Same as every year since 1990, the winner was the rider who was doped the best but managed not to get caught.
2022 was the fastest TdF in history. The Lanterne Rouge completed the race with an average speed of 24.8 mph. That means this year's last place finisher had a higher average speed than EVERY TdF WINNER prior to Marco Pantani in 1998.
Got that? The SLOWEST rider in this years TdF was FASTER than EVERY rider in EVERY TdF from 1903 to 1997. Faster than Anquetil. Faster than Merckx. Faster than Hinault. Faster than Lemond. Faster even than Indurain, who was the TdF's first All-EPO All-The-Time champion.
And before you go there, no it's not about the bicycles. Bikes were lighter before the 6.8 kilo limit was imposed in Y2K. If you study the results back to the first TdF, it's clear that the "safety" bicycle always has been a miraculously efficient machine, and the 'improvements' have come in tiny increments. This is evident when you compare average speeds in the 1903 TdF -- in which one stage took 18 hours for stage winner to finish -- to the winner's average speeds in recent RAAMs (Races Across America).
One thing we've learned since the EPO era began is there are no miraculous conversions. The truly talented riders make themselves known within a couple of years in the peloton. As did Lemond and Merckx. Whenever a rider with more than a couple of years on the job goes from plowhorse to racehorse, it's -- as Pharmstrong was wont to say -- "not natural."
This is a list of the five TdF winners who had had the worst finishes in past races before winning GC:
Riis has admitted he was on EPO in 1996. What happened to Indurain was "not natural." Pharmstrong's post-cancer transformation was "not natural." Pharmstrong's former lieutenant, Chris Horner, won the 2013 Vuelta at the age of 41 despite never before having won even a single stage in a grand tour. Not natural. Thomas, Wiggins and Froome were not natural (in fact, Sky was the best-doped team since the Postie's Big Blue Train).
And a 25-year-old Jonas Vingegard goes from four years as a decent top-50 stage racer (but nothing approaching top 10) to dominating and defeating the 23-YO current and two-time TdF winner.
Of course Pocagar also was on the sauce. Everyone in the top 90% was. Stage 14, the climb up Cote de la Croix Neuve, Pocagar and Vingegard both were just six second slower than Pantani in 1995. And Pantani spent all of 1995-97 with an Hct of ~58-60. In fact on that climb they both had a calculated output of 7.2 Watts per kilo of body weight. And no clean rider has ever been tested and shown to be able to produce more than 6 W/kg for any duration. Yet both Vingo and Pog were well over 6W/kg on a number of climbs this year.
Unfortunately, that factoid doesn't cut muster with WADA. There's nothing in the doping rules against a rider putting on a red cape and flying to the top of Alpe d'Huez with his bike tucked under his arm, provided he pisses clean.