Hi, I am definitely not trying to defend Lance or what he did to others along his way to his Oprah confession. It's interesting to hear of the kind of treatment that Inga received from coaches that were and were not associated with Lance. It seems that bad behavior went along with drug use and drug dispensing. IMHO, the fact that some very good women (Thompson, Cooke, et al) were able to withstand the attempts to get them to be "good teammates" is great for the sport and for them personally. However, like it or not, it was still a vastly different circumstance that what the men faced.
It's one thing for me to say that I have never taken drugs (and I haven't). It's another for a male athlete at the top of the sport to "say no to drugs." The circumstances are completely different.
I'd like to think that if someone has the integrity to say no at one level, that they would have the same integrity at a different level and environment. Unfortunately, it appears that the ability to say no changes.
It would be interesting to see what would happen if unconditional amnesty were given to all cyclists -- amateur and professional -- in exchange for information on doping (types and techniques) and anonymously identifying drug sources. Add to that, permanent lifetime bans for any subsequent positive by anyone. Could this kind of framework clean up the sport?