Originally Posted by
mattm
Define "everyone"
Just his top competitors?
The whole pro peloton?
All the amateurs he stomped on to get to Europe?
Pretty much the entire pro peloton. Yeah. There may have been some domestiques in the pro peloton who were clean, but I think they were probably the exception.
Lance didn't create doping. It was going on well before he got there. The Festina Affair happened in 98. Lance won his first tour in 99. Many of the guys in the pro peloton from that time period say they were really fast, but realized they had to dope to make it to the top level. Basically, they had to do what the other guy was doing. The TDF didn't name a replacement winner for the seven tours they stripped from Lance largely because they couldn't guarantee there was anyone clean in those events.
That said, Lance probably did more to refine and perfect the system of doping than anyone before him.