il padrone wrote: So in a couple of sentences you just trash the whole history of the TdF and pro-cycling generally

. Merckx, Anquetil, LeMond, Fignon, Hinault, Indurain, Ulrich.... all on the juice ??
Not at all - until quite recent times the cyclists were always the bunnies and subject to all the pressures and directions of the people who paid their bills. In fact I recently defended Merckx on this or the BNV forum when someone tarred him with the same brush you would if say
Evans tested positive tomorrow, precisely because the world was a different place back then and we cannot reasonably apply current standards (and judgements) to past practices in pro-cycling, certainly not back too far beyond the Festina affair of the late 90s (?).
The fact is that PEDs have been around a long time, from when the 'drugs' were everyday things like caffeine, even strychnine in careful doses, and amphetamines with all their attendant hazards. These concoctions were rarely administered by qualified medical people, rather they were the recipes of team masseurs and soigneurs, and cunning team managers.
In the modern era (70s onwards?) these old-fashioned methods declined, as drugs and processes were
deliberately and specifically developed to enhance sports performance. This is where the whole she-bang went pear-shaped in my view, with authorities slow to catch on and cyclists being bamboozled by the 'professionalism' of teams with
real doctors on staff. What could possibly go wrong??
The difference now is that cyclists are more willing (and able) to speak out against the systematic use of drugs in sport, and of course the testing for PEDs has become accepted and the incentives to stay clean are greater than to take PEDs, in my opinion. Sport in general, and cycling in particular, has worked pretty hard in recent years to establish a new 'norm' that is PED free, and I reckon we should be optimistic about the future.
Personally I'll be happy enough if I never hear or read another whiney, sooky word from Armstrong - he is the last (I hope) of the great sporting dinosaurs.