From what I understand its a cultural thing, and accepted practice until recently. Essentially the racing circuit is too intense to survive A. Without informal

From what I understand its a cultural thing, and accepted practice until recently. Essentially the racing circuit is too intense to survive A. Without informal rules like in the article. B. Drugs so you can carry on with minor injuries etc. I suppose you could differentiate between some domestique in the 70s not making much money, needing to make a living and taking stronger pain killers to carry on cycling, and a modern well funded international team. That's without getting into the morality of it. I hope that culture has now changed.