Stuart O'Grady (Orica GreenEdge) said that doping was never an option thoughout his lengthy career(Image credit: Cycling News)
Stuart O'Grady says farewell to the Tour Down Under for the final time(Image credit: Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)
One year after laying low at the Tour Down Under in the aftermath of his doping confession a few days after the 2013 Tour de France, former Australian rider Stuart O'Grady has officially stepped out from the shadows of the controversy.
The occasion was the launch in Adelaide on Saturday of his new business venture, Stuart O'Grady Cycling that provides various services related to the sport that range from coaching to customised cycle touring.
Afterwards, the 41-year-old former Orica-GreenEdge rider who admitted that he used the illegal drug erythropoietin for two weeks before the 1998 Tour in which he wore the yellow jersey for three days and won the 14th stage into Grenoble, sat down with a number of media outlets – including Cyclingnews – to discuss where he is at in his life, and also to reflect on the scandal that brought his racing career to a premature end.
I had some pretty good results before and some pretty good results after [right] until the end. I know what I did and didn't do. I am completely comfortable with that. You are always going to have – which I am learning – people, especially on social media and so on [who] want to voice their opinion. You can't get stuck in the mud over a couple of quotes or Tweets or whatever.
Rupert Guinness is a sports writer on The Sydney Morning Herald (Fairfax Media)
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Rupert Guinness first wrote on cycling at the 1984 Victorian road titles in Australia from the finish line on a blustery and cold hilltop with a few dozen supporters. But since 1987, he has covered 26 Tours de France, as well as numerous editions of the Giro d'Italia, Vuelta a Espana, classics, world track and road titles and other races around the world, plus four Olympic Games (1992, 2000, 2008, 2012). He lived in Belgium and France from 1987 to 1995 writing for Winning Magazine and VeloNews, but now lives in Sydney as a sports writer for The Sydney Morning Herald (Fairfax Media) and contributor to Cyclingnews and select publications.
An author of 13 books, most of them on cycling, he can be seen in a Hawaiian shirt enjoying a drop of French rosé between competing in Ironman triathlons.
