Lance Armstrong won in Paris, Erik Zabel was consistency on a bike and police drug raids disrupted a major race.

Yet there was enough surprise and pure sporting theatre to keep fans interested.

Doping innuendo again tarnished Armstrong’s win in the eyes of the French.

But the Parisian authorities have still produced no evidence after an 18-month investigation.

There was also Gallic disapproval of Lance’s “look” towards Jan Ullrich before his devastating Alpe d’Huez attack.

The American insisted no disrespect was meant yet Armstrong’s expression was more “can you take the pace?” than “are you OK back there?”

But despite this, Armstrong is now an all-time great and certainly a more charismatic repeat winner than the great Miguel Indurain.

Zabel won a sixth Tour green jersey and ended the year as world number one, though Erik Dekker took the World Cup series of one-day events.

But the biggest cheer – and greatest cynicism – in the single-day “classics” was saved for Richard Virenque’s triumphant comeback from a drugs ban at Paris-Tours.

His transformation into one-day star completed a French role reversal after classics specialist Laurent Jalabert won Virenque’s “own” Tour mountains jersey.

The Tour of Spain was a final-day thriller as Angel Casero snatched victory from Oscar Sevilla in a time trial.

At the world championships, Britain’s David Millar also felt that sinking feeling as Ullrich snatched the time trial gold medal.

Millar’s Tour was ruined by an opening-day accident but he still ended the year ranked 16th in the world, and well short of the cyclists’ traditional peak age.

The worlds’ road race was another familiar story as the strong Italian team disintegrated to allow Spain’s Oscar Freire to nip in.

But sadly this was not Italy’s greatest heartbreak, as Gilberto Simoni’s Giro win will always be overshadowed by the drug squad’s involvement.