Friday Roundup
News
Velonew's Foaming Rant fromPatrick O'Grady includes this illustration that is too precious to skip, despite the minimal Landis content:
Claimer: TBV has two sons that have looked remarkably like that picture during parts of their childhoods. That means he too has had access to PED inhalants, and should be DQ-ed from the blogosphere.
The San Diego Union Tribune's story about Sarah Hammer and the sponsorship and support of Dr Brent Kay (FL's physician, friend, and founder of the OUCH sports medicine clinic) is inspiring on many levels.
The Sydney Morning Herald prints a mishmash of the past year's sports stories (just a tad late?) and may just be in line for the coveted "snark 'o' the day" award :
You said what?
Tour de France "winner" Floyd Landis on failing a drug test with enough testosterone in him to suggest he had been watching Rocky movies for three weeks solid: "I would like to be assumed innocent until proven guilty, since that's the way we do things in America…" Technically, he may be roughly correct, as Guantanamo Bay is not actually in America.
Yahoo Sports posts an AFP story noting that cycling may be finished as an Olympic sport, due to OP and the Landis case:
"If we continue like this, we run the risk in four or eight years' time of no longer being an Olympic sport," UCI president Pat McQuaid said in an interview with the German newspaper Die Welt Friday.
"If the International Olympic Committee had to comment on our Olympic status after the Floyd Landis and Fuentes affairs, I don't even want to think what it would have decided."
Cyclingnews' Friday Mailbag has a variety of letters about the FFF, Dick Pound, and Phil Liggett.
BBC Sport covers yesterday's Pereiro story from Le Monde and also mentions the Landis AFLD hearing in Feb.
Sportinglife.com UK says Pereiro is on a collision course, and mentions the upcoming Landis hearing as well.
Blogs
Rant notes that Oscar Speaks (and he isn't talking about the Grouch).
Dugard says the worm has turned, indeed:
Fast forward through all the stuff that has happened since: drug tests, denials, accusations, and Pereiro's petulant demands that Landis hand over the title (hey, if I won the Tour de France, there's no way on earth I'd simply abdicate my throne, especially to a guy I let back into the race so I could rest my legs). Through it all, I could sense Pereiro's frustration. He will never ever come close to winning the Tour de France again, as long as he lives. Even by default, being crowned Tour champ would make his whole life. And now this. The guy who's been calling Landis a cheat has been doping all along, with the implied consent of Tour officials. Now that the Tour realizes Landis won't be a sacrificial lamb, and that sponsors won't pony up their millions without proof that the Tour is whistle clean, these disclosures are particularly titillating
Just Riding Along thinks that FL is a "rock star".
Deadspin piles on, noting they are all blood doping. Apparently.
Steroid Nation advises Oscar to answer mail from The Authorities more promptly, under the title, "Just Call off the Tour de France"
Web
British Cycling publishes a New Year's letter from McQuaid, which reflects how political things are becoming. He'll talk to any Federation president, but not a group of them.
Quote of the Day
If when you die you get a choice between pie heaven and regular heaven, choose pie heaven. It might be a trick but if not, mmmboy
- Jack Handey-
3 comments:
I'd also like to point out one other thing about the huge number of TUEs in the pro-peleton. These are guys that are pushing their cardiovascular system to its very limit day in and day out. That really can cause problems.
For example, I know personally that I didn't have any problem with allergies except for maybe one week in the spring and one week in the fall when things were really bad. But when I started training heavily and actually getting in shape my exposure to the allergens went up so substantially that it resulted in a perpetually runny nose and a persistent cough brought on by post nasal drip. It is reasonably likely that the prescription medication that my Dr gave me that finally fixed the problem is a controlled substance and that I am a doper. I honestly haven't checked the stuff that finally solved my problem. I do know that before we found this one that worked, we tried several medications that included bronchial dilators. I'm not sure if the exact steroid that I use is on the prohibited list or not.
If my livelihood and reputation depended on it, I most certainly would carefully check it out and seek a TUE if necessary. However, at my level of competition, I've never been given a drug test and I think it is highly unlikely that anyone ever will. (You have to win races before anyone really cares.)
Here is a RANT I previously posted in a forum earlier.
http://www.txbra.org/forum3/index.asp?page=loader&forumID=23&messageID=27716
Like Worthless Cartman said in a previous post, "more fun at the French goat rodeo." It really is a circus or goat rodeo if you will. The French are single handedly trying to ruin the sport. I hope the pro cyclist boycott the TDF this year, and next year, and the next and next and next and next. They have taken, arguably the best Tour in the world and they are trying their best to flushed its reputation down the toilet along with all cyclists.
USCF better be paying close attention to the dysfunction of the "anti-doping police." USCF should be watching our boys backs in the pro ranks, or any cyclist that may be subjected to Doping controls. But they don't appear to be, instead they are dead in their tracks like a dear in the headlights. VENGA! VENGA! VENGA! you bureaucratic WEENIES! If I had a vote in UCI, I'd vote to withdraw from the Olympic sports arena and its WADA BULL S@#% I don't see the payoff to be a Olympic sport if the governing anti-doping organizations and their associative national bodies can not come up with an anti-doping process and controls that are uniform between all labs, follow due process or even preform a hearing in a timely fashion. WADA IS A JOKE!!!!! Isn't it Sager?! What does WADA and its minions need that they don't have and appears they never will? INTEGRITY, OBJECTIVITY, CONFIDENTIALITY, FIDUCIARY DUTY (to the sports and Athletes), PROFESSIONALISM and last but not least COMPETENCE!!!
If I were at USCF I'd be writing USADA to get off their A$$ and stop dragging their feet just because they have a weak case against Landis they can't win. Because they have dragged their feet, the French will try Landis in a back room and convict him in this kangaroo court because he is not French, he will not roll over and he has publicly called them out to be the fraud that they are.
Duke
This is guaranteed to make you laugh, or at least smile hard:
www.thedickpound.com
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