Today, on cyclingnews.com, some guy in Britain wrote an interesting
letter about how to reduce the use of EPO. One point caught my eye:
"2. Squads in stage races to be made up of 12 riders... only six to
ride on any one day...so one day on, one day off. It would cut the
pressure to take recovery drugs."
I like this idea. I know it would be horribly unpopular, as no one man
would ever again get to be the winner of the Tour. But if our
non-cyclist spouses and friends are to actually believe us when we say
cycling is a team sport, perhaps we need to do away with individual
winners of stage races. The journalists can all vote for an "MVP", and
you can still have KOM and points jerseys. Real "strategy" would be
brought back into the tour again, as coaches would need to make
decisions about how to utilize them teams in the most effective manner
possible.
Of course, we'd still have doped-up teams, and that guy's suggestion
would do nothing to solve the problem he was commenting on, but I like
the thinking.