“Like every Tour de Pharmacy from 1981 onward, it will be won by whichever rider dopes best without getting caught or killing himself in the process.”
It’s been going on for a lot longer than that:
Les Forçats de la Route (The Convicts of the Road)
Was an article on Tour doping written in 1924.
For decades, it literally was NOT illegal and EXPECTED that doping should take place.
I think if a supplement can be bought in a store on a shelf, they should be able to use it. I also think blood doping with your own blood should be allowed if you want to do it to increase o2 performance. It is good against dehydration as well.
"It’s been going on for a lot longer than that:
Les Forçats de la Route (The Convicts of the Road)
Was an article on Tour doping written in 1924.
For decades, it literally was NOT illegal and EXPECTED that doping should take place."
You're confusing drugs that get you stoned with performance-enhancing drugs. Prior to EPO, what they used mostly only relieved fatigue and blunted the pain of high-levels of exertion. In the early years it was "cocaine and chloroform." Amphetamines don't make you faster, they just let you ignore your body's screams for mercy. Even steroids were primarily for recovery because if you took doses big enough to make you more muscular and more powerful, you also would gain weight and, worst of all, water weight.
Blood boosting was an exception but in the early days, hauling around refrigerated blood was logistically complicated, the risk of discovery was high, and the shelf life of refrigerated blood was short, so its impact was systemically limited.
EPO was the first drug that genuinely no-bull-shizzle made a rider faster AND more durable, and it didn't show up in the pro peloton until probably the mid-1980s. From 1991 on, if you weren't on EPO, you weren't on the podium.
Lemond was the last TdF champion who there is no hint of scandal about, and they'll be gene doping before you know it (presuming they're not already)