Sunday Roundup

News:
CyclingNews readers poll for Male Rider of the Year puts Landis #4, behind Bettini, Valverde, and Vinokourav, and ahead of that whiner Boonen.

The New York Daily News carries a short snarkworthy blurb noting the formation of the FFF:

These may be the same people who belong to the Flat Earth Society, the Eight-Track Appreciation Club and the Carbon Paper Boosters: Supporters of tainted Tour de France winner Floyd Landis have set up a fund to help the American clear his name of doping charges.

Blogs
Male Pattern Fitness gives a positive review to the NYT Magazine piece, titling the post, "A Dick for All Seasons." It requires great will power to avoid plays on Mr. Pound's name.

Sports News mentions the FFF without much comment (though ruined reputations are discussed briefly.)

Rant writes an excellent synopsis of the recent "Cycle of Denial" CBC piece, and questions the lead reporter's objectivity:

And CBC blows it when reporting the specifics of Floyd’s testosterone tests, too. Instead of saying he had a higher than “normal” ratio, they repeated the canard that Floyd had “a high level of testosterone” in his system. And they repeat it not once, but twice. The second time in the closing minutes of the show.

Now, in the early days of the story, before the data became public, reporting such information might be excusable (not by me, I believe they should check their facts first, regardless — but I’m hardcore on that issue). Given that the data has been in the public domain now for two months, there’s really no excuse for getting that wrong.

The CBC reporter also betrays a bit of bias when interviewing Dick Pound, by asking Pound about “the nabbing of Landis.” Almost makes it sound like he was a criminal caught in the act of robbing a bank. But, of course, that’s not what happened.

Perhaps even more interesting is that it drew a long comment by Betsy Andreu presenting additional data to corroborate the story as they testified, including hearsay by... Greg Lemond. She concludes:

NPR and LA Times had the most extensive unbiased coverage based on facts. In my opinion, CBC followed suit. It would have been nice had CBC reported the above but they didn’t. If Lance would make every shred of evidence which was presented in this case against SCA Promotions available to the public, it would benefit those of us who told the truth.

Very busily, Rant also writes about the NYT Magazine piece. He suspect it reveals Mr. Pound himself to be one of the sources of the early leaks, and finds the rest of it pretty fair and balanced, though he thinks pro-Pound folks will find it a hit piece.

Cycling Logue is a Pollyanna and proud to be one. Nice perspective on some of cycling's problems over the past few years with a small mention of the Landis affair.

VeloGal has been bored with the Landis coverage, however she couldn't resist comment on the NYT Magazine article about Mr. Pound:

I am telling you that Dick Pound is a classic study in Narcissistic Personality Disorder, and if I were still a Teaching Assistant, I would use him as a test case. His sense of entitlement, his arrogance, his ruthless power-grabbing, and his retaliation, vengeance and anger are classic. And how impressed he is with his own brilliance and rigid rightness. Dick Pound is never wrong... he wouldn’t even consider that possibility.

Jack's Sports Humor considers Landis and Gatlin as hosts for "The View" to dispell suggestions they have excess testosterone.

Forums
At Topix, we're having an "I am Spartacus" moment, as a host of people have adopted the name "Will" to the frustration of resident Landis hater Will from MD. Some of the alternative personalities argue just as well, in the same style, making the forum amusing again, if no more enlightening than it's been for a long time.

At DPF, Mr. Pound and the NYT article have been getting discussed in this thread. Some there think the article was a hit piece against Mr. Pound. Others think it's hard to have an accurate article that doesn't come off as a hit piece.

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