It’s also the case that up
It’s also the case that up until recently at least, and probably still I’d guess, cycling fans on the continent take a much more worldly view of drug taking.
Back when it all blew up at the 2006 Tour the Indy’s man in Paris recounted a conversation with his Belgian grandmother, a lifelong cycling fan, when he mentioned the drugs scandals her response was a shrug of the shoulders and “‘Pffff’ it’s a hard sport what do you expect?”
Historically there has been a difference between the Anglos Saxon world view and the Gallic or Latin we once ran an interview in C+ with Hein Verbruggen when he was head of the UCI where he said that against the Anglo Saxon stance on drugs in sport was unrealistic and insisted that the best policy was one of harm reduction. People dying, as the bikeboy points out, is worse than people cheating. It’s not the fans of cycle sport who have forced any change it is multi-national sponsors.