Another American about to win Tour de France

[haroldsnepsts 4,826]

I know cycling is virtually non-existent as a sport in the U.S., but I thought some people might like to know that American cyclist Floyd Landis is about to win the Tour de France. Though there is technically one more stage, it's really just a victory lap.

Maybe a couple of you accidentally flipped to OLN looking for hockey and saw part of the race.

Landis rode well through most of the Tour, then had a terrible day in the mountains and everyone pretty much thought his chances at winning were over. The next day he went on an epic solo breakaway and put himself back in position to win it, which he did today in the Time Trial.

He'll be only the third American to ever win the Tour (Armstrong and Lemond being the other two). So the French may be rid of Lance, but an American once again wins their race.

Gotta love it.

http://sports.espn.go.com/oly/tdf2006/colu...tory?id=2525361

http://www.velonews.com/

Edited July 22, 2006 by haroldsnepsts

[Hockeytown Red Wings 245]

Didnt he fall back to 11th just the other day or something? Now he's about to win?

[haroldsnepsts 4,826]

Didnt he fall back to 11th just the other day or something? Now he's about to win?

Yes. He basically cracked in half on one of the big mountain stages and lost all this time. Everyone pretty much said his tour was over. Then the next day he went on this amazing, long solo breakaway and made up almost all the time he had lost.

Then he won it today in the Time Trial as he made up enough time to go from third to first.

[wingsdiehard13 33]

Alright

[Icer 0]

Lance Armstrong is possibly the best rider ever, but he was always an ass. There's lots of stories going around that he treated his teams like crap. Plus there's that whole dating a rock star thing and jet setting around the world like he's some sort of Hollywood celebrity. Not exactly someone I can identify with. Landis is a normal guy who's also pretty funny. Finally we got a champion for the people. Here's a pretty good article.

American Cycling Grows Up (Sort Of)

[Happy Pancake 6]

Here's to six more in a row! :patriot:

[Vladinator 0]

Looks like this one hit a bit of a snag:

http://sports.yahoo.com/sc

[Happy Pancake 6]

*sigh* Well that's a shame.

[Aussie_Wing 354]

This is why Cycling is an absolute farce. So many athletes just cannot be trusted.

[CopenhagenWing 38]

Cycling is no more a farce than any other sport. You will find people cheating in every sport.

Cyclists seem to have a bullseye on the their backs for some reason.

Some people in Europe speculate that they are used as scapegoats while other sports are flying under the doping radar.

[haroldsnepsts 4,826]

Cycling is no more a farce than any other sport. You will find people cheating in every sport.

Cyclists seem to have a bullseye on the their backs for some reason.

Some people in Europe speculate that they are used as scapegoats while other sports are flying under the doping radar.

Doping is a massive problem in cycling. Part of all the bad press is because they are actually catching the cheaters, as opposed to some other sports who ignored the problem for years... *cough* baseball *cough*.

As for Landis, I'm hoping the guy turns out to be innocent. Testing positive for elevated testosterone levels in not how riders usually get busted for doping. The unfortunate thing with a lot of these cases is there never is a definitive answer one way or another. A rider tests positive on a controversial test. They test the other sample, bring in experts, draw mixed conclusions, and it comes down to the fan to decide for themselves if he's a doper or not.

Even if Landis's B sample is clean, or there's a plausible explanation for the positive, this Tour win will always be tainted.

[Cruiser008 37]

This should be Floyd Landis' them song.

They see me rollin'

They hatin'

Patrolling they tryin' to catch me ridin' dirty

Tryin' to catch me ridin' dirty

Edited July 31, 2006 by Cruiser008

[CopenhagenWing 38]

Article from yesterday's Cyclingnews.

L'Equipe reports exogenous testosterone in Landis' A sample

By Hedwig Kröner

To explain the positive doping test result after stage 17 of the Tour de France, which he won after an impressive solo ride in high mountains, Landis has argued that his relatively high level of testosterone was naturally produced by his own body. The analytical basis for the test being the ratio between testosterone and epitestosterone, normally averaging 1:1, a suspicion of doping is being issued if this ratio is higher than 4:1.

