Cycling's betrayal by Team Sky, now Ineos Grenadiers, cuts deeper than many of the other betrayals that litter the sport because they arrived in it 11 years ago promising they were different. Yes, I know, you're right: that's what they all say.
They all say they're different. They say they're here to clean up the sport. They say they will win fairly. They say they will not compromise their principles. They say they are not like the rest and that they never will be. It's the first layer of pretence. The top-coat of the veneer of deception.
And when the Medical Practitioners' Tribunal Service (MPTS) handed down their ruling at a hearing on Friday and found Dr Richard Freeman, a central figure in the dominance of Team Sky and British Cycling throughout much of the last decade, guilty of ordering banned testosterone 'knowing or believing' it was to be used to dope a rider, it redrew the history of sport in this country.