Fred's last point is the clincher.

20 years ago, this Tour route would have been considered laughably easy. Shorter stages, less climbs, worse times etc. Now it appears to be as fucking difficult to complete as ever (38 abandonedments, so far). On that basis, either the riders have got significantly worse technically or they have got significantly worse physically. The former is unlikely, the latter strongly suggests less drug-taking.

I'm not suggesting for a moment that the Tour or any other sporting event is 100% clean. Just that to automatically suspect the winner as being a doper may, at last, be unfair.

Incidentally, most of the recent doping scandals in cycling have concerned events which took place in the past.