He came in looking bigger, harder, denser, and more striated than last year
thats what we have been saying and showing all along!
I have mentioned in the past comments regarding Ronnie's superior 99 condition in Ironman magazine and in Muscle and Fitness, but I don't have the issues anymore to quote from them..
Lonnie Teper specifically mentions Ronnie's quad cuts as a big improvment from his 1998 shape in the ironman mag.
In muscle and fitess, they praise his 99 combo of size, detail and aesthetics...
No doubt ND probably has the mags, but will not quote from them or scan from them since it goes against his Peter M. comments...

we can all see from the video that Ronnie was in better shape overall than in 98: