Unbelievable

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Lemond the only official American winner of the Tour de France alongside Armstrong. Lemond obviously knew, but had to keep quiet about the doping otherwise he would be the villain.

This was the reply Greg Lemond gave the press when Lance Armstrong won the Tour de France for the first time. He said they all knew he was doping but would be attacked if they said anything negative. Armstrong was a cancer survivor and was seen as hero to many around the world so being negative was not an option.

Greg Lemond won the Tour 3 times the last being in 1990 and knew the writing was on the wall as something had changed. In 1992 he dropped out of the race as he just couldn't keep up anymore and it was all down to EPO which increases oxygen levels in your blood. At the point he dropped out he was already 30 minutes behind the leaders and refused to join the others by doping.

This is quite scary to think that a champion two years before was now not able to maintain with just staying in the Tour let alone contemplating winning it. Your performance and ability just doesn't disappear and it looked like he was too old but age had nothing to do with this.

We have seen equipment change through technological advances which makes a difference but it is normally gradual over time. A few seconds quicker every year or something, but not by minutes. EPO killed many athletes dreams not only in cycling but in many other sports.

I believe the powers in charge knew what was going on and made a decision to go with it and turn a blind eye. The reason was that their was now so much world wide public interest in a sport that was never that popular. This bought new money and new sponsors into the sport catapulting it into a sport that had some status.

Everyone who was involved in the sport became wealthy due to Lance Armstrong being involved. Greg Lemond being the first American winner had paved the way for Armstrong's circus that followed. Millions of dollars poured into the sport and a race that captured the French every year now captured the whole world. The race had become global and tainted the sport that had been clean for so long.

I don't believe everything Le Mond has said as I do believe there was doping as far back as the late 1970's. The more money that poured into the sport the more pressure there was for teams to win and why many or everyone went the doping route. I know what it is like to be part of something that was changing as I saw regular/average rugby players who I played with become superior athletes in a short period of time. I would say they are all doing it today or have done it at some point but I believe it has changed the sport for ever and not in a good way either.

The Tour de France is a race that is the equivalent of running 21 marathons over 21 days with 2 rest days thrown in. This needs a super human performance just to make it and it is all about endurance. Testing ones body against the best in the world without cheating is what I would like to see but we know that will never happen again. The days of may the best man win disappeared around the same time in the early 1990's and I refused to join the other players who were obviously doing it.

The only way I could get bigger was not by training more but by eating more and turning that into muscle. Even with two plates of everything when we ate I couldn't maintain the growth of the other players around me and they were all frauds. I could never cheat even if it meant losing out on higher honors as you are only cheating yourself.