Wednesday Roundup
Quote of the Day
post 1: Fairness in the context of athletic competition doesn't mean everyone has an equal chance of winning,(link)[post 2 deletes the remainder in quotation:] it means that the person with the best genetic engine in terms of that particular sport is the most likely to win.
post 2: Yes it does.
post 3: You sound like you grew up in a commune where the games were all non-competitive things like bouncing on a parachute. Athletics is not about everyone having an equal chance, no matter what they told you between bong hits while sitting around the campfire.
News
SI.Com reports things Landis should be thankful for this Thanskgiving....
VeloNews continues its good interview with Delgado, this time into doping. He talks a lot of sense. At end, he's vaguely supportive of Peirero without overtly hitting at Landis.
CyclingNews covers the HBO interview. From their summary:
Gumbel asked questions in a line that seemed to refer to more recent stories about systematic doping in cycling. "Have you ever seen or been recruited to take performance enhancing drugs?" asked Gumbel with Landis answering simply, "No."Gumbel asked if Landis had ever seen anyone taking performance enhancing drugs. "I have to be careful not to believe [other] rumors I hear. I've heard speculation of certain people doing certain things, but I wouldn't be able to demonstrate that. What I have actually physically seen is nothing. What you are insinuating is that everybody is doing it and only a few are getting caught - that is not the case. I haven't felt pressure to take anything, but I have thought about... at times when I was down and not racing well, I have thought to myself, 'I wonder if the other guys are doing it and if I should look into it.' That has crossed my mind."
Blogs
Racejunkie ruminates about Landis, and more.....
LeMond saying he finally quit after realizing after years of self-doubt that EPO was giving everybody else a 30% performance increase he couldn't match playing fair, and that if a moral guy like Floyd Landis is really positive, there's basically no hope for anybody else in the peloton.a/k/a, the "everyone faster than me is doping" (EFTMID) rationalization. RaceJunkie has more to say, snarking at all sides with equal glee.
du Nord reports Landis loses again, in Sports Illustrated's "Turkey of the Year", won by Zinedine Zidane. Haven't seen this SI story yet to know if Landis is mentioned, or if du Nord is snarking alone.
Comments by Jeff to this post review the HBO appearance, agreeing it was fair, and wanting to strangle Landis for his "I'll say" verbal tic. A longer summary appeared on comments to yesterday's roundup by ORG agree it was mostly fair, that Landis answered some questions weakly, and that Mr. Pound pontificated.
Rant wonders how accurate tests ought to be, and the cost of mistakes. Steve of Peeves offers a good comment on multiplicative accuracy as why eliminating the B sample test is a bad idea, and an argument for use of a second lab.
"Local Celebrity" give Landis a boob-of-the-year Turkey.
French Media and Economic Intellegence (translated) looks at the "hack" as reported by Stade 2, and is fascinated by the appearance of Legorjus in the report.
PropheticSports runs the numbers. About what? This means something, it's important!
Forums
rec.bicycles.racing has some tasteless threads started by some of the usual bomb-throwers, here and here.
A new site for the crowd that was on the BBC Forum, and they evaluate the case very differently than the people on DPF.
[end]
4 comments:
On Real Sports last night, the last thing that was said that was if Floyd loses this battle, he's retiring from cycling and going on with his life.
Found that interesting.
The worst thing that he says is when he starts a sentence off with, "I'll say....". It makes it seem as if he is saying something that is not true. "I'll say I haven't been pressured to take drugs" It makes it seem like he has, but is covering for someone.
It's one major difference between him and Lance. Lance has always been vehemently denying PED use. He is forceful to a fault about it. When you compare this with Floyd's comment's - it makes it seem as if Floyd is being very wishy washy....
[concerning the above comment]
Jeff,
Many people have verbal "tics"; some people say "like" every few words. Some people say "you know" or "y'know what I'm sayin'". When I agree with someone, I often say "I'll bet," but that doesn't make me a gambler.
In regards to Lance's "forceful" denials, in comparison to Floyd's: Floyd faces a much different and much more hostile public than Lance ever did. Lance faced adversity, but wasn't convicted and sentenced in the court of opinion to the degree Floyd has been.
It's difficult to offer a "forceful" denial of guilt when the people who are actually listening probably have their minds made up already.
Brief comic interlude here.
(1) The machine translation of the French Media & Economic Intelligence is a whole lot more interesting than the original post was, so I'd advise everyone to read it rather than the original French. (2) And whaddya say about the major science in PropheticSports? That site's got figures even the LNDD hasnt considered!
Marc
Jeff concerning your comment on Floyd's way of stating things in the interview..Lance had a lot of experience talking to the press, and was more comfortable with it. Floyd hit it big with the media, and talked about racing, then BAM! He's being hunted down like an international crime boss. He didn't get the time to develop a comfort zone with press that is not friendly, or asks him questions he has answered a million times. Even if the answer is "I don't know". I wish he could express himself in front of those cameras the way he does in writing. But man, I wouldn't be comfortable in front of those cameras. Remember the first interview, Floyd and Amber had on CBS (I think), they looked like deer caught in the headlights. And I can't blame them a bit. But, I know, we want him to come off the best, in these interviews.
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