While the talk of the week has been on the Fraud Landis Chronicles, whether he cheated (of course he did), whether or not he's telling the truth (he is, this time) and whether or not Pharmstrong is a doping, fraudulent COTHO (he always has been), my head has exploded trying to make sense of the naivety of those still duped by the belief that one man, and one man only, is the sole clean rider of the last twenty years. For the sport that we love is a dirty, corrupt one. And I really don't give a flying fuck. I've known for a long time that our heroes are flawed human beings, just like you and I, yet I still love it.
So I got to thinking back to the early days of my love affair with pro racing and Le Tour in particular, and the July evenings rushing home from work to catch the half-hour highlights package on SBS TV. How enthralled I was watching the classic battles in the heat of the French Alps, as these giants of the road repeatedly attacked each other, in huge gears at speeds that seemed superhuman. Because they were.
And while I was recalling these great memories, some names were dragged from the recesses of my mind, pushed back there by the fact that they weren't big names of the peloton, but nonetheless were elevated among those legends whom we still revere. For a fleeting moment, three weeks to be exact, these transients became superstars, transformed somehow magically from nobodies and elevated to the highest level in one of the toughest races in the world, then disappeared just as quickly. Miracles do not happen, no matter how much some shamen try to make you believe they do.
The 1993 Tour stands out in my mind for some of the best racing I've witnessed in the race to this day. I still have the VHS tapes of the race and love to revisit them occasionally, marvelling at the pure diesel power of Big Mig, the accelerations of Rominger, the Lazarus-esque rides of Chiappucci, the long, failed solo escape of Robert Millar over the Bonette. Classic stuff.
But it was the performances of some previously undistinguished riders that stood out. One Bjarne Riis, 107th two years earlier, suddenly 5th. One Johan Bruyneel, who finished 7th and set the fastest ever winning average speed in stage 6 (since bettered only twice, once in 1999 by coincidence). Two days later, one Lance Armstrong took his first Tour stage win, before abandoning while in 97th place. One Alvaro Mejia, a Colombian grimpeur who was ever-present in the mountains. And one Zenon Jaskula, a Pole who'd had some solid results, but never anything to match his remarkable 3rd place in the 93 Tour.
So who the hell was he? Apart from success as an amateur in Polish national time trials, and also in the Sun Tour in Australia, his biggest result was 2nd in Tirreno-Adriatico behind one Tony Rominger in 1992. He rode for Team MG-GB in 92 and 93, alongside the likes of Tchmil, Cipo, Ballerini and later-proven dopers like Rebellin and Museeuw. He was in good company, at the right time as EPO was flooding the peloton and the racing was becoming supercharged.
Every night as I watched, his name would be mentioned more and more by Phil and Paul. They had no idea who this guy was either, but were equally as impressed/surprised/baffled by his performance as I was. With Indurain and Rominger doing their best to annihilate each other over the big Cols, there'd always be the same faces hanging on to them like barnacles on a ships hull. Riis, Mejia, Jaskula. They were revelations. They were riding like men possessed. They were juiced to the gills.
Rather than just hanging on, defending his GC position of third, not making too many waves, Jaskula must've been thinking it was all too good to be true, and with the magic potion coursing through his veins probably making him feel like Superman, he took his chance for ultimate glory. Stage 16 to Saint-Loury-Soulon saw him outsprint Rominger and Mig after they decimated the field on the last climb. The speeds and ferocity of the attacks were incredible.
Jaskula looked somewhat sheepish on the podium in Paris, and Indurain and Rominger had a look of “who the hell is this guy?” as they shared the steps with the unheralded Pole. Perhaps he knew that he would never reach such heights again, that this performance couldn't possibly be repeated, and that he would rest on his laurels and fade into obscurity with a huge question mark over the validity of its credibility.
And then, he was gone. Other riders would emulate his ephemeral performance in years to come, products of the influx of doping programs masterminded by the new breed of team management and sports 'doctors'. And of course, the wonder drugs they administered. I didn't really know what was going on back then, but I knew the racing was enthralling, and in hindsight it's easy to see why.
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are your 1993 VHS tapes live recordings or later edited compositions/summaries? If they are recordings of the liver transmission I would be highly interested in purchasing copies. Was also for me one of the best ever Tour de France races. Unfortunately, didn't record it back then. I would be grateful if you could send me an email to SHAAARK[at]gmx.net - appreciated!
