in a huge way and was on track to become one of the most disgraced athletes of all time? 1999? 2013?

At one point, it was a kooky conspiracy theory. Later, it was pretty obvious that a handful of cyclists/trainers/doctors had conspired to cheat to illegitimately win a major sporting event for *years*!

I don't really buy into most conspiracy theories, either, but like, there was a conspiracy at the highest levels of a major sport everyone has heard of. I had no inkling of the conspiracy. Until you find out how they did it, it's hard to know how they did it.

I have factors to consider.

* Does this conspiracy theory involve a plausibly small number of people?
* Does it involve implausible levels of control or coordination? Does it require anything superhuman, unnatural, magical or against the laws of physics?
* Do the corrupting interests in this conspiracy plausibly have the resources to execute the conspiracy? (For example, is it plausible that a person who wants to bribe the refs could have enough money to be able to bribe the refs?)

For refs being bribed, I think that is unlikely, but it's not like insane. It is more likely than "9/11 was an inside job", but I think a briber could cough up enough money for 2 refs to put a thumb on the scale, which is all this would take. One problem is that I think it would be hard to balance plausibility and bias. Like, people could just review the footage of different foul calls and get some strong evidence. It would be much easier to cheat in some less-visible way.