arjanh said:
With all this in mind, there's now one thing that doesn't make sense to me: how in the world could USADA get cycling's biggest star to date thrown out of the sport? Has somebody been asleep at the watch?
Tygart managed to stay under the radar until it mattered and no-one could affect the outcome he drove. Lance tried very hard, succeeded with Birotte via political means but it appears his team did not have the clout and was too late with USADA. When Tygart had what he needed his timing and information release was impeccable.
1. his early investigations concluded he needed lots of witness testimony
2. he was patient with his timing to get these witness testimonies, leveraged the Fed investigation ie. under oath testimonies
3. his Marion Jones work taught him that this was going to be a public media battle foremost
4. he delayed the release to UCI and media twice to heighten media interest, build impact and not give UCI any option but to accept it
5. he released both reasoned decision and testimonies simultaneously on the web. Public support dropped so quickly that any legal wrangling (SoL, etc) was going to be futile for camp Lance
Masterful stuff and will make a great case study for courses on sports administration, ethics, etc etc. It's the stuff they teach at Harvard, Oxbridge, Insead, etc. Some folk here better qualified ought to consider writing this up for publication.