And now his bikes are total shit. Sloping bar mountain bike design crap.

One of the greatest rouleurs of all time! Maybe the greatest. Ballerini too.

Greg lemond a legendary cicling in the tour de franca

Looked more like stomping to me but he got the job done certainly. A well deserved victory. He rode like a locomotive.

Judging by the lack of stem height, I would say the bike was set up to compensate for the longer blades on the suspension fork, which elevated the front end and shallowed the head tube angle.

+David O Brien that was the ol' slammed back / high saddle / stretched out position. yep, too stretched out if you ask me but a lot of guys did that back then.

That’s how we rode back in the day

Tafi was underestimated by his own teammates until 1995(?) when Mapei did the 1-2-3 at P.R. They made him take third, and his own teammates said he was being greedy and delusional, because he believed he could have ridden Museeuw and Bartolami off his wheel. Over the next few years he won all kinds of stuff, including hilly Tour of Lombardy solo. Bit of a late bloomer maybe, and also part of a class of really insanely good Italian riders.

yes it sucks big time. almost makes me press mute

Team Stuttgart (before Team Telekom back to 1991) was the first nomination of the German cycling team and they are on the peloton since 1989.

Actually, Belgian rider Étienne de Wilde finished 6th in that race and he was in Telekom 's colors. Madiot brothers from France,Peter Farazijn, Wilfried Peeters from Belgium and German's Christian Henn and Bernd Gröne was in that team and race too as Telekom's riders.

Before I get to the "meat" of my argument, let me just note the following: 1) Steroids are of negligible value to a cyclist. Every ounce a cyclist gains must be weighed against its ability to produce a positive effect. Even muscle mass can be a detriment to a cyclist. 2) EPO and blood transfusions are two forms of blood doping. The idea is to increase hematocrit in the blood, and thus artificially increase the ability for the body to transport oxygen to the muscles. EPO uses the bodies own mechanisms to generate red blood cells. Transfusions are a matter of returning previously stored blood cells back into the body prior to an event. Both methods are potentially deadly (changes in blood viscosity leading to heart valve malfunctions being common). EPO can be difficult to detect, because it is used well prior to an event, so that the numbers peak at the right time. Transfusions are also difficult to detect, but sometimes the preservatives used to keep the cells alive, or plastic from the blood bags can be detected (this may in fact be what happened with Contador in 2010 - they found plasticizer in his blood, though it was the clenbuterol which got him caught). Now my argument. I think that Lance Armstrong is a criminal and belongs in prison (for the harassment, and assault of witnesses who might testify against him), but he is far from the originator of blood doping in cycling. Since 1991, blood doping was the filthy secret in the peloton. Miguel Indurain was a domestique who could barely finish a grand tour, who then became a super-domestique, then a 5 time tour champion. The physiological change required to leap from the botton half of the peloton, to one of the top riders in history cannot be made through training. Then, in 1998, Festina team car, loaded with ampules of EPO, got searched by French customs upon entry into the country. That pushed the matter out of the shadows and into the light of day. Unfortunately, Armstrong took advantage of his own history as a cancer survivor, to continue down the blood doping path, by using his medical history to place him beyond question. We all know now that he was a sociopath who misdirected sponsorship money, forced teammates to use EPO against their will, and destroyed the lives and businesses of those who opposed him. He is notable not because he used EPO; a look at the changes in major race standings between 1990 and 1991 shows that its use predated his rise. He is notable because of his utterly amoral behavior in covering up his use.

Why did you retract your comment? I was going to reply...

Just remember Lance started doping, and it finished with the decision, by Tygart, hallelujah I see the Lord.

EPO was abused in this race

BS EPO started in very early 90s, say '92 or so and Armstrong joined them in '98 or so.