in 2025 for a 12.8% decrease in time over just 4 years, it simply doesn't happen without an insane amount of PEDs and a team doping cover up. Very, very few people can even stay on Pogacar's wheel now on shallow hills let alone tall mountains.
The Slovenian delivered very likely the best October race performance ever, climbing Passo di Ganda in 21:22 minutes at 7.22 ᵉW/kg. In the 2023 Lombardia, he did the climb in 23:08 minutes at 6.34 W/kg, crossing it together with Aleksandr Vlasov, Primož Roglič, Simon Yates, and Andrea Bagioli, while in 2021 he soloed it in 23:14 minutes at 6.40 W/kg, when Fausto Masnada caught him on the descent. In the two years since his last Passo di Ganda ascent in Lombardia, Pogačar has become immune to fatigue, making him unbeatable on such courses.
OP doesn't really know much about road racing. Just found some BS article and thought he'd look slick posting on letsrun.
By far the biggest RED FLAG to people who actually know what they are talking about was little climber boy POGI nearly WINNING PARIS ROUBAIX ON HIS FIRST ATTEMPT over the GOAT Classics rider: MVDP. MVDP has more handling skills, 40 pounds of extra muscle for the flats, and is the most explosive guy around. Yet tiny GC rider POGI almost won this race.
