Arbitrators often split the baby. They gave him 4 years but let him keep the jersey he got a few days after he tested positive. It's a bit bizarre. But I would bet with a lot of certainty that USAC offered up a two year ban if he had gone quietly.
As far as the clenbuterol positive, I have little doubt that, like there are cheaters in cycling, there are cheaters in livestock raising in the US. Anyone here think Clive Bundy wouldn't shoot up his cattle?
FWIW Costco has had supplier issues with meats in the past, where the supplier has violated FDA standards. Five seconds on Google will produce a few million hits on corporate or individual ranchers or processors doing the wrong thing. That's assuming that he didn't eat non-Costco beef prior to that, at parts per trillion we could be talking a week or more for the exposure window.
While it's use is widespread in China and Mexico, Canada has also found it in their meat. Worth noting 90% of Mexican beef exports end up here. We're talking 160 metric tons of beef. And Canada exported 750,000 cattle to the US. There is no systematic testing for it in the beef that ends up in the US supply chain, so accidental exposure by an end user is believable to me.
There are a lot of other positives that I'd not give that same belief to.
Problem is the innocent are going to sound exactly like the guilty.