It has nothing to do with who you are - well, maybe it does...

Let's look at a couple of cyclists.

Cyclist A:

For the sake of argument, let's call him Tom Zirbel.

Tom has won a few stages and a few races. He's a competent time trialist. Tom failed a doping control in December 2009 for DHEA. Tom maintains that he did not knowingly dope. He is given a 2 year suspension.

Cyclist B:

Again, for the sake of argument, we'll call him Alberto Contador.

'Bert has won a few stages and a few races as well. He is also a competent time trialist as well as a good all-rounder. 'Bert failed a doping control in August 2010 for clenbuterol. 'Bert maintains that he did not knowingly dope. He is given a 1 year suspension by the Spanish cycling federation*.

So, it's not about who you are, huh?

*as of my writing of this post, the UCI has not weighed in yet. They may still suspend him for 2 years, but then again...