Leno

Floyd was on Leno last night, mostly covered in the regular news stories, for instance Leno Grills Landis. He appeared uncomfortable to me, and grinned with a nervous laugh at some awkward spots, which is probably better than being a deer frozen in some headlights.

I got some things out that weren't in the reports. He's not promising to spend all his money (as did Hamilton) if he concludes the process isn't going to give him a chance. You could read that two ways -- if it's just not fair, or if he sees no defense that will work. He offerered that he might have gotten spiked somehow, but stopped short of claiming that is what happened. Or it might be natural, he isn't sure; and the tests are not as absolutely accurate and reliable as has been presented by their proponents. And, important notice, Maher is not his attorney.

Most interesting, while being pissed off about the leaks and procedural problems, he started to say that he had found people who would testify.... and then Jay talked over him and we didn't hear what it was. Maybe too heavy for Leno to have on the show.

In fact, the whole thing seemed kind of heavy for Leno, and plainly everyone was uncomfortable about it. Not enough jokes.

Still, going out in public and not hiding is a good thing, as long as Floyd can avoid sounding like Mr. Squirming Excuse Making Accused Doper.

As I blurbled in too much length earlier, fixating on the leaks seems like a mistake. Better to stay on the message of "I didn't do it. I'm going to try to prove the tests aren't accurate. If things are stacked so I don't have a chance to make my case, I'll take the suspension. When it's over, I'll try to win again to show people this year wasn't cheating."

If he does conclude he must have gotten spiked (raised earlier), then he's going to have to take the suspension graciously. The ProTour ethics rules are a screw deal here, and there's probably nothing to be done about that but grit teeth and come up with a very long-term training plan with a single goal.