Fignon later acknowledged using performance enhancers but shied from connecting doping with his cancer. He died today at age 50.

Historical aside: Fignon’s loss also prevented him from winning a rare double, both the Tour of Italy (Giro d’Italia) and the Tour de France in the same year. Only a handful of cyclists have accomplished the feat, and they rank among the hallowed names of the sport (Coppi, Anquetil, Merckx, Hinault, Indurain among others). So grueling is the double considered today that few riders even try. Tour favorites have stayed away from competing in both since LeMond’s time, and Lance Armstrong never even tried during his 7-Tour victory skein.

Self-injecting blood cheats pose a real problem for testing. This is where the cyclist freezes his own blood, saving it for a later date, and injects it on race day. Doing this with someone else’s compatible blood is generally detectable. With his own blood, well, that’s where it gets tricky. Supposedly technology is on the way to assist in this process.

Laurent Fignon, recently diagnosed with advanced cancer, on a possible link between doping and his diagnosis: “In those days everyone was doing it.” Really? Because Greg Lemond beat Fignon in the closest Tour ever, 1989, by 8 seconds. And Lemond is the guy who keeps agitating to clean up the sport without ever having acknowledged doping himself.

Bernard Hinault (without acknowledging doping himself), in Velo News: “The French have taken as much as the others. What is not normal is that they are not treated in the same manner as other sportsmen.”