Has it not been raced in since 2007?
Raced only in 2011 and 2015 since then. I think all those names in 2007 are adjudicated dopers, except maybe Sastre - not sure about him. 1998? Well …
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Does anyone know that last time a Tour winner had the Yellow Jersey, lost it and then regained it for the overall win - excluding like the first 2 days? I’m looking at data going back to 2008. There are a couple of late jersey changes - Evans in 2011, Bernal in 2019, Pog in 2020, but I can’t find any back-and-forth this century,
Carbs > dope?
I hate these doping allegations based purely on times. Absent the actual power and weight data there are too many variables to make them mean anything
Do I think it’s right to be suspicious? Sure. But the outright accusations and assumptions that they are cheating are based on, IMO, invalid data
Could they all be cheating? Absolutely. But as an example of the time impacting differences today and the pantani time, here’s a partial list:
- reduced rolling resistance
- Improved aerodynamics
- Vastly different fueling strategies
- climb was paced full from the start as opposed to the pantani group waiting for a mechanical and pacing slower at the start
Does all of this mean there isn’t cheating? No
What it means, to me anyway, is that the times aren’t enough to fully assume all three that broke the record are cheating. You need the actual power numbers to compare to what was being done by Lance and pantani (and others)
Be suspicious, but don’t let it ruin the sport for you
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Bah, I am actually up early enough to watch the start of the race.
Aaaaaand it’s Rest Day. 
Took the words out of my mouth. Too many variables and (imo) even the speculation starts to take the fun out of the race.
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Good thoughtful post. This point in particular is the context I think a lot of people are missing.
1998 was an infamous year for the TdF.
Here is a link to the climb that year:
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This is a great post, and you’re right. Doping has ruined trust in the sport for me in a sense.
Having said that, it’s not just Pantani they overcame. It’s a long list of the strongest riders of all time… who have been found guilty of doping. People who did everything they possibly could to achieve these records.
I understand why some people believe that drinking a bit more sugar and applying a few different angles on a bicycle may overcome the records set by known dopers, but I am extremely skeptical and I don’t think that is completely unreasonable.
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I don’t think skepticism and suspicion is unreasonable at all
I think taking it as a fact that they’re cheating and making full blown accusations is premature. We just don’t have enough data
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I just finished rereading Fotheringham’s End of the Road about the '98 Tour.
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The sport has given us every right to be suspicious & cynical, and to question every result.
And if we and the journalists don’t question it, it just opens the door even wider to them doing it again.
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Also, I hate rest days. 
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I by no means meant to infer doping.
I’m wondering if the benefits of the current fueling strategy is greater than benefits of doping. Teams seem way stronger since guys finally are fueling properly
I think they are all clean till proven otherwise
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What was it, estimated 7.27w/kg sea level adjusted, for 40 minutes? These are starting to look more like race horse numbers than human numbers.
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34°C and no wind tomorrow in Nîmes, should be a straight sprinters stage.
However, if Vinge is going to try to make time back before the TT, when would he do it?
I’d say not on stage 20. Unlikely to be tomorrow on 16 - but, they need the element of surprise…so…?
Unless there are strong crosswinds, zero chance it happens tomorrow….UAE is way too strong as a team. If Visma tried a move like that on the flats, they are just burning matches for no reason.
And the sprinters are not going to let their last chance at a stage win go up the road, either.
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I enjoy seeing who struggles the next day…someone will. I’ll predict Landa
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On the Escape Collective podcast they said there was a stiff tailwind up the valley yesterday. And Pog had the strongest lead out you could imagine, in Jorgenson burying himself then Jonas going all out. And for sure marginal equipment gains (aerodynamics, rolling resistance, mechanical drag) would provide a few percent improvement in speed.
Beyond that, I think current training and fueling techniques have largely replicated the performance of the EPO era. Every serious team is doing multiple altitude camps in the run up to key races, which aim to induce the same adaptations as EPO. The EC article on carbon monoxide use insinuated more than it proved, but at the very least shows that teams are not just doing altitude camps, they’re testing riders’ responses to that stimulus in sophisticated ways so they can dose stimulus and maximize adaptation.
In the late 90s training was just totally different, and for the most part no one knew what they were doing with either their training or their doping regimens. So my belief system (and that’s what we’re talking about, really) is that current pros are doing a lot of wild shit to optimize training stimulus and response, but are not engaged in classical injection-based doping. Some of that may be a grey area (ketones, CO inhalation?) I still love to watch the racing.
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What is that ‘65kg standard’ thing? That’s from Lanterne Rouge right? I still don’t understand what they’re doing with that.