In Landis' case, German media have on Sunday rumoured the result to be 11:1 (all that can be assumed, however, is that Landis must have been over 4:1). "In our medical files appear not only blood levels, but also our testosterone status," said professional cyclists' representative Jens Voigt before the race. "It shouldn't be hard to find out if Landis is telling the truth."

The tests performed on Landis' A sample included an Isotope Ratio Mass Spectrometry (IRMS) procedure, used to determine whether the testosterone is exogenous (contained within, but originating from outside the body) or endogenous (produced by the body itself). In the case of Landis, L'Equipe reported that the analysis found testosterone of artificial origin.

It's understood the French newspaper received this information from a source within Chatenay-Malabry labortory that conducted the test on Landis' sample.

Jose Maria Buxeda, Landis' attorney, contests the detection method via IRMS. "It's not reliable," he told French L'Equipe. "Most laboratories do not use it. In fact, the laboratory of Chatenay-Malabry must be the only one still using it."

In the same edition of the paper, however, Christiane Ayotte, director of an anti-doping laboratory in Montreal, Canada, disagrees. "We use the method regularly," she said. "Moreover, more than half of the WADA-accredited labs perform it successfully. I'd even say that an IRMS which gives a synthetic result is very hard to contest. It's not a method that anyone can apply but the LNDD (Laboratoire de Chatenay-Malabry) has totally proven itself in this domain."

It has been pointed out that Landis' thyroid problems, the treatment of his inflamed hip with corticosteroids, as well as drinking alcohol on the night prior to stage 17, could be factors which could have affected his testosterone levels.

"As soon as an athlete is controlled positive for testosterone, the same old stories come up," Ayotte continued. "The increase, even if natural, of the ratio testosterone/epitestosterone cannot, in any case, be explained by taking thyroid hormones or corticosteroids. Alcohol can in fact influence it, but only with women, and only for three or four hours."

Take it for what it's worth.

[Happy Pancake 6]

B sample came back and confirmed the original test.

Way to go Landis!

What a shame.

[CopenhagenWing 38]

I can't remember a doping case where the B sample had a different result than the A.

Courts are next. Somehow Landis is going to convince people that the synthetic testoterone is indeed formed in his body.

Edited August 6, 2006 by CopenhagenWing

[timothy1997 0]

Landis should just admit that he cheated to gain an advantage. I would have tons more respect for him then his "another theory" approach. The Landis ship has sunk and by admitting his mistakes is only way to quickly recover.

[CopenhagenWing 38]

While it would be refreshing to see an athlete own up to doping, there is really no quick recovery for Landis, at least not in terms of his cycling career.

If guilty, he'll be banned from 2 to 4 years from competition, at which point he'll be 34 years old with a replacement hip. And he'll still need to find a team willing to sign the 1st TdF winner in history stripped of his title for doping.

[Aussie_Wing 354]

I've said it before and I'll say it again, Cycling is a farce.

[CopenhagenWing 38]

Then so is football, athletics, swimming, hockey etc.

If you don't like cycling, stop watching it.

I'll continue being a fan. I know there are dopers in the peloton. That said, it's still a great spectacle to watch.

[haroldsnepsts 4,826]

It's hard not to think the peloton is full of dopers. So disappointing.

The thing that irks me though, is that cycling isn't helping itself by the way it handles the tests. It's gone from trying to clean up cycling to becoming a witchhunt.

I'm not saying Landis is innocent. At this point I find it hard to believe anyone in cycling is clean. But one, it doesn't make sense that he would take a massive amount of testosterone that one day. He was tested several other times during the race and didn't turn out positive. I can't figure that one out.

Secondly, the way the lab and the UCI and pretty much everyone involved handled the situation is so unprofessional and unethical it's unbelievable. The lab can't follow it's own protocols and ethical guidelines. It's also worth mention that this is the same lab that violated pretty much every ethical guideline there was in alleging that they had a Lance Armstrong sample from 1999 that they now tested positive for EPO.

Plus the director of the Tour and our buddy Dick Pound are shooting off their mouth before Landis has even seen the results of the test from the lab. He found out his B sample was positive by reading it in the press.

