Since the ASADA Reasoned Decision was released and ratified by the UCI, stripping Lance Armstrong of his seven Tour de France victories, no one has stepped forward and put their hand up as the rightful victor. Leaving almost a big a gap in the pages of the Tour's records was the admission by Erik Zabel that he hadn't just flirted with EPO on one occasion but had gorged on a diet of the blood booster, bags and blood and topped off with cortisone for good measure. When the dust settles or other riders come forward and say yes the nineties were rather dirty but the Dr fed me the drugs and skip the mea culpa, than the record six green jerseys won by the sprinter may be shared around. But who do they go to?
Here is a table of the podium of the points classification from 1996-2001
Frédéric Moncassin may have been rubbing his palms together at the prospect of two green jerseys until he too was caught up in the pesky French Senate and their crusade against doping. So 1996 winner looks like being the Italian Baldato who also finished runner-up at the 2000 Milan San Remo. Lucky man has had a breakthrough 2013 season, even though he retired after 2008...
Mario Traversoni may have been surprised when he was awarded Stage 19 of the 2007 Tour after Bart Voskamp and Jens Heppner had a tangle on the line and disqualified themselves. Will Traversoni be more suprised with a late delivery of green?
Robbie McEwen broke through for Australia in 2002 with the first of his green jerseys but it had been four years of an Australian finishing behind Zabel. Stuart O'Grady could have also nabbed three green jerseys if it had not been for his selective memory. Quick to call out Armstrong for needing drugs, it seems the natural ability of the South Australian just wasn't good enough either. There goes the chance to further pad out a palmares that now is forever under scrutiny.
Tom Steels step forward and collect your lucky prize. Nine stage wins and green jersey goes very well with four Belgian road race titles. Well done sir now just don't say anything incriminating now.
Onto 1999 and the two dopes once again miss out so in slides Christophe Capelle for his first green jersey. Having won a gold medal at the 1996 Olympics in the team pursuit, a Tour classification jersey is the cherry on top of an otherwise bare palmares.
2000 is McEwen's first of now four green jerseys so well done Robbie.
2001 is a little tricky again as O'Grady's hematocrit levels are iffy. So again the winner is in third place, step forward one time Lanterne rouge Damien Nazon! Last place in 1998 doesn't look very suspicious in the Tour de Dopage so 2001 looks safe in Nazon's hands.
So the winners of the green jersey after some retroactive doping controls and returned memories mean that Zabel is left rather empty handed. Winners in his place are
1996: Italian Baldato (Italy) 255 points
1997: Mario Traversoni 198 points
1998: Tom Steels (Belgium) 221 points
1999: Christophe Capelle (France) 196 points
2000: Robbie McEwen (Australia)
2001: Damien Nazon (France) 169 points
Tour stages are far too messy to divy up so it’s back to zero wins for Zabel.
What now of Milan San Remo? Zabel won the Monument on four occasions but who was runner up in 1997, 1998, 2000 and 2001? It's a good Thing Óscar Freire took the win in 2004 so he could celebrate at the time and not nine years later as Zabel prematurly though he had the win.
In 1997 Zabel celebrated his first win thanking Edgar most kindly for the strength to win a sprint. It's a shame that Alberto Elli decided to hide a few banned substances in his hotel room but for the police to find them was the real kicker. Not to mention that resulted in a prison sentence. So third place then? Biagio Conte has been a beneficiary when those ahead of him have been disqualified but even for an Italian La Primavera is a better prize than a Giro stage!
1998 is a very messy affair as in second place was Emmanuel Magnien who later in the year was caught up that bore some Festina affair. Must have been wrong place wrong time except he later tested positive to steriods but only because the Dr injected him with them. In third place is another Frenchman who must be kicking himself, Moncassin should be quite the decorated cyclist with Zabel admitting his fondness for blood bags. Instead down in fourth place is Stefano Zanini but his not the winner either as his name popped up in that Senate report. Fifth place? Andrei Tchmil perhaps but there are several questions marks him even though he did take out the 1999 San Remo at the time. He can hold it but maybe not permanently.
Baldato as mentioned before is a double winner thanks to Zabel as he can step up to claim the first monument of the millennium.
The last of Zabel’s San Remo’s was won ahead of lion king Mario Cipollini. Shame he had a dalliance with the dark side as he also popped up in the French Senate’s report.
He missed out on a green jersey due to McEwen in 2000 but Lithuanian Romāns Vainšteins takes the monument which sites nicely with the 2000 road worlds. Shame he couldn’t celebrate the win in the rainbow jersey.
