classic1 said:
Good work swampy. Are you sure about the banning from the start of the Tour though? 73 was the year of his Vuelta/Giro double. I have a vague recollection that the positive may have been from a Tour of Lombardy. Might have to check, '72 or '73......
Ghey.
Fanboy.
I'm 'somewhat' sure about '73... It could have been he was just asked not to start...
... as for the fanboy jibe what can I say? Anyone who rips the pedals off the cranks is worth watching. Sure it takes the edge off the memories when it comes out later on that they're on the juice but bar just a couple of riders pretty much everyone that I watched back in the 80s and 90s has either been found to have been taking stuff, admitted too it or has the spectre or 'amazing performances out of the blue' hanging over their heads...
But for most on this particular stain of a sub-forum, if we're going to take this 'Holier than thou' stance on the matter rip all the names of those who were caught or later impicated out of the record books and things will look pretty bleak - Anquetil, Merckx, Maertens, Zoetemelk, Thevnet, Demeyer, Simpson, Pollentier Kelly, Roche, Rooks, Thuinesse, Delgado, Fignon, Moser, Pantani, Chiapucci, Armstrong, Van der Poel, Riis, Virenque, Sosenka, Hegg, Basso, Ullrich... That takes care of a few world records and the odd Tour or two.