Fignon isn't really a doper.  Read his book...it is very interesting and entertaining.  He is totally open and transparent about his drug taking...basically dares any doubters to ask why he would lie about any of it and goes on to list everything from amphetamines to cocaine.  He was definitely a partier! He says only an idiot would take amphetamines for a race because it is the easiest drug to test for but that it goes out of your system very quickly.  His motor pacing trainer bailed on him and he needed to get the miles in and used the amphetamines to motivate himself to train.  The actual race was many days away and the drug should have been long gone out of his system...but the drug test caught the faintest trace of it and his rep was trashed.  He said it was really stupid of him. He says he had the opportunity to try EPO...but was frightened because it was a blood modifying drug and he felt like he didn't need it...because, well, he was Laurent Fignon (...the guy who won the tour on his first try (age 22), the guy who crushed Lemond and Hinault by more than 7 minutes in the following tour). He then said one day in the 90's he was flying up a mountain in the tour and he felt his old form...his legs ticking away like the old days...feeling great.  Then he caught and passed by a bunch of average riders...riders HE KNEW couldn't do what he was doing on a normal day. He decided that his career was over and quit shortly after. Look at his career...it went downhill with the EPO era too...very clear he didn't use EPO.  Lemond and Fignon did not use EPO.  It's simple math...it wasn't available to them until well after 1989 when their results tanked. Sure it's possible that they could have used it in 1990...but where are their EPO performances? No stellar rides...no amazing victories.  Riders of their talent should have sky rocketed with that drug. Instead, you have Lance...who's career went through the roof.  Simple when step back a little. Lemond doesn't do things that Lance does: because they are different people. Just because lance doped doesn't mean that everyone did.  Not everyone cheats. Some people have morals. Bauer seems to have morals...Hampsten does.  The behave like straight riders.  Dopers behave like bullies. Swampy1970, you know a lot of half-truths and it sounds like you've lost faith in humanity a bit.  There are people who don't dope because they can't...they actually can't get themselves to do it. It's over-simplifying to say that Lemond/Fignon doped because they were alive at that time.  I can't prove they didn't dope...you can't prove they did. But why go out of your way to say someone did something bad when you really can't prove it?  Why not read a book or two about cycling? It would help demystify some of the characters you think are so flawed. Usually what goes around comes around.  Fignon was struggling with cancer when wrote his book came out.  I doubt he would care much about creating a facade about his life under this condition.  His book is brutally frank about everything. It made me respect Fignon quite a bit. Â