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by the prosecutor that tests showed he had taken drugs, Virenque stated
”My name has been cleared.”

 1999 – Cipollini’s name means “little onions”. (Intro to an article that also
 mentioned that he used pictures of Pamela Anderson taped to his
 stem/bars to legally boost testosterone levels. (If that worked, we’d have
 seen that on Team GB bikes by now…)

 2002 – A look back at Tommy Simpson, including an anecdote about him
 handing over £800 to a couple of Italians for “a year’s supply of Mickey
 Finns” [amphetamines presumably] – four times the witness’s annual
 retainer from his British team, eating 10lbs of carrots per day, racing 18
 times across Europe in three weeks, covering 12,000 miles behind the wheel
 between races.

 2003 – An un-named rider is mentioned as having to change shoe size
 mid-season due to the effects of his human growth hormone habit.
 Scientists in Cambridge have modified human haemoglobin with crocodile
 amino acids, a possible route to high-quality artificial haemoglobin. Other
 cheat’s routes may be artificial haemoglobin from bovine sources, genetic
 engineering or using perfluorocarbons – probably detectable only by gas
 chromatography of the rider’s expired air – tricky for testing the B-sample
 if not the A.. On genetic engineering, baboons with a modified EPO gene
 need their blood diluted regularly as their haematocrit level soared from
 47% to 75% in under three months..

 2007 – Article talks about the opening stage in London and mentions
 spectators wearing club jersies of, wait for it, Dulwich Paragon and Catford
CC..! Did money change hands…?? J

The book also includes an entertaining timeline –e.g.
     ∙ 1924: the Pelissier brothers admitted to augmenting their natural
          abilities with chloroform, aspirin, cocaine and “horse-liniment”.

     ∙ 1981: Jacques Boyer is the first American rider to ride the TdeF.

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