Big Mig Big Doper?

//Big Mig Big Doper?

Big Mig Big Doper?

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Miguel Indurain

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While we wait the next twelve months for the failure to establish a Truth & Reconciliation commission, the Truth & Exposé work continues. Pro cycling is the toughest sport in the world — and that’s just the doping regime.

Today Italian Anti-Doping Expert Sandro Donati announced that Tour champion Miguel Indurain and his Banesto squad paid “high amounts” of money to Dr. Francesco Conconi. A pioneering sports physiologist, Conconi was the man who taught a young Michele Ferrari everything he knew about illegal substances. If Ferrari is called The Legend, then Conconi was The Making Of.

Italy being Italy, Conconi was never actually convicted of anything although there was a trial and lots of yelling and shouting and outrage and opera. The judge couldn’t do a thing to stop Conconi but delivered a good soundbite for Gazzetto Della Sport stating that the doctor was “morally guilty.” That gets you a cynical wink and another glass of Barolo.

Donati’s claim that Indurain and the entire Banesto squad used the services of Conconi was backed up by two sources. First, a Dutch rider on the team, Erwin Nijboer, confirmed the contact with the doctor, but said that it “was only to do the Conconi test.” That reminds us of Ivan Basso’s Operacion Puerto testimony — he was only thinking about doping — it was a theoretical offense.

Then Dutch journalist Ludo van Klooster said he saw the Banesto bus as the University of Ferrara, where Conconi carried out his work. “I saw the entire team. Also Indurain. And Erwin Nijboer.”

The inference in all this is that Banesto — and Miguel Indurain — had a doping program during the time of his five consecutive Tour de France wins. He lost number six to Mr. Sixty Percent, EPO pro Bjarne Riis. Indurain must had been languishing at 55%. No way to win a Tour. As Donati says, “I don’t think that Banesto paid that much to have the riders tested.”

No wonder Greg Lemond got so vocal and bitter about doping in Le Grand Shingdig. All of a sudden, a three time Tour winner still in his prime just couldn’t keep up anymore. Miguel takes over in ’91, Lemond loses seven minutes on Tourmalet and retires two years later.

Who can forget that stage seven in the 1995 Tour when Indurain simply pulls away from the rest of the peloton with Johan Bruyneel in tow. Bruyneel must have been thinking, “wow, he’s got some really good drugs.” Later Johan would run Lance Armstrong’s “sophisticated and professional” doping program. Nobody ever said Indurain wasn’t an inspirational figure.

Big Mig has no comment so far and we’re expecting little comment going forward. The man was never a talker. He will always be a hero in Spain where even today the pros revere Lance Armstrong as a champion and are shocked that anyone would dare take away his Tour titles just for a few syringes and blood bags. Is there no respect, no dignity, no understanding that a man does what a man must do? (That’s why Juan Pelota has begged Lance to move to Spain where is popularity is still high.)

Indurain is always portrayed as a gentleman, a classy guy, down to earth, who never acted like an egotistical superstar. People feel bad about taking down a person like that. He kept his mouth shut, brought glory to Spain and what’s the point, right? Why do muckrakers like muck so much?

Ahh, but until there is a Truth & Reconciliation commission, the mad manhunt will continue. Pro cycling is a strange world where Armstrong hides out at home in Austin, UCI President Pat McQuaid hides from critics in Aigle, Switzerland and Floyd Landis — the Man Who Shot Lance Armstrong — lectures at Yale University.

By |2019-02-03T16:06:34-08:00February 26th, 2013|Uncategorized|10 Comments

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10 Comments

  1. The SuperStorm February 26, 2013 at 3:10 pm - Reply

    The “Train” Indurain a doper? What an Outrage! What a Scandal, that you Matt “Twisted Spoke” Walsh would even write such a comment! LOL!
    Allow Moi to retort:

    To put it in perspective a little; he “consulted” with Frank “Chili Con Carni” Conconi allegedly back in ’87 for “fitness” advice. Hmmm…
    I find it very interesting how he went from 97th in ’87 to 1st in ’91, blowing LeMond off the side of the road, with a ton of power and speed on tap, and climbing the likes of L’Alpe D’Huez, or Col D’Izoard without nearly a sweat.

    Indurain was an enigma, but so was everybody else during that time. (See Riis, Chiapucci, Bugno, Bernard, Delgado, et all) Did the Train take PED’s? Well if he didn’t, he was the only one on the Reynolds/Banesto team that was clean.

    We all need to face this demon in cycling, but how far back do we need to go? ’50’s? ’60’s? At some point, the sport needs to move forward, and digging up “Big Mig” Indurain’s past is just adding fuel to the already burning barn that is the sport of cycling.

    • walshworld February 27, 2013 at 8:40 am - Reply

      Truth and Reconciliation. But that’s never going to happen because the UCI and WADA don’t even agree on what day it is. People will keep digging for dirt unless somebody admits it first. Cycling won’t be the only sport that goes through this. Just the painful first one. Matt

  2. bumpermeat February 28, 2013 at 7:47 am - Reply

    I agree w/ S-Storm, “…how far back do we go?”. When will this madness end? My wife is bemused by my love of cycling, whether riding or watching pros ride, and was never all that interested in the sport until Lance “opened up” [Hahaha, yeah, wink, wink!] to the O. But, the Mrs. loves a good drama/soap opera, and this mess is starting to become as amusing to her as The Bachelor/Bachelorette, Survivor, Big Brother, and all those other unscripted/reality TV shows combined.

    Maybe that’s the ticket? Think of the drama! The stories of struggle and heartbreak! The heartfelt confessions! The back stories! The scandals! The rags to riches stories! The tales of temptation and rebirth! Think of the potential multi-national revenue streams and advertising from a global TV show! What a diverse cast of characters! We can pull in every living current, former, and aspiring pro cyclist into the script for cross-generational audience appeal. Coming this fall to a TV network, Truth & Reconciliation!

    Excuse me, I’ve got to go find a studio to pitch this to. 😉

    • walshworld February 28, 2013 at 12:38 pm - Reply

      Bumper, you have figured out the secret joy the media has for doping stories. Races are just on the weekend but doping stories are reality show farce and tragedy that you can write about every single day! Most athletes aren’t that fascinating as people but throw them into a dirty drug world and things get interesting fast. Matt

  3. Sam March 2, 2013 at 10:06 am - Reply

    The use of substances to enhance performance in cycling goes back a long long way. It dogged Anquetil, it dogged Merckx, and for me to believe that Hinault and Lemond were clean? Even that is a stretch. Lemond is standing on a soapbox yelling that he was getting dropped after winning a few and that it was all due to other riders using PED’s. He won one from Lauren Fignon, who admitted to doping. I’m not ready to believe that Lemond was the only clean Tour winner out there.

    • walshworld March 11, 2013 at 1:32 pm - Reply

      Sam, I’m going with Lemond winning the Tour clean until evidence proves otherwise. I sure hope he was clean. Matt

  4. Henri van der Merwe July 16, 2015 at 7:41 am - Reply

    And still we wait! Can’t believe this was written over 2 years ago, and nothing has changed other than they are just the same…

    • walshworld July 24, 2015 at 8:33 pm - Reply

      That’s life in pro cycling Henri. Plus ca change ….

  5. Christopher C September 12, 2015 at 3:26 pm - Reply

    Greg Lemond was a doper as well and I know that for a fact

    • walshworld September 29, 2015 at 8:24 am - Reply

      Chris, you’re the first I’ve heard say that. Can you point me to any evidence? Matt

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