Greg Lemond Press Conf against Lance

[poulidor]

I don't remember that GIRO but if Greg had made a Landis comeback that would have been with extra-help.
I don't think that he could have raced with an important lack of iron so the need were probably much lower than for an anemic case.

Maybe he could have received EPO (as treatment or not), so why didn't he understand what happened him later when he could not follow the other riders? Why didn't he use EPO again?

 

[Flyer]

So, lets say 2 seconds a km, or just under a minute from the tri bars. 10 weeks earlier in the Giro he was getting shelled out the back and was even thinking of quiting the sport. That ~48 seconds still would have put his ahead of Fignon on the days race and ahead of really good time trialists like Nidjam (an ex prologue winner) and Yates, who held the fastest long distance tour time trial at the time.

How did Greg make that comeback? A bottle of vitamins, a few B12 injections in the ass and an after race massage? How do you mystically find form like that?

reeww

 

[kennf]

If it was a lack of iron, then hematocrit levels would have taken at least a month to start to get back to where they should be once levels of serum iron and ferritin get back to normal and this is during periods of rest - not a 3 week grand tour that'll push the body so hard that it struggles to replace the red blood cells that a destroyed or as my doc puts it "retired". That it was suggested that he did this during the Giro seems 'odd' Even taken intravenously (I know this because I was clinically anemic many years ago and went through iron and B12 therapy - shoot me up Doc!) it isn't an instant fix, you still have to get iron levels back up and then allow the body to manufacture red blood cells. It definitely isn't a quick fix nor an overnight process, which makes his return to form at the end of the Giro surprising.

I'm not arguing that his form during that Tour was different from anyother Tour he rode - just than his form during the second half of the year was massively increased compared to the latter part of the first half.

What PED could he have taken? Who knows and personally, I don't really care but don't you think it's a little conincidental that 1989 was the year that the FDA approved Epogen for use in the US...

In 1989 he finished 39th in the Giro, then won the TdF (and later the Worlds). In 1990, he finished 105th in the Giro, then won the TdF, and took 4th in the Worlds. Whereas, back before the shooting, he was placing in the top five in the Giro (1985 and 1986). This could be because he struggled with early season form after the shooting (and with a few extra years on him), or he changed his training priorities (using the Giro as more of a training race), or the Giro got a hell of lot faster from the mid-80s to the early '90s. Maybe a combo of all 3.

 

[Flyer]

So, lets say 2 seconds a km, or just under a minute from the tri bars. 10 weeks earlier in the Giro he was getting shelled out the back and was even thinking of quiting the sport. That ~48 seconds still would have put his ahead of Fignon on the days race and ahead of really good time trialists like Nidjam (an ex prologue winner) and Yates, who held the fastest long distance tour time trial at the time.

How did Greg make that comeback? A bottle of vitamins, a few B12 injections in the ass and an after race massage? How do you mystically find form like that?

wwee