The dopers have either confessed or have been caught, and there is the suggestion that this year marks the beginning of a new era for the sport.

The Tour Down Under, which began on Sunday, is the first race of note of 2013, and, coincidentally, is inextricably linked with the most prominent person in the shocking doping revelations that have dominated cycling over the past 12 months: Lance Armstrong. It was in this race in which he made his comeback in 2009 – he retired for the first time in 2005 after seven consecutive Tour de France victories – and it was also in this race that he made his final inter-national appearance, in 2011.