So guilty or innocent, it puts the athlete in the ridiculous position of having to defend themselves in the media to charges they themselves have not even seen. Landis was suspended from his team before even seeing the test results. He was fired before he has even had a chance to respond to the charges (other than in the press). Whereas when the sprinter Gatlin tested positive, they followed the guidelines laid out for testing and the process continued quietly until there was a confirmed result. He tested positive in April, and we weren't hearing about it until recently.

I still love cycling and the sport definitely needs cleaning up, but the way they handle these cases on the presumption of guilt is doing even more damage to the sport.

Then so is football, athletics, swimming, hockey etc.

If you don't like cycling, stop watching it.

Exactly.

Imagine if they drug tested baseball players after they hit a homerun. I think Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa chasing the homerun record would've been a tad different. Cycling's reputation is taking a huge hit from this scandal, but it's because they are actually trying to clean up the sport instead of ignoring the problem.

[CopenhagenWing 38]

It's hard not to think the peloton is full of dopers. So disappointing.

Unfortunately, as long as there's fame and fortune to gain, some people will do whatever it takes to win.

I'm not saying Landis is innocent. At this point I find it hard to believe anyone in cycling is clean. But one, it doesn't make sense that he would take a massive amount of testosterone that one day. He was tested several other times during the race and didn't turn out positive. I can't figure that one out.

I read a little blurb on Cyclingnews the other day saying that a red masking powder had been found in the ongoing "Puerto" doping investigation in Spain. Allegedly, riders can rub the powder in their hands and deposit it in a urine sample if tested. Don't know if this is true.

I still love cycling and the sport definitely needs cleaning up, but the way they handle these cases on the presumption of guilt is doing even more damage to the sport.

I was infuriated that Ivan Basso, Jan Ullrich and a bunch of other riders were suspended before the Tour for alleged doping (again the Puerto case) . The evidence I've read about up until now is very circumstantial in many cases. And a lot of riders initially implicated have since been cleared.

[haroldsnepsts 4,826]

Unfortunately, as long as there's fame and fortune to gain, some people will do whatever it takes to win.

I read a little blurb on Cyclingnews the other day saying that a red masking powder had been found in the ongoing "Puerto" doping investigation in Spain. Allegedly, riders can rub the powder in their hands and deposit it in a urine sample if tested. Don't know if this is true.

I saw that too. But wouldn't people start to notice if all the cyclists had red powder on their hands when they went to take a leak?

I was infuriated that Ivan Basso, Jan Ullrich and a bunch of other riders were suspended before the Tour for alleged doping (again the Puerto case) . The evidence I've read about up until now is very circumstantial in many cases. And a lot of riders initially implicated have since been cleared.

Yeah, I feel bad for Jan. even beyond this latest scandal, he is clearly one of the most talented cyclists in the world. He just can't quite seem to get it all together to win the Tour again. To win the tour when you're that young, then finish 2nd five times, has to be painful.

and with Basso and Ulrich out of the race, Landis's win already would've had an asterisk next to it, even before he was busted.

I think it's B.S. the way most teams act when a rider is busted for doping. Immediately firing them for breaking their ethic policy, or whatever reason they can come up with. If a cyclist is doping, you know damn well that there are plenty of people who work for that team that are aware of and possibly encourage it.

They can't just punish the rider. If they want it to stop, they've got to start penalizing people up the chain of command. The director sportif, team manager, etc.

[CopenhagenWing 38]

I think it's B.S. the way most teams act when a rider is busted for doping. Immediately firing them for breaking their ethic policy, or whatever reason they can come up with. If a cyclist is doping, you know damn well that there are plenty of people who work for that team that are aware of and possibly encourage it.

They can't just punish the rider. If they want it to stop, they've got to start penalizing people up the chain of command. The director sportif, team manager, etc.

Sure, it's BS. But they're distancing themselves in order to not lose their sponsors. Sacrifice one guy for the good of his teammates, mechanics, soigneurs etc.

IMO, the root of the problem in cycling is that it's a "good old boy" sport. Most team owners and directors are old pros themselves. Their habits, both good and bad, trickle down from one generation of riders to the next.

[Cruiser008 37]

The latest news is that Landis's father-in-law committed suicide.

Man cycling is like the WWE without the entertainment.... I don't know if it's more saddening or pathetic.