AHC: Lance Armstrong busted sooner

What would it take for disgraced cyclist Lance Armstrong to be caught using steroids somewhere in the late 1990's to the mid 2000's?
 
Maybe a bigger anti doping system in the UCI after the Festina debacle? This could have far reaching consequences in other sports as well. A stronger WADA would be nice, maybe more money spend on detection of new drugs etc.

Alternative maybe more people speaking out in the in the Tour 1999 after Christophe Bassons got pressured out of the Tour by Armstrong.

Maybe someone got insider Information on Armstrongs connection to Michele Ferrari. Also could be that Ferrari cuts a deal for Information against his clients.

Or something relative easy, maybe instead of festinas doping transporter the one from armstrongs team gets cought.

Any of the old Armstrong team colleagues that get cought afterwards could cut a deal and name him. Just need one to keep some evidence. Always wondered why not one of the guys just made himself a security against against being cut or for money later down the road.
 
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Hm, not sure about several times, but one time he made a donation and some discrepancies in tests went away.
The biggest thing was that the timing for the UCI was bad. There was this amazing cyclist with a tragic back story that won the Tour. If they would have cought him in his first tour, no problem, just convict him. If he was cought in his second tour the same. After that his hype was to big, the bad publicity for the Tour and cycling would be to high. Better to retract his wins a few years later after the hype around him died down. Even after he was "cought" it never became that big a problem for cycling, since he was retired and a lot of other retired stars already came out with doping.
 
Had they caught him sooner, and made an example of him with regards to doping in general and cheating in international cycling, specifically, the citizenry of the United States of America might well have been spared the spectacle of all those years of pretending to care about bicycle racing...what an embarrassment!
 
@606jae while i agree that almost all people were doping during that time, i think it would show the wrong thing.

Short excurse into the doping problematic :)
The problem isnt that Pros are doping, its that young and amateur scenes start doping as well. Doping itself in most cases is harmful to the body and there is no benefit for amateurs to dope. But if the pros are doing it some amateurs want to do it as well. This starts a cycle in the amateur scene since people there can be just as competetiv. Another problem shows up when amateurs use doping, pros are normally doped by medical doctors who prescribe a strict regime of what, when and how much. Amateurs often just buy stuff from pharmacies ore the underground scenes and use it incorrect or even get faked material that can have bigger probles than the doping itself.
To combat these prolems its easier to just ban it for the pros as well, since there are a lot less people in the pro scence.
And to see the problem just look at the amateur body building scene and the big amount of drug abuse there. Steroids, testosteron or growth hormones for example.

The biggest problem with doping is the widely different rulesets and testing methods around the world and different sports. But most sports are coming around to the standard, 2year for first offenders and normally lifelong afterwards. Would be interesting if we see the change coming to nfl as well, since they arent really combating it. First offenders get barred for up to 4 game days. Second time offenders get 10 game days. And third time gets banished for at least two seasons and needs to be reinstated afterwards. He does not automaticly become available again. The fact that wikis list of suspended players for banned substance in the nfl alone is currently at 25 in 2018 alone is worrying. Just look at that player: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Randy_Gregory got three suspensions for failing doping/drug test and still is allowed to play again. And that he stayed on the same team as well.
Not sure how contracts are written in the nfl but if i was a team manager i sure would kick him out the first chance i can get. Thats just bad pr in the waiting.

Man this post cost me two hours to write since i found intersting stuff :)
 
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