As five-time champion Jacques Anquetil once remarked: 'The Tour de France is not won on mineral water alone'. He was underlining the fact that nobody really wanted to know what it took to survive three weeks of agony through the mountains, hills and plains of Europe.
The Frenchman spoke those famous words half a century ago, but they seem to have more truth today than ever, despite the ongoing mantra from the sport's bosses that cycling has cleaned up its act.
For the second straight year, the Tour de France ended last month without a single rider detected for drug use. But German doping experts described the new tests as 'a joke' and 'very poor', that did little to stop cheating, while the French Anti-Doping Agency said the procedures were organised in such a way that the riders knew about them beforehand.
This week, the Chinese Cycling Association confirmed that Lance Armstrong's RadioShack teammate Li Fuyu had tested positive for a banned substance. The 32-year-old, a ground-breaking first Chinese professional on a ProTour team, was found to have used the anabolic agent clenbuterol at a race in Belgium in March and now faces a two-year ban.
And less than two weeks after his final Tour de France appearance, Armstrong himself was embroiled in a fresh row, his lawyer accusing the United States Anti-Doping Agency (Usada) of illegally offering 'sweetheart' deals to cyclists to testify against the seven-time champion in a federal investigation.
Representing Armstrong, Tim Herman said that by dangling the carrot of reduced suspensions to tainted riders if they dished the steroid dirt on the 38-year-old American, Usada was breaking a law that prohibits a private party offering anything in exchange for testimony. But the anti-doping body countered that there was nothing illegal in simply asking riders to be truthful about drug use.