The EPO Era threw up some surprise World Champions from the early ’90s to the mid ’00s. Riders juiced to the gills meant that the rainbow jumper could go to anyone who not only had the form on the bike, but their program sorted and the luck on the day. You could throw a dart at the start list and wherever it stuck, you’d be a pretty good chance of picking the winner. Confessed juicer Bo Hamburger came close in 1997, finishing 2nd to perennial mullet-sporter Laurent Brochard, who along with the likes of Camenzind in ’98, Vainsteins in ’00, and Astarloa in ’03 wouldn’t have been on many of our radars if the VSP existed back then.
The Burger King was in the decisive break and finished 6th in Hamilton, Ontario in ’03 and did it in style. Check him out; his Gios looks damn sharp in the traditional azzura, its alloy frame with carbon fork and seatstays the pinnacle of the day’s technology. Deep dish carbon hoops and skinwall sew-ups… check. Campa. Obscure Italian Team-issue shorts and helmet with national jersey. Arm warmers neatly pushed down to the wrists. He even manages to pull off the long red socks. Tanned, shiny, sinewy legs and arms straining, head bowed and burying himself under the effort of Rule #5; Badass.
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@Ron
Although if you're on the large side and powerful, aluminium does have a tendency to fatigue and get wobbly.
the Engine - Ah, right. Forgot about that, but maybe because I ain't on the large side. I would still like to think I'm pretty powerful, but definitely more of a medium than a large.
Oh wow, someone has a new little screen square. Hardly recognized ya, Frank!
@Ron
I reckon it's alu. Aside from @frank's cross rig I haven't seen steel with carbon. My Pegoretti is alu and has a wonderful ride and is light. Every other alu bike I've had has also been fairly light but also has been a jackhammer.
@Ron
My bike is Alu w/ Carbon fork and seatpost and I like it quite a bit. No complaints from me about the quality of the materials. But I'm not a huge feller either, so there's that.
The main advantage is that is was a bit (like $600-$800) cheaper than the next version up which was all carbon, yet hardly weighed any less and shipped with the same hodgepodge mix of 105 Shimano and FSA parts.
My bike started out at just under 20 lbs from the factory, and since then I've gotten lighter wheels and a lighter saddle, so I imagine that it weighs less than it used to.
I'd love an all-carbon bike if it meant shaving off 4-5 lbs from the weight of the entire build, but those seem to cost thousands more than what I had to spend at the time.
@Oli Not anti-doping, but anti Omertà , anti-Armstrong and anti-pricks like Jens who avoid doping questions and issues and keep their heads in the sand about it. At least some dopers finally 'come clean' about their past. Burger King did that (and never could say I was a 'fanboy' of his).
@Oli
Ahem, insert Tui billboard here... http://oli-roadworks.blogspot.co.nz/2010/08/heroes-and-inspirations.html
"I first read about Lance Armstrong in a tattered and grainy newsprintVeloNews when he won the prestigious 1991 Settimana Bergamasca as an amateur. The rest of his career is so well documented I'm not even going to try and precis it, but his magnificent Worlds win in the pouring rain of Oslo, Norway over Indurain himself sealed him as my new favourite rider...
"Of course Lance went on to become the greatest Tour de France Champion ever with seven consecutive wins in an amazing and enthralling series from 1999 to 2005...
"...during that era and since I have enjoyed the performance of many, many riders (and I hope to keep enjoying many, many more) but Lance for me feels like the last time I'm really going to be a fanboy for any of them. The current climate of drug scandal and suspicion make it hard to give your heart to these athletes any more..."
http://oli-roadworks.blogspot.co.nz/2010/05/dopage-and-giro-dwelli.html
"In the same way that people still believe that God is real or that John Key is a nice man and good for New Zealand I choose to believe that Lance Armstrong doesn't dope."
Glass houses, etc...
@brett
I draw the line at calling Jens a prick! Hold your tongue, boy!
@frank Agree, and the national jersey is Danish ! Our weather conditions breeds rule9-riders
@brett Haha! So predictable! That was from TWO YEARS ago. I, like most of the head-in-the-sand fools like me, have had to readjust my opinions on these issues in the face of what seems incontrovertible proof that we were wrong all along.
Anyway, I'm not talking about my tinpot website read by three or four people, I'm talking about Velominati, one of the worlds premier cycling forums.
And I suspect Hamburger was as much a part of the "Omerta" as any of them, so that's just bullshit justification. It's not as if he fessed up immediately, in fact he denied it and fought the Danish federation for years, and if he was the first guy to ever be sanctioned for EPO he had to be up to his nuts in the whole squalid scene.
This seems like an appropriate place to toss this image:
And here's a large part of the quandry. Fan, sponsors, magazines, don't want human riders, they want supermen. People want to suspend their disbelief and think that the pros really deserve to be there thanks to unnatural physical and mental gifts, and complain when riders ride like mortals by cracking, pacing themselves using a power meter etc. There are a lot of after the fact justifications being thrown around for people's behaviour; imagine trying to get out of a traffic offence by stating that:
everyone was doing it
At least I looked good at the time
I won didn't I?
It was good for cycling in my home nation
I have a charity.
I'm clearly far more simple than some and I don't like doping, and i'd like to see it removed from cycling going forward. That means not celebrating dopers.
And anyway, if you want to admire a photo of scraggly weatherbeaten old men, most towns have at least one amateur who fits the bill.