Indurain- dirty or clean?

[RC Vikings]

While riding indoors this winter I put in old TDF tapes to watch and always wonder about Indurain. He was so dominate during those five years that I'm guessing he had to be taking something. The guy was amazing on a TT bike.

[creekster]

Originally Posted by RC Vikings

While riding indoors this winter I put in old TDF tapes to watch and always wonder about Indurain. He was so dominate during those five years that I'm guessing he had to be taking something. The guy was amazing on a TT bike.

I've always wondered about him as well. He is a very enigmatic figure. So dominant for five consecutive years and then he drops out on a stage, climbs in the team car and never races again. My guess, and it is only a guess, is that he was tkaing the stimulant du jour.

[Archaea]

If you ask for pure speculation, it would be consistent with Creekster, but then again I am far from having any insights into Indurain.

From what little insight I can gain from the inside of top echelons of sport, most athletes follow similar paths to ride to the top. It would therefore seem odd if the a dominant top athlete failed to follow that path.

[SteelBlue]

I don't know if I believe that any of the top riders are clean anymore.

[creekster]

Interesting comment by Lemond in an '86 interview:

If I was a rider who wanted to beat him it would depend on the strength of the team. If I were a sponsor and I wanted to beat Indurain I'd recruit at least two or three riders capable of being third or fourth and have them constantly play off Indurain. I think Indurain's capable of winning six or seven tours. But [top talent] can change all of a sudden. Indurain just popped out of nowhere. Nobody would have considered him capable of doing what he's doing when he turned pro seven years before.

Coming out of nowhere and then disappearing just as dramatically, as he did, certainly sounds like it could have been drugs, eh? I always liked Indurain and it pains me to even think these things but, like Steel, I am more and more able to believe that all of the top guys are cheating to one degree or another.