But wasn't the cycling top 10 basically decimated by the PED scandal? I think only 1 (or a couple of) cyclist(s) remained unscathed in the top 10 rankings. I'm going on memory, but they really gave the appearance of cleaning house, to an outsider like me. Had regulators gone after 4 or 5 manufacturers, including home-team companies, it would have been much better, and would appear less like Americans piling onto out a German manufacturing bellwether.
Lance Armstrong deserved it though.
Why? Everyone else was doping.
Because Lance Armstrong threatened to ruin (and came close in a couple of cases) the lives of anyone who looked like they might expose him.
The doping is one thing. The effort to cover it up was something else again.
I find the same happens with performance enhancing drugs in sports. Everyone in the game knows that everyone is doing it. But someone gets caught, and people go full offense on them as though they're pure evil.
Ben Johnson and later Lance Armstrong come to mind.