If he had not made his comeback - who would have got him and how ? Dreaming that this might have happened without the comeback is fantasy. As a consequence of his comeback two things happened. i) He remained involved in cycling and decided to "enjoy" himself in the sport at Floyd's expense. ii) By competing he provided an evidence group that was live within the SoL and that enabled USADA to open a new case against him, which thus enabled them to call forward witnesses from his past.
Sat at home, on the ranch under the seven pictures of himself in yellow, watching Floyd ride the Tour of California on TV and nothing would have come out. Lance would have brazened out anything just as he had done, even when competing in 2004, when LA Confidential was published.
Look you have got the likes of Cookson and MacQuaid at the top. There is nothing in Seven Deadly Sins that was not in the 2004 edition of LA Confidential. That pair had that for 8 years and did nothing. Nobody was going to "get" him if he was quietly sat at home. Has anybody decided to ask Big Mig to explain quite how he could go up those cols quite so fast ? Was he doping? But Big Mig is sat at home. No this bunch just want us to move along, nothing to see. There is no doping left, it has all been driven out of the sport. Froome tells us. Lance tells us on his return he had to ride clean. The riders and managers told us in 1999, the new clean Tour. The Tour of redemption. Doping dies in 1998. This in a time when anyone with a stop watch and pencil and a 1/4 of a functioning brain cell could work out that they were still fully gassed. The morons at Cycling Weekly did a multipage homage to Richard Virenque - the supreme polka dot king - 5 years after the Festina Tour. Oh and in case anyone cannot remember, Richard Virenque rode for Festina and told us he was clean as the soigneur was busted with enough epo to run a racing stables through the flat season. Leinders ran a doping program at Rabobank ! It was a complete shock to Sir Dave. Nobody other than Sir Dave is telling us that it was a shock to him. Lance's butty, Michael Barry on USP doped! Another big shock to Sir Dave as Sir Dave tells us. Stephen Swart tells us in LA Confidential that the Team with Lance and Yates on, held morning prayers when heamatocrits levels were read out to the team who were all on EPO. And Cookson approved the hiring of Yates! Cookson is on the board of team Sky to hold Sir Dave to account. How tight does Cookson have his hands over his eyes and ears ? A 13 year old could work it out. Sir Dave tells us he did all he could to find out about the past. He tells us he did due diligence. Those are the exact words of Sir Dave. Cookson believes Sir Dave.
Well I suppose if you believe any of that you can believe that Lance would have been "got", oh and Big Mig will be handing back his 5 titles any day now.
I am going to the sty to get the occupants ready for their next flight.