This is where it breaks down, Joe Random is Lances equal.
I don't think he is.
Equal - maybe even superior - "engine"; possibly. Maybe even probably. But there is so more to winning a race (in any discipline) than just the raw engine.
Otherwise the TdF would just be comparing VO2 max and Lactic Acid threshold tests, and car races would be just dyno runs. Ask any Supra owner if a dyno run translates into a decent race performance.
And you have to consider team performance. Think about how LA's teams dominated right up to the end of stages. Domestiques hurting other teams leaders on climb after climb, then LA finishing them off. Floyd's assertion (and others) is that their edge was systematic doping as a team. LA's performance alone did not lead to his dominating TDF wins. So does an EPO using Team beat a clean or almost clean Team is more to the point in terms of how a race goes down.
That is an interesting take... so what if Lance was clean, but the rest of the team was as dirty as hell, and used the "dirty" to put the hurt on the other teams and keep Lance fresh....
That's a very interesting way of looking at that. And my analogy completely breaks down in this kind of scenario.
And if we assume this is the case... did Lance know? If he did, was it his idea? if not, was it actual innocence or willfull looking the other way in order to provide plausible deniability?
Would domestiques willingly dope to play their part? Or would it take financial or mental coersion?
Very interesting...
Have you read the actual text of Floyd's emails? In it he describes how he beat the testing. Along with who instructed and assisted him in this endeavor. I guess you could say this isn't "proof" but have you read it? It's out there on the internets.
That dude has ZERO credibility. Floyd could email the first 1000 digits of pi and I'd still want every single digit checked.
DG