Monday Roundup

FloydLandis.com has video of the Baker presentation on box.net, which is mirrored for easy access in various formats at archive.org for streaming and download. The streams and other mp4s look like crap, so download the Quicktime .mov (66m). Also at Missing Saddle who did the video (yay!).

News
French TV Stade 2 has a report on the events of the week. Shows the hacker letters including the cover sheet in "bad french." There is some footage from Tucson, with snippets from Landis and Baker, and words from one of the Police.

Would a French speaker like to do a transcript? (hint, hint)

CyclingNews reports UCI's Zorzoli (of the Armstrong leak) announcing a lowering of the testosterone limit at a meeting of Italian cycling medics. This seems to be from left field -- WADA was thinking about raising it back to 6:1 from current 4:1 due to too many false positives. The report doesn't mention a number, or under what authority this is being done. [pointer by Carlton]

The Tucson Citizen has a late story about "deposed" Tour de France champion Landis starting Saturday's El Tour de Tucson:

"I'm jealous," he told the crowd of riders upon prestart introduction. "I want to be riding with you."

AFP via Velonews reports Lamour elected VP of WADA, heir-apparent to Mr. Pound. Lamour is a defender of LNDD

Guardian (UK) has Armstrong talking about some recent WADA proposals, where he likens a four-year ban after an A sample-only positive to a death sentence.

The Herald (UK) discusses the hack on page 2 of this story, in the running for Snark O' the Day, but placing third, behind...

Houston Chronicle columnist, who get around to Landis' appearance on Real Sports toward the end, but even that is #2 to...

Snark O' the Day
OHMY News International (OMNI), a Danish site, talks about the forthcoming Jesper Skibby tell-all book, and tosses in this beauty, (courtesy emailer Gene):

This year's Tour de France winner, Floyd Landis, disgracefully lost his victory on doping suspicions. Ironically, as is widely agreed, Landis only won that victory because the two major names, Jan Ullrich and Ivan Basso, were excluded a few days before the race start based on doping suspicions.

Comment from chris below notes that maybe they got some feedback, and gene takes the credit, as it now reads:

"This year's Tour de France winner, Floyd Landis, had his victory questioned on doping suspicions. Ironically, as could be argued, Landis only won that victory because the two major names, Jan Ullrich and Ivan Basso, were excluded a few days before the race start based on doping suspicions.(*)

(*) This paragraph has been edited for clarity. --Ed."

(Not placing is another "If I Did it" from St Paul Pioneer Press.)

Blogs
Rant thinks about contamination and repeatability, and in another article, talks about the testosterone threshlold.

Biking Bis covers el Tour appearance, and even lists the winner, who is probably feeling slighted. Congrats to Michael Grabinger, who covered the 109 miles in 4:15.

Marc Petrine has another view of el Tour, with this observation:

Floyd Landis was at the start line. Not to race but just to make an appearance. I wonder what he gets for an appearance fee now? Probably less that he used to. There were mostly cheers for him but more than a few jeers and boos.

Naomi meets Landis on the plane; Tricia tells her el Tour story.

Moscaline snarks, then throws up hands; Tom misses his free album downloads and thinks Landis walks. I'm not sure I like the connection.
GeneWickerJr revisits after last looking in July, and is wondering about the lab.
Squishy compares his power to Landis, and is impressed.
RedBurroRacing gives TBV a plug.

VeloGal reads the slide show, is appalled, and advises emailing people to complain.

Unruly Duckling says , Vindicated? Not Quite Yet!

This individual mistake doesn't necessarily mean that the sample wasn't his, and it doesn't explain why the original sample tested so high for testosterone. However, it does introduce an element of doubt into the integrity of the testing process.

LaFlammeRouge, a French blog (machine translated) we have referenced before, runs over the events of the week with a different slant far more skeptical of the Landis side, but not wholly unreasonable. What's really worth the click are the comments, featuring the "gangsters" Armstrong and Landis, the last of which concludes:

So tomorrow your life was dependent on one test to Testosterone, would trust Floyd Landis and with its clicks of gangster doctor and lawyer where with a worthy person like Prof Jacques de Ceauriz, who like described so cynically Rafael, spends his time to branloter of the samples of urines whereas the experts of Landis branlotent the media.

Forums
DPF may be having a breather after a tense week. There was another announced departure by an interesting newcomer, but moderates are stepping up:

I think those that already have their mind made up are the ones who are going to be outspoken. I think on balance the board as a whole is quite impartial, but the unsure population, the one that is keen to give the benefit of doubt in both directions, is never going to be strident. Like I said in another thread, conviction or absolute faith is an overrated commodity, yet those who possess it will have their voices heard most loudly.

Meta
One of the things we didn't hear out of Tucson was the startup of a Landis Defense Fund, which had seemed like something that may have been coming. Maybe Daddy Warbucks stopped by.

Another thing we didn't get was Landis on "The National", on the CBC. Perhaps bumped by an investigation into how the Grey Cup got broken. Really. When getting handed around in the Post CFL-"Superbowl" celebration, it got busted. Kelly Bates, the guilty party, needs to watch out for Mr. Pound.

There was an expected blip in blog mentions of Landis in the last week, as shown by this chart you get on a technorati search:
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