Forgive my ignorance, but I have been puzzled by the similarity between Lance Armstrong and an athlete from years ago, Lasse Viren. (Sorry if the spelling is wrong) Viren seemed to do very little of note between big competitions, then, come the World/European/Olympic Games, he turns up and is way better than all the other runners, especially in the late stages of a race. Armstrong also seemed to do very little of note between Tours, but was untouchable every July. I remember there was talk of Viren using his own blood in transfusions (blood doping?), but I don't think anything was proven or any action taken. The similarity is just so striking.
PS. I know LA, and probably LV, didn't do nothing between comps, just nothing of note.
I've read up a ittle about this, and there were rumours of doping, but nothing ever came of it. Obviously, detection techniques have come on a long way since Viren's day, but doping* was not illegal at the time.
*which is a different technique to the modern version of 'doping'. Back in the day, it involved taking and storing blood, then transfusing it back into the body. These days, synthetic erythropoietin (E.P.O.) is injected, which has the same effect with much less faffing about.
Edited by Futtocks, 29 August 2012 - 12:54 PM.
