Riders never stopped doping. Anytime. They always have doped. What I think is happening is that there is free reign due to the pandemic. And some riders, or many riders, just go overboard or abuse the drugs. In the 90's we know there was free reign. I don't know about the 2000's because authorities were closing in on the tests. We know now that there was free reign for the Texan since he had the UCI in his pocket. So for me the difference is whether you have free reign or not. It usually happens when there is no testing or there is a new drug. For me is the lack of testing. I don't care if people trying to convince me otherwise. I just look around the world and I say there is no way that in these times there is normal testing. No way. Not close. I don't think there is a new drug. In 2007/2008 there was almost a free reign period until the French federation screwed it all up.
Last thing to say, riders respond different to doping. In this case it has benefitted the best responders obviously. There are some theories about how to check for the best responders but I am not an expert and I am not going to go there.
I think there's a morally grey area in the middle where taking a few pills, a couple of injections/transfusions or whatnot could be deemed "acceptable" by the most hardcore cycling fans who know what made Anquetil & co tick. Cycling was made by dopers & its legendary rides were those of dopers. It's ingrained in the sport & it is what it is. I'm certainly not one of those naïve daydreamers who still imagines the champions of their youth were riding on clear water, I don't like hypocrites either (i.e. people who point the finger at one guy whilst claiming another is totally clean) and I have also no respect for the "concern trolling" of Vayer & co who really just want to see the whole sport burn for whatever reasons.
But I have my own Rubicon which shouldn't be crossed. Like for example when Willy Voet after the Festina scandal revealed how they beat urine tests, i.e. by inserting a condom into the rider's backside filled with clean non-doped urine, attaching a rubber tube & disguising it with fake pubic hair so the control guys would never know. That was disgusting. Also I never cared for the fact Lance Armstrong doped (Pantani & co were juicing it like crazy), but I did care about the insinuations he was allowed to dope more after 1999 (with the UCI in his pocket) for financial reasons, i.e. with the people at the top of the sport financially benefitting from his wins. That was also "too much". I also have issues with Sky, Froome & all their cover-ups, lies & the advent of electric bikes (many of Froome's ridiculous rides have motor-doping written all over them, i.e. a guy who looked like he can barely ride a bike placing seated accelerations without his heart rate raising? Yeah no, I don't think so).
But as for now, I seriously doubt Covid is affecting anything. Pogacar was super strong & super improving before Covid in the 2019 Vuelta. Likewise Roglic was super-strong & took two months off racing before that same Vuelta he won, at a time when Covid wasn't around ergo out of race testing was normal. But I am curious about the time trial at the end of the Tour last year, i.e. after the commissaires destroyed Roglic's bike at the Col de la Loze whilst looking for a motor (they found nothing), Pogacar then produced a performance out of nowhere & annihilated the entire field (after he himself had lost time on the same Col de la Loze 3 days earlier).
When a rider who looked on his way "down" suddenly murdered all the specialists (including Roglic), I nope out. Because there's a certain logic which needs to kick in after a while (riders get tired & perform worse as the days go by, i.e. they don't have a slow downwards spiral & then BAM, blow everyone to pieces).
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