Friday, February 02, 2007

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-



8 comments:

Anonymous said...

I liken the recent speculation of the hearing date to nothing more than rumor. If I remember right it started when someone mentioned in the press that USADA would have their "next meeting in March." Which was then automatically assumed by the press that was when the Landis hearing would take place, so it got published and repeated multiple times and rumor became the perceived reality.

If anything I think they may set the date in the march meeting.

Atown, Tx.

Unknown said...

So...Lelangue is playing the political card. NO SUPPORT FOR LANDIS, a guy on your team.

What an Ass. He's playing the CYA game.

Anonymous said...

Yeah, Lalangue from the get go, has acted like Floyd, murdered someone right there on the Champs de lezee(sorry to the french)! Considering where he came from, before Phonak and the fact he wants to stay employed, I think the IOC offered him a job, what else do we expect from him?
Andy Rhis has moved on, started a new domestic team in the US and hasn't slammed Floyd directly. He's kept his name out of it, he expressed dissapointment, but that didn't turn him off to cycling.

Unknown said...

What bugs me the most is that these guys (riders) are heros until something bad happens - then they are hot potatoes? There's no support from anyone and then they get blasted for trying to protect themselves.

The USADA sure doesn't care about Landis. They aren't trying to find the truth, if they were, we'd hear more from them. And WHO DO THEY REPRESENT???

Anonymous said...

SO, how do you feel NOW TBV? A few weeks ago when Lelangue 'harranged' Floyd in that other interview, you went easy on him, as if maybe he was misinterpreted.

Whadya thinkin' NOW?

AS I said then, I have NO RESPECT for John Lelangue. He's a hypocritical piece of crap desperately trying to distance himself from Floyd, to save his OWN ASS, no matter that Floyd is innocent. He DISGUSTS ME.


susie b

DBrower said...

I'm a forgiving sweetheart, just ask anybody who knows me. I'm not willing to hang Lelangue out to dry yet, because I don't know when that interview was done -- it might have been the same time as the other one and just held back till now. And we do know he is obliged by position to suck up to the old-boy-network. I think he's a feather in the wind, and would be the first to apologize and recant everything bad he said should the weather change.

He is of little consequence.

TBV

Anonymous said...

TBV-
Angels should never fly so close to the ground...you may get hurt.

susie b

Anonymous said...

TBV,

Yes, I considered briefly abandoning my project (stage 16). But Floyd didn't and doesn't give up, and after watching stage 17, neither do I. I'm going to finish it. I'm also planning to go to Brooklyn this coming week...