There are so many falsehoods and misguided assumptions flying around this thread it's almost like it's a....oh wait, it is LRC! Let's just jump into Armstrong first:
"Lance Armstrong is the dirtiest cyclist ever!"
Sorry, not even close! The 1990s through the Festina Affair were definitely the dirtiest period of cycling with EPO use prolific during this period prior to EPO testing. It was completely run and pushed by teams and administered by team doctors. There was no need for microdosing. Some riders even died from doping with EPO during this free for all era due to the unknown side effects of blood getting too thick once hematocrit goes above 60. One particular rider and TdF winner, Bjarne Riis was nicknamed Mr 60% because he doped himself up to that level. A giant of a man, Riis went from being a powerful classics racer to being able to beat 130 pound climbing specialist up the steepest climbs. (he later became Director Sportif for Team CSC through the mid 2000s) Eventually, around 1996, to curb the blatant use of EPO without a real tesr, the UCI came up with the random hematocrit measure of 50% to determine whether a racer could start the race that day. No suspension just no start. ...Ironically those athletes with a relatively low natural hematocrit (Armstrong & Hamilton) could benefit by this rule because they could take EPO and watch their hematocrit jump from 42 to 50 (a huge 20% increase!) while someone with a natural 48 could only get a marginal gain. After the 1998 Festina Affair in which a Festina team trainer's car was found by French police with a veritable pharmacy of PEDs along with even more illicit drugs in the trunk, the whole team left the tour, arrests were made (PEDs are criminally prosecuted in France) and most other teams shut down their doping regime mid tour. Festina also revealed that so many illicit drugs were combined during this era to counteract and boost the effects of massive EPO use that it is staggering. ...Willy Voet wrote a book called "Breaking the Chain" which reads more like a Motley Crue biography than a professional sports expose.
From a book review by The Guardian: "Voet breezily describes an environment where "Belgian mix" - a melange of heroin, cocaine, amphetamines, caffeine and painkillers - might be swapped for a racing jersey or a puppy, where erythropoietin and growth hormone rub shoulders with carrots in the fridge, where drips are hung from picture hooks in hotel rooms to dilute cyclists' blood so that they will pass the blood thickness tests intended to combat EPO use, and where the team's riders would argue about how to split payment for their drugs much as people might go over the bill in a restaurant. It is the universality of the drug culture, the way that it merged seamlessly into everyday life, that is truly shocking."
...The next year (1999) in the aftermath of Festina, the TdF was virtually the "cleanest" ever by all accounts. ...Except for the very nefarious and very elusive efforts by Lance Armstrong and a small group of Postal cohorts. Look up "motoman" from Hamilton's book to get an idea just how far they went to cheat. This is what set the course and template for Armstrongs doping regimen for his 7 wins. The ability to train and dope, and race and dope without getting caught. By the 2000 Olympics there was finally a legitimate testing protocol for EPO. Microdosing became the new method of doping, less effective, but easier to evade positive tests. However testing for autologous blood transfusion had not been perfected yet so LA switched to that as his primary oxygen vector doping method.
Lance learned to dope in the raging 90s but it was his ability to dope at the highest level possible while not testing positive that set him apart from the other during his TdF domination from 99-2005. But was he more talented than others, most of whom were also doping? VO2max used to be thrown around as the ultimate measuer of aerobic potentisl. Even there, LA cheated. His once vaunted VO2max measurement of 90 was been debunked and it was actually 84. Many others have scored higher, bith before and after. Chris Froome had an 88. Greg Lemond had a confirmed 92. Among his contemporaries, Ulrich and Pantani were perhaps more talented. His actual super power? ...Armstrong had a competitive drive beyond perhaps all other athletes except maybe MJ. The type that is driven more by fear and hatred of losing even more than desire of winning. Combine Armstrongs very good natural talent with his spphisticated doping regime and his competitive drive and you get more of the whole pucture. Add in his innate racing skills and tactics, his bike handling and importantly, his luck...then you get 7x TdF champion.