Alexandre Vinokourov won Liege-Bastogne-Leige, one of cycling's five monuments. I didn't see the race because I live in America and went to ride instead of watching it in Flemish or some other foreign language and to be honest, with this result I'm sort of glad. I don't really know what the think. Here's a guy that rode out of his mind only to test positive for blood doping, deny it, do the two year suspension, come back from his suspension and immediately start winning races. The first couple races he won weren't big ones by any means, mostly time trials, but now he wins Leige in a totally dominating performance? I think you're more than a bit gullible if you look at that result and don't at least wonder how clean it is.
In recent history there's been a handful of guys that mattered that got busted and return to the sport. David Millar, Tyler Hamilton, Ivan Basso, Michael Rasmussen, Floyd Landis, Ricardo Ricco and Alexandre Vinokourov. This list isn't exhaustive, but it is telling. Let's take a look at each of these cases.
Upon David Millar's (admitted to doping after being busted) return he rode for Saunier-Duval and basically did nothing spectacular. He had consistently lack luster results in time trials and to my knowledge, didn't win anything. Then, he signed on with Garmin and now, in his third year with them, he's won some races.
Tyler Hamilton (has always denied it with some pretty creative claims), he didn't win anything.
Ivan Basso (says he "considered" but never actually doped), still win-less to my knowledge though always "a threat." Whatever that means.
Michael Rasmussen (denies) is riding for basically a high level amateur team based in Italy. He's not going to any big races and either it's because the races he's riding are too small for anyone to care to report results or he's not winning because basically his name has been silent since his comeback.
Floyd Landis (denies, with solid evidence that the testing procedures were f'd up) just scored a second at the UCI Battenkill but that's hardly a big result for a guy that won the Tour de France in 2006.
Ricardo Ricco (he was basically sweating CERA so who cares), seems to be winning just like the days of old. Out sprinted Vino and Basso at Trentino last week for a summit finish.
Vino (denies, but actually eluded to admitting in a press conference), see above.
So what does this mean? It's hard to tell. Does this mean that Landis', Hamilton's and Rasmussen's seemingly mediocre performances within the first couple of years of returning prove they were doping before? Seems likely. Does it mean that it's impossible to win when coming back from a suspension? Not if you believe that Ricco and Vino are riding clean. But, it something about that just doesn't make any sense.
In the reports I've read Vino more or less fended off a solid chase effort by Valverde, Evans and Gilbert. There's no shortage of horsepower in those three guys and Evans alone is at least as good of a time trialist as Vino. In theory, one guy shouldn't be able to stay away from three guys working together, you know, in theory. If you're clean now, and you're a couple years older than you were then, but you're still able to put in that kind of ride coming off contesting the overall at Trentino, why'd you need to dope in the first place? Suddenly now, with you maturity and time to reflect you've gained the confidence in your own abilities to not try to hedge the bet just a little? Maybe the dope isn't that effective to begin with? Maybe he's clean, maybe he's not, but it just doesn't make much sense on the surface.
He was booed as he crossed the finish line and really, who can blame anyone that doesn't believe in his performance? He hasn't really given us a whole lot of reason to.
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