Cosmic Kid, high cadence is definitely fueled by PEDs. With more and better quality gas in the tank, the faster a doped rider can and will ride, attack with more strength, and be able to stay away. How could this not be true?
Attacking on the last mountain when all of your opponents are tiring, what enabled Armstrong to accomplish this feat of having more energy and strength when his rivals failed to reel him in? The higher cadence? No, the dope, which enabled the higher cadence when others could not keep up.
Because Armstrong was taking EPO pre-cancer and wasn't a feature Tour rider doesn't mean the EPO wasn't working. It was down to the type program he was on and what type of races Armstrong was targeting, like I've stated in a previous post. Pre-cancer he was a Classics and week-long stage rider, so the doping regimen was different. It had to have been.
Post-cancer, he decided the Tour was going to be his main focus after his success in the 1998 Vuelta, where he came in fourth. He signed a non-compete clause with Dr. Ferrari shortly afterwards, and the rest is history.
That contract was the most expensive between a rider and a trainer in the pro peloton. What did it purchase?
We don't know the answer to that yet in its' totality. Whatever changes Ferrari made to Armstrong's doping regimen worked like a charm, but as we are seeing now, the web of deceit was so tangled there was no way Armstrong could lose.
I'll throw this in. I don't believe in his awe-inspiring physical gifts. I think he was a rider with pedestrian talents (in comparison to his peers, not to everyday ham-and-eggers) who used doping and the manipulation of the system via his relationship with the UCI to make the playing field as unlevel as I've ever seen it in sport aside from what the East Germans were doing in the 1970's.
The only thing I'll admit to is it seems he responded better to a drug regimen than his peers, not only because it enabled him to win the Tour seven times, but because it turned him into a rider he was never meant to be.
The truth will out one day, we just have to be patient.
