Thursday Roundup

News
The San Francisco Examiner notes that even though he has not been invited officially to participate in this year's ToC, Floyd Landis will have a presence at each stage:

There will be no trumpets to announce his arrival or a red carpet to walk out on, but defending champion Floyd Landis will still be a presence at this year’s Tour of California. He was not contacted by Tour of California organizer AEG to participate as a competitor or in an official celebratory role this year, but instead will follow the race and sign autographs as part of the lifestyle festival that is set up alongside each of the event’s eight stages.

The San Diego Union Tribune posts that Smith and Nephew (maker of the hip resurfacing device used by doctors in the Landis hip surgery last October) will use Landis in adverts IF he is cleared of doping charges. The same story appears at Scientific American.com.

SacBee.com (registration may be necessary)publishes an interesting piece on the contribution of Dr Alan Lim in transforming cycling from an art to a science, and notes FL's part in the research that led to that transformation.

The Houston Chronicle writes that even though FL will not be racing, the ToC will still be intriguing. It also summarizes some other recent Landis news.

The Eagle runs an article about a crackdown in cheating (car doping?) in NASCAR. We've previously compared attitudes and punishments about cheating in auto racing and cycling.

VeloNews has Peirero again bemoaning the lack of resolution. He's not the only one with that complaint. Letters talk dope testing.

San Diego Papers talk about advertising replacement joints direct to consumers, using Landis and Smith and Nephew as an example.


Blogs
Insurancenewsnet.com tells us about a fund raiser /concert held Saturday night Feb 10 during which Floyd Landis gave voice to the need for mesothelioma (as well as other asbestos related lung diseases) to be recognized as a National health problem needing more funding and attention. Landis was probably invited by Roger Worthington, an attorney specializing in Asbestos cases, whose activist father died last year of mesothelioma. Worthington will be hosting a fund-raising reception for the FFF on Feb 24 in Capistrano Beach.

Rant takes a while getting to it, but does an interesting peek into to the science in the Landis case, at a level suitable for the beginner, and then moves into catching dopers generally. While supportive, he's not sure the preemptive ACE/Slipstream (powered by Chipotle) approach is going to play well with the WADA patrol.

Quickrelease.tv notes that in the Landis vs Pound google rankings competition, Landis comes out on top. Carlton Reid also believes that the upcoming Landis biography "Postiively False" will easily outsell Pound's book "Inside Dope".

Smithers gives kudos to what he considers the best blog for keeping track of all things FLandis. That would be Trust but Verify.

Culture of Celebrity thinks that lies pop out of celebrity mouths as soon as their lips move, this includes the "fishy" FL who "cracked like an egg shell" on stage 16 of the TdF last year before going on to victory in stage 17. It's early but, this could go on to become "snark of the day".

Edge of the Road thinks the Fat Cyclist's contest was fixed, like Landis designing the TdF and having Prudhomme ride it. We tried to entice Floyd into entering, but he passed.

Shangrila Towers equates NASCAR, Baseball and Cycling with cheating hearts.

TheyMustBeLyingTheirLipsAreMoving used to like watching the Tour de Drugs when they were known to be all cheating.

Le Grimpeur considers doping and climbing, with passing mention of Landis as having been charged.

Bicycling's This Just In anticipates this year's Paris-Nice, sans Landis.

Falcon Blog talks up Stu and Kingsbury's head-to-head with Landis at Leadville. Taking them to be Paul Kingsbury, 92nd at 9:00 in '99, and Stu as Stuart Kroonenberg, who did 380 mi compared to 430 for his 34-38 age group winner in a 24 hour race in 2003, this might be trash talk.

Hit and Run notes the Elegant Variation post yesterday, and suggest Landis provide more pee and less book.

We get a link from Ytterligare en dagbok på nätet, but don't know what it means.

Fausports, a beginning blogger, tries to make some points about doping with Landis and Bonds examples, and comes off concerned but factually confused.

TdFBlog talks Tour of California, saying Landis is the only ProTour American missing from the start list.

Forums
At DPF, maddog2 has some interesting data about average hematocrit values at the Tour from 1998-2004.

At RBR, it's noted that the SF FFF gig conflicts head-on with a Greg Lemond event. That probably doesn't both either principal, but does present decisions for folks who like both of them. For those to whom a decision is impossible, there's also the San Jose FFF event on Weds as a possible alternative, though that conflicts with a Lemond event in Palo Alto. Decisions, decisions. There's likely to be more beer at both Landis events, if that helps.

Thought for the Day

"Whenever you read a good book, it's like the author is right there, in the room, talking to you, which is why I don't like to read good books." -jh-

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