| The explanation is quite simple. There is not one test to bind them all. There is one test for each and every possible drug. And then, there are other, totally different tests for non-drug doping techniques (like blood transfusion, and the tests are different depending on where the blood comes from.) Some of those tests require urine, others require saliva, hair or blood.
When you get tested, they don't test for everything. Either the dopers and their doctors know what they are going to be tested for (and sometimes are wrong), or they take chances. Odds are they won't get caught.
Some tests are practically impossible to run. Auto-transfusion is a very effective doping technique. It is technically possible to detect, but it requires some hard to obtain protein (or something like that.) It's too expensive, and they don't test for it. If, one year, they start systematically testing for it without warning, they'll get 50 positive.
All the doping used to be managed by the team staff and the team doctors. Now, with all the scandals, most teams are very vocal against doping. Yet, they demand the same performances as before. |