So its messy and a lot of cyclists stand to gain from Zabel admitting that he and EPO were actually rather friendly, The question now is, will these cyclists step up and persue the UCI and ASO for what is rightfully owed to them?
Here is a table of the podium of the points classification from 1996-2001
335
|
284
|
255
|
||||
350
|
223
|
198
|
||||
327
|
230
|
221
|
||||
323
|
275
|
196
|
||||
321
|
203
|
184
|
||||
252
|
244
|
169
|
Frédéric Moncassin may have been rubbing his palms together at the prospect of two green jerseys until he too was caught up in the pesky French Senate and their crusade against doping. So 1996 winner looks like being the Italian Baldato who also finished runner-up at the 2000 Milan San Remo. Lucky man has had a breakthrough 2013 season, even though he retired after 2008...
Mario Traversoni may have been surprised when he was awarded Stage 19 of the 2007 Tour after Bart Voskamp and Jens Heppner had a tangle on the line and disqualified themselves. Will Traversoni be more suprised with a late delivery of green?
Robbie McEwen broke through for Australia in 2002 with the first of his green jerseys but it had been four years of an Australian finishing behind Zabel. Stuart O'Grady could have also nabbed three green jerseys if it had not been for his selective memory. Quick to call out Armstrong for needing drugs, it seems the natural ability of the South Australian just wasn't good enough either. There goes the chance to further pad out a palmares that now is forever under scrutiny.
Tom Steels step forward and collect your lucky prize. Nine stage wins and green jersey goes very well with four Belgian road race titles. Well done sir now just don't say anything incriminating now.
Onto 1999 and the two dopes once again miss out so in slides Christophe Capelle for his first green jersey. Having won a gold medal at the 1996 Olympics in the team pursuit, a Tour classification jersey is the cherry on top of an otherwise bare palmares.
2000 is McEwen's first of now four green jerseys so well done Robbie.
2001 is a little tricky again as O'Grady's hematocrit levels are iffy. So again the winner is in third place, step forward one time Lanterne rouge Damien Nazon! Last place in 1998 doesn't look very suspicious in the Tour de Dopage so 2001 looks safe in Nazon's hands.
So the winners of the green jersey after some retroactive doping controls and returned memories mean that Zabel is left rather empty handed. Winners in his place are
1996: Italian Baldato (Italy) 255 points
1997: Mario Traversoni 198 points
1998: Tom Steels (Belgium) 221 points
1999: Christophe Capelle (France) 196 points
2000: Robbie McEwen (Australia)
2001: Damien Nazon (France) 169 points
Tour stages are far too messy to divy up so it’s back to zero wins for Zabel.
What now of Milan San Remo? Zabel won the Monument on four occasions but who was runner up in 1997, 1998, 2000 and 2001? It's a good Thing Óscar Freire took the win in 2004 so he could celebrate at the time and not nine years later as Zabel prematurly though he had the win.
In 1997 Zabel celebrated his first win thanking Edgar most kindly for the strength to win a sprint. It's a shame that Alberto Elli decided to hide a few banned substances in his hotel room but for the police to find them was the real kicker. Not to mention that resulted in a prison sentence. So third place then? Biagio Conte has been a beneficiary when those ahead of him have been disqualified but even for an Italian La Primavera is a better prize than a Giro stage!
1998 is a very messy affair as in second place was Emmanuel Magnien who later in the year was caught up that bore some Festina affair. Must have been wrong place wrong time except he later tested positive to steriods but only because the Dr injected him with them. In third place is another Frenchman who must be kicking himself, Moncassin should be quite the decorated cyclist with Zabel admitting his fondness for blood bags. Instead down in fourth place is Stefano Zanini but his not the winner either as his name popped up in that Senate report. Fifth place? Andrei Tchmil perhaps but there are several questions marks him even though he did take out the 1999 San Remo at the time. He can hold it but maybe not permanently.
Baldato as mentioned before is a double winner thanks to Zabel as he can step up to claim the first monument of the millennium.
The last of Zabel’s San Remo’s was won ahead of lion king Mario Cipollini. Shame he had a dalliance with the dark side as he also popped up in the French Senate’s report.
He missed out on a green jersey due to McEwen in 2000 but Lithuanian Romāns Vainšteins takes the monument which sites nicely with the 2000 road worlds. Shame he couldn’t celebrate the win in the rainbow jersey.
So its messy and a lot of cyclists stand to gain from Zabel admitting that he and EPO were actually rather friendly, The question now is, will these cyclists step up and persue the UCI and ASO for what is rightfully owed to them?
