Roche's '87 dominance

walshb

Does anyone think that Roche would still have won the Tour in '87 if Lemond was there?
I think nobody was going to beat Roche in 1987

Vélo

If what I'm reading is true Roche is lucky Blorg wasn't there!

bunnygreen

And Blorg climbs in sandals......

Brian?

Where would Lemond have put time into Roche? On the form he was in that year, nowhere.

PeadarofAodh

Aquinas73 wrote: »

If what I'm reading is true Roche is lucky Blorg wasn't there!

All this Blorg talk is making me curious...want to see this for myself whenever the next spin is happening!

Chips Lovell

PeadarofAodh wrote: »

All this Blorg talk is making me curious...want to see this for myself whenever the next spin is happening!

You can race him up Kippure.

expediateclimb

Maybe you should ask yourself would he have won if he had'nt been taking EPO as asserted by the Italian judiciary

penexpers

expediateclimb wrote: »

Maybe you should ask yourself would he have won if he had'nt been taking EPO as asserted by the Italian judiciary

They only asserted he was taking EPO in 1993.

Chips Lovell

expediateclimb wrote: »

Maybe you should ask yourself would he have won if he had'nt been taking EPO as asserted by the Italian judiciary

Roche won the Tour a long time before EPO was introduced into the peloton. The Italian judiciary only asserted that Roche had been taking EPO during his second stint at Carrera, in '93

EDIT: I see I was beaten to it.

Raam

el tonto wrote: »

You can race him up Kippure.

On Saturday I thought I was pulling away using my own madz skillz. I only found out two days later that he was taking pictures.

Quigs Snr

All you can beat is who is put in front of you. Roche did that in 87. Was Lemond a better rider overall ? Definitely, would he have beaten Roche in 87 ? Who can say, the beauty of bike racing is that form really plays a part. I have been beaten much, much stronger riders at times, when I was going through a couple of weeks of good form, it has to be said that clearly their form was not the best at the time !

I wouldn't say Roche dominated the tour that year either.. it was pretty close !

irishmotorist

40 odd seconds if I remember correctly. Does being given a pile of oxygen at La Plagne count as performance enhancing???

E@gle.

I wonder how long Roche would have dominated the tour if not for his devestating crash on the track.

cyclopath2001

irishmotorist wrote: »

Does being given a pile of oxygen at La Plagne count as performance enhancing???

No, and it was when he collapsed after he crossed the finish line.

irishmotorist

cyclopath2001 wrote: »

No, and it was when he collapsed after he crossed the finish line.

I'd say it did enhance his performance in that he woudn't have been in much good shape to ride the following day without it.

Don't get me wrong, he was probably my first ever hero and still is.

Brian?

irishmotorist wrote: »

I'd say it did enhance his performance in that he woudn't have been in much good shape to ride the following day without it.

Don't get me wrong, he was probably my first ever hero and still is.

I don't think it enhanced his performance so much as enchanced his ability to be alive.

irishmotorist

Fair point.

I remember reading about Eddy Merckx taking the lead in one of his tour victories. As far as I recall, Luis Ocana had yellow but he went off the side of a cliff somewhere and retired but Merckx refused to take yellow by default and would only take it once he had earned it on the road. It just got me thinking about the nobility of winning entirely on your own steam (whatever about anything else that might have gone on in those days). That said, I wouldn't begrudge an unconscious hero a bit of oxygen

Hermy

That happened on the descent of the Col de Mente in '71 in a storm. Ocana crashed and as he attempted to remount Zoetemelk ran into him, thus ending his Tour!

cyclopath2001

irishmotorist wrote: »

That said, I wouldn't begrudge an unconscious hero a bit of oxygen

Odd though, that you'd mention it in the first place. I'd say a good massage, a nice meal and night's rest would also have helped him.