What hype! Some accident.

"In 1998 Marco Pantani, the most flamboyant and popular cyclist of his era, won both the Tour de France and Giro d'Italia, a titanic feat of physical and mental endurance that no rider has repeated since." But it had been done enough times before, and better, and comparatively undoped, that it is merely remarkable. Merckx three times, Indurain twice, Hinault twice, Roache, Anquetil for a start.

Accidental Death indeed. This was an accident the same way that falling off the high wire is an accident, or getting caught in an avalanche or blizzard on Everest is an accident. He was playing in traffic, medically speaking and no better than Anna Nicole Smith, a drug cheater in sport of show business and personal delusion. He was a cheat, and a less competent cheat than Armstrong and, to be honest, most or all of the field for at least a decade, as surely as Tom Simpson was with amphetamines on Mt. Ventoux and he suffered accordingly. Left to his own devices he would have been consigned to "great climber", some high-ish, even podium, GC placings and an impressive list of fabulous stage wins in the mountains, and perhaps the time record on L'Alpe d'Huez. (He wasn't consistent day to day even in the mountains most years.) His win in 1998 (the great Festina drug exit year) depended on Ullrich (no pity, a fellow doper) having just one catastrophic day (fair enough) on the Les Deux Alpes stage 15. Pantani, to his credit all things considered, fought Ullrich to a draw on the Madeleine managing to to lock up enough margin to survive the final time trial retaining about one third of the time gained to the end.

Just for the record the whole thing Armstrong and all does not bother me too much. It had been cheat and cheat alike for years at that point (evidenced by the steadily rising day to day tempo in the flat stages) with the officials quite willing to look the other way for business notwithstanding the genuine technical problems of correctly detecting EPO and blood doping as opposed to steroid or testosterone doping. Armstrong's problem was that he did it too well, too many times, and he was an American which does not sit well in a Euro-centric sport. The "Festina Affair" and "Operacion Puerto" exposed the monumental hypocrisy all around.

I have wondered if LeMond's decline starting in 1991 was less his problem than the result of the doped field raising the daily tempo by about 5kpm, enough to overtax even a great and well prepared rider like LeMond riding undoped?

The root problem is the continuing illusions the public maintains about sports in general and the pressure of big money at the top. The worst of it is that many at the bottom and middle will emulate the dangerous abuses. with less expertise and often with the encouragement of coaches or other mentors, allegedly responsible adults, with no prospect of ever seeing that big money and not much glory either, certainly nothing commensurate with death or permanent damage. The gladiatorial culture of our time.

CB

Good Times, Noodle Salad