Because six years for a 19 year old cyclist is essentially a lifetime ban. There is little to no chance of her returning to the sport after that kind of extended absence.

It's enough to destroy her career which is all they really needed to do.

To do it you have to have no respect at all. Sure EPO is awful, but an extra 200 watts for no extra work is a different level.

If it put you out of the sport permanently then it could be assumed to be long enough.

I dunno, it seems pretty harsh given that drug doping cases on the men's side only receive 2 to 4 years for a first offense [1] and given it's not something she could have gone out and done on her own - coach and mechanics must have been highly complicit and were probably driving the use of the cheat. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_doping_cases_in_cyclin...

Even murder, in most countries, has a limit at around 20 years or so.