Having read a couple of books about him, it’s always seemed the issue was why he failed the tests rather than did he take drugs. Betting scams seems possible I guess.
I’d thought it was commonly accepted that he was caught because other teams were getting annoyed that he was being too obvious, e.g. they were all at it, but him basically crashing or puncturing or something at the bottom of Alp d’Huez and then succesfully chasing back on, overhauling the leaders and going on to set the fastest time ever was basically, well, taking the pee a little bit.
The tip off to the testing authorities was more because he wasn’t playing by the unwritten rules of the game?
I guess Lance got around that by not being TOO obvious whilst also maintaining a more successful omerta within the peloton?
I’ve also had too many whiskies so am talking poorly remembered nonsense…