Was La Vie Claire Clean?
La Vie Claire's victories came at a critical juncture in cycling. According to Greg LeMond "a huge movement" towards doping began in Italy around the early 1990s. Many riders suddenly found themselves out of competition and a large number of riders unwilling to participate in "the doping culture" began to retire. LeMond said in 2001 that: "Every rider on La Vie Claire was clean; that was Paul Keochli's big deal to make sure he had a clean team." He added that his American and Canadian teammates, Andy Hampsten and Steve Bauer, "made it through clean." Whether through coincidence or not, Paul Koechli and Steve Bauer drifted out of the sport, somewhat prematurely, around the same time that EPO began to be widely abused and steroids became outdated. Many think that it was due to their steadfast refusal to become complicit in the new "EPO culture" which was establishing itself in professional cycling around this time.
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