Cool, so Paul went from doping in 1987 to managing the same team he doped on in 1988. Nice way to pass along the knowledge. And grew up in Kenya.
And, here is a Wiki jem on Cookson and Mark Bell, part of the same Raleigh team as Paul:
Brian Cookson, later president of the Union Cycliste Internationale, said: "I remember, as a commissaire, following Mark throughout his successful breakaway to win the national pro road race title in 1986, when he simply rode away from some of the greatest names in the sport."
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Bell_(cyclist)
The potential narratives are starting to string together for me. Sherwin meets Cookson the commissionaire in the late 80s, forms a connection, perhaps over failed drug tests resolved over pint in a pub, then 25 years later along comes a Kenyan born cyclist who gets a chance with sky. Rather than tossing him away with other failed domestiques, is it possible Paul and Brian saw a story they could sell and tell, then had experiments done with different juices and voila, alien was born. Of course this is complete conjecture, but given this is cycling, lord knows.