I am sure some people are already pointing out that his story is not unlike Chris Froome's - promising career affected by chronic illness which was then cured leading to success. I can't help remembering Brailsford's graphs...
One does have to wonder whether JTL was either a victim of his own unusual post-recovery chemistry (can the biological passport really account for this?) or whether illness provided what was felt to be a convenient cover for rather stronger 'treatment' than is strictly necessary in this and other cases. In the case of Froome, he seems so far to be the genuine article and the similarities to JTL's story just skin-deep. In JTL's case however, it seems clear that his story of illness and recovery was used to spin a yarn of almost tragedy leading to deserved success which had a lot of us hoping it was a story that would have a happy ending... unfortunately, it wasn't a fairy tale, it was just another sorry tale of fraud, lies and deception.