Lachlan, agree with your statements totally - non epo fueled - loved the racer and his heart but...
Unfortunately, at the end of the year Lemonpants was a first year pro (I do not have a good memory - for many reasons but mostly because I have never had a good memory, even pre '69), I think he was 19-20, I was in a late Sept/Oct pro-am race with him in the states. The race was great it's this story I have always found unfortunate.
For him the race was like a Crit in Belgium - show up and get paid but also I assume (never having met him before or since) that it was fun to be with the guys who he used to race with.
One evening a few of us went to the beach and the conversation (we were relaxing a few beers or a joint, - oh get a life, it's the end of a long season) turned to steroids. Two of the group talked about doing them that past winter to put on muscle mass quickly to be competitive at their age with the pro peloton. How they could not have done as well without it and they would never do it again. They knew it was bad for you.
So did I hear the man say this? It was a small group and the other rider is someone I knew from a distance of quite a few races. I really liked him as a person and have huge respect for him and his palmeres (the same with L. but never felt that he was as nice a person - big, well deserved ego...etc.).
Geof will tell you that this eyewitness account is very suspect for many reasons but I heard what I heard. At the time it sounded reasonable to me - not anything I was interested in (a friend wanted me to shoot up B12 and that freaked me out, I was just a punk amateur with no illusions of grandeur). But here you have two young guys who by great talent have made it to the big show and they knew that by doing these new drugs (that I think were perfectly legal then) for a few months they would speed up their entry by 2-3 years.
It still seems reasonable, not right, not something I wanted to do, not that I am some puritan church going fool (see above) but I saw what drugs did to half my friends and it never seemed a good idea. But then I was never going to be a pro and would I have had my mind changed for me?
The reason I write this is that I do not like the hypocrisy - how much more class would it be if all the ex-riders who did shit came forward and said we did it? By the by Lemonpants has yakked so much about others but the other guy has always been silent.
More than a few people buying rugs in Aprica this morning.
@Rob
The Velominati Media Czar, KRX-10 (of kit and site design fame) has an intimidating collection of live VHS footage from all through the late 80's and 90's; he is in the minority in terms of him not having thrown them all out and is in the process of converting them to digital and they will be posted here in the Velominati Archives for everyone to view; if you want a VHS version, I'm sure he can hook you up.
It's slow-going, but we'll let you know when they start coming online.
@Rob
Wow. What a tale. You are a legend. Robicus Maximus.
I agree with the hypocrisy. We all know what goes on; show us the respect to say, "I did it" and lets all move on.
Another great point of your post here is the psychology of the temptation to dope. A rider typically has only a few years at the top; to take some drugs and speed up the development and get into the ranks a few years early means they have the potential to be there significantly longer. I can see how tempting that would be for an under-education, ambitious talent who sees little other attractive options.
And by "under-educated" I don't mean unintelligent in any respect. I mean someone who has skipped college in pursuit of a sports career, who thereby necessarily has less choices in terms of alternative careers should their sports dream die.
No No Frank, just a little guy (fat now) who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Wow, this is an excellent point and I never thought of it like that! Yeah, a lot of us are still cyclists, not pros, but ride a lot of miles and work hard at it. That makes is completely different from many Americans who follow the big time sports. Probably none of them play football. Some might play softball or even pickup basketball, but drinking beer and swinging a bat a few times a week is much different than riding hundreds of miles a week, watching your food intake, sleep right, avoiding too much alcohol.
Great point! It does make our connection to cycling different than the connection of many people to the sports they follow. Plus, when you add in the bikes, the wrenching, the gear, etc...no wonder we are all a bit wacky;)
They aren't "all" on drugs, and I think anyone who has lived the life would tell you that. There will always be the guys who do dope and the guys who don't, and probably some who have dabbled too. That's life, that's reality. Even if most were/are doping saying they all are is a massive disrespect to the many clean riders.
He also won Volta a Portugal in 97 and has palmares going back to 85. I mean come on, sure most of these dudes are doping, but you make it seem like they won one race and that's it. Reads like a troll piece most of these, especially the gunderson one (wtf? even he calls himself amrstrong so why the trolling)