Now that the Tour is over we will be inundated with the claims that everyone is doping again but in some manner that is undetectable to the daily testing procedures.

Arbitrary claims by people that don't understand the science should not come as a surprise I suppose. It would be impossible to have detected the transfusions of the own blood if they didn't actually catch them in the act. But now blood analysis is a more refined science and such tricks are easily caught.

People will HAVE to be stuck with explaining how the peloton could ride for hours at 40 or more km per hour before they can even attempt to explain how one of two could ride faster than that.

I did a 56 mile ride yesterday and averaged 12.5 mph (20 kph). It was a more of less flat ride but it did cross over a 150 foot high bridge and cover 4 miles of extremely rough road and into a 10 mph headwind on the way out and exhaustion on the way back. But on the way back I did change my route to be protected from winds by buildings. I think that I was passed by one bike on the way out and one on the way back. Judging by the number of bikes going against my direction I have to assume the same numbers were going in my direction and going little if any faster.

So it should come as no surprise that the training strategy of professionals is improving all of the time.

When I was first getting into riding and was entering the Thursday night crits in Livermore before I was injured, I wasn't that fast but faster than most Cat 4's. I would ride up the local Tunnel Road which was a training hill for the UC Berkeley racing team. They would pass me like I was standing still and Bob Roll would come by them so fast that they didn't even know what was happening. If pros were that different in the 70's think of what they're like now.