"I'm assuming that three-time Tour winner who asked for the study was Greg Lemond, who has long argued this. Andy Hampsten has made similar comments, though Hampsten I believe won at L'Alpe d'huez in 1992, post changeover under that theory. But both riders tailed off rather suddenly and seemed to suggest there was a ""drug gap"" partly to blame. While I suspect drugs have influenced the increase in speed, I suspect equipment and legitimate training improvements have contributed, too, as the article proposes."