Sleepy Saturday

CURRENT STATUS REVIEW and KEY REFERENCES have minor updates.

News
Unless USADA announces the Review Board decision, I don't expect much to happen today.

Floyd in Madrid, meeting with Phonaks on Sunday, attorneys on Monday, reports Velonews. He's been seen in nightspots having a good time, perhaps training for more T/E tests. Phonaks are all bummed since most are out of a job Sunday night. There's a suggestion they won't be happy to see him. We'd last heard that he was going to see the team on Wednesday, so there are some slightly inconsistent stories floating around.

Revisiting the WADA Press Audience
If you listen to the audio of the WADA call shared by BikeBiz, you find that BB's Carlton Reid was the ONLY member of the cycling press present on the call, and about the only reporter who asked interesting questions. The answers to his questions formed the heart of the mainstream media (MSM) stories. Heh.

Where was the rest of the cycling press? Are MSM reporters sheep? Can the Pope make ill considered comments despite official infallibility?

Maybe I should get on the next call and ask some questions of my own. Let's start with tracking AAFs vs. A and Bs, Cases, and Sanctions. Then we can get into Quarterly Proficiency Testing (described in the ISL) results for various labs including LNDD. It would be revealing to know how many EPO and IRMS tests (A and B) have been done, by lab, both in proficiency and production testing, and how many positives have been found in those tests. (The EPO and IRMS tests are called out as "specialist" methods in the AAF forms that need to be identified.)

WADA has these statistics, but doesn't make them available. Maybe they haven't been asked before. Ditto USADA.

Elsewhere...
Ha, ha, not. Wait for the movie with the LNDD demolition scene.

Blogs
The Hearing, as performed by Monty Python, at Rant.

Forums
At Topix, we get calculated values of absolute T and E measurements in the range 40/3.6 to 80/7.2.

Also at Topix, some questions about where the AAFs were for Landis's cortisone. If he was tested 8 times, shouldn't it have been detected? If it was there, shouldn't it be in the S17 test, where it is not reported? Or is the cortisone test broken, or what?

Further on Topix, taunts and challenges have resulted in revealing some additional facts and references.

We deduce that Landis was tested at least after stages 11, 12, 15, 19, 20 when he held the yellow, and after winning S17, accounting for 6 of the 8 reported tests. We don't know exactly when the other two 'random' tests were conducted.

We also deduce that Landis had probably had either two or three cortisone shots, with at least one being 'pre-tour'. We haven't determined the exact number or dates.

We also gain reference information on T testing here, which shows us the expected 'normal' ranges of testosterone.

I'll now add this to the status and reference pages.

[updated 22:03]