Quote:
Originally Posted by FlashUNC
Fabian was already at the tip of the spear when it came to one day and time trial riders in the pro peloton, by doing the very same kinda stuff he did before and after j'accuse le motor. There's a consistency there that is incongruous with what we saw from Pharmstrong.
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No denying that he was much more consistent throughout his career, but people never want to bring up the fact that FC came of age with Mapei, quite possibly the most overtly doped team in history ('96 1-2-3 at Roubaix....seriously guys?!), then he moved to Fassa Bortolo (the "jet-fuel boys"), then on to CSC and Riis's merry band of dopers, before moving to Leopard Trek with Riis and then Bruyneel.
I have zero evidence that he ever doped and frankly I don't care, but if he rode clean he did so among a virtual murder's row of the biggest doping teams in the last 30yrs.
FC doesn't seem like the Armstrong archetype (win at any costs, i.e., motor in every race), but I could see him using something because he expected Boonen to have one and was caught up in the arms race. Not that it matters or makes it right, but if he really did use something I'd expect there to be more examples in his career. More than likely he just had an extra few watts when Boonen didn't, whether doped or otherwise.