Friday Roundup

News
The San Diego Union-Tribune picks up on the Lamour story which calls for a delay in next week's Landis AFLD hearing, as does CBC Sports and SMH.

AFP via TurkishPress reports Jean-Francois Lamour, head of the French Sports Ministry, and tapped to replace Mr. Pound at WADA at the end of the year, saying the AFLD hearing should be postponed until after the USADA runs its course. He says this as an opinion, not an official position by the Ministry. Somehow, someone slipped in a "scheduled for March", but we no longer believe that when we see it -- it seems like something the reporter stuck in rather than something Lamour said.

The FFF issued a press release on the above, praising Lamour for his prudence and fairness. Will wonders ever cease?

USADA made a press release announcing an 8 year suspension for a second offense by cyclist Stephen Alfred. There are exogenous testosterone, T/E ratio, and hCG violations. Since 8 years is effectively a life ban for a 39 year-old, one wonders what is really going on.

BBCSport discusses the presence of the TdF in London this summer, but one small item is of interest. The story mentions that the Landis proceedings will not take place until late Spring at the earliest. This is in contrast to so many recent references to March as the tentative date of the arbitration hearings.

Cyclingnews jumps on the Belgian story that was translated here yesterday about John Le Langue's sense of being betrayed by Landis:

The former manager of the defunct Phonak team, John Lelangue, expressed his frustrations regarding the Floyd Landis affair today, saying he felt "betrayed" by the American who tested positive for testosterone in last year's Tour of France, adding "I have endured an enormous deception, a true human treason on the part of Landis."

Cyclingnews posts its letters feature with the debate about the FFF continuing. This week they pick one pro-Landis and two-con. Does this reflect what they receive, or what they chose to print?

Blogs
Cycopaths says that folks in Brooklyn are waiting with bated breath for the FFF fundraiser there at the Brooklyn Brewery on Feb 7th, and some of them look a bit suspicious.

Podium Cafe thinks that LeLangue threw Landis under the bus.


Rant compares the "delay debate" to a chess game with perhaps too much emphasis on "winning". To paraphrase an FL post on DP, the winner wins nothing, and the loser loses everything.

Later, Rant runs with a comment we made to the above, and considers the current value of time in the dispute -- and thinks it may be turning towards Landis and away from the agencies.

Steroid Nation runs with the debate about whether the Daily Peloton interview with Tygart was "softball" or not, quoting TBV, Rant, and the DPF discussion, and offers this interpretation:

There is an old saying that if you have to ask the question, you know the answer. In theory USADA should have a job that 100% of sports fan are in agreement – the elimination of dangerous performance enhancing drugs from competition. To argue against this is to argue you’re against motherhood or like kicking puppies.

Yet, the intentions of USADA are continually questioned. If you have to ask the question, you know the answer and it’s not good for USADA. The fact that Tygart often notes they have never lost a case is troubling. The Nation agrees that nothing in life is 100% and when a prosecutor that determines the ground rules is, 157 for 157 one has to take pause. Further a prosecutor that is rewarded with big wins by increases in its government funding gives its skeptics more reasons to question its intentions.

If nothing else, USADA has a credibility problem. Increases in funding comes from winning and they set the rules and they never lose.

Belgian Knee Warmers wonder why this gesture had been made by the "Landis Camp", it's still a mystery to be sure.

She Knits by the Seashore has her own symbolic crisis of confidence. Is abandoning a project she worked on while watching Morzine letting Landis down in some way?

Rural Girl tells more of her tale from Temecula, at the raceAthlete camp that overlapped the Floyd Power Camp.

Bolder in Boulder rode with Floyd at that camp too, but got a crush on Mel, according to the comments.

C10A has found an alternate career for Landis -- Ice Dancing!

Smithers, a known critic, runs with the Lelangue story.

Forums
At DPF, amifan complains that Landis has not been visibly anti-doping, and that bothers him.
Meanwhile, the discussion of the Tygart interview wanders afield into the nature of arbitration, it's relation to the courts as civil contract law.

Thought or the Day

I haven't done anything meaningful in so long, it's almost meaningful to do nothing.

-nikki giovanni-

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