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Great points well made.
I still think it is only natural that this British forum and British Press ask exacting questions of and debate a British sporting hero with questions to answer. Mo Farah/Paula Radcliffe have hardly had an easy ride over doping suspicion so it's not something just limited to cycling. The fact remains that BW is about as big as it comes in terms of British sporting stars, regardless of sporting discipline, and this drives much of debate.
On your points regarding rugby and football, I have no doubt that doping is rife here, as I imagine across the sporting spectrum. Personally, as a fan, I care less in these sports as there is a pleasure in watching for the skill and spectacle alone. A beautiful cross, some swift hands in the back line etc. As such, the doping bothers me, as a fan, less. I can still enjoy a game of football even if I think some of them juiced.
With cycling, it's different . While there is some skill involved it is not on the same level, particularly for a climber. What it is really about is fitness, which is where doping makes all the difference. This is why there is more of a clamour to fix cycling and athletics than the team sports which require immense skill to get to a high level in the first place. The winners still won because they scored more goals, not just because they could run further for longer (though that will help) there is still enjoyment from the spectacle.
Scrabble-
I'm not of the opinion that Brailsford says we are clean and we slap him on the back and say carry on old chap, but the TUE controversy and now the jiffy bag lead people to extrapolate that Wiggins is a doper and has been throughout his career, that Sky has some sort of institutionalised doping regime like USPS or Festina and all their blackshirts are on the juice, and that British cycling by logical extension is infested in the same manner. And that their doping is somehow worse than some Italian riders getting pinged, demonised like Armstrong rather than ignored like Pantani. Those double standards wind me up.
I do think it's a dangerous slope saying that doping in endurance sports is somehow worse than in team/skill sports. Yes you have to be skillful to play rugby and football, but it sure as hell helps if you are built like a brick shithouse and can run for full gas for 80/90 minutes. Rugby has the highest number of positives of any sport in the UK, and football is so poorly policed it is scandalous. Cycling has long been the tethered goat for sports, constant doping scandals that make it look like a cesspool and distract from other sports who look like a paragon of virtue in comparison. But those scandals exist because it is very heavily policed as a sport, whereas other sports you can virtually dope with impunity.
Tl:dr said sport a lot
Jimmy_Fingers
^ would rep