Friday Roundup

News
ESPN.com's Bonnie DeSimone charts the latest developments in the two year long doping case of tennis player Guillermo Canas. Last week his doping sanctions were voided by the Swiss Federation Tribunal and his case is set to go back to the CAS in what is being described as "uncharted territory" No one at this time seems sure what this unprecedented action may mean. In light of the ongoing Landis case and the attention being paid to WADA and it's policies, this could have real significance:

It is the first successful appeal in the 23-year history of CAS, whose panels have considered 750 cases since 1984, according to the court's secretary general, Matthieu Reeb. The Swiss Federal Tribunal has jurisdiction over appeals because the CAS is located in Lausanne, but few athletes have gone to that court of last recourse.

"We don't know the grounds for the ruling yet," Reeb said. He said he expects the three-man panel that originally heard the case will reconvene sometime in the next couple of months.

"The sanctions could be maintained, changed or annulled" by CAS arbitrators, Reeb said. He added that any potential damages sought by Canas would likely have to be considered in a different arena, probably a civil court.

The latest twist in the Canas case comes at a time when the anti-doping adjudicatory system is being re-evaluated from within and challenged from the outside, most notably by Tour de France winner Floyd Landis, who is accused of using synthetic testosterone.

In reading further through the article it is clear that there are some similarities to the Landis, case, among them the time and money spent by the athletes in question.

Blogs
Rant is wondering IF the "Thorpinator" is being "Landisized" and if true, will Ian put it out there the way Floyd has done?

The Sports Scoop wonders if ANY recent great sporting performance can be trusted to be what it seems at face value.

PaigeDunn teases us with promises of an interview with Floyd Landis tonight after the fund raiser in which he is participating in San Francisco. We'll check back later.

Floyd Landis.com posts Floyd's 6 month hip surgery progress report, and he is very satisfied with his results:

I can describe some of the things I’ve been able to do in the past few months that would have been impossible, or downright dangerous before my BHR procedure:

• Mountain Biking – I have been getting on the trails with some frequency. Before, falling was too big a risk
• Running – Now, I’m not saying I am a runner in any sense, but since my BHR procedure I have been able to hustle through airports or chase a taxi in a way that just was impossible previously.
• Sleeping – Here is where my quality of life has gone up. I can get full, restful nights sleep without being awoken by the nagging pain in my hip that would pulse and throb in the past.

Bicycling's Boulder Report, after bemoaning airlines, talks about management of a number of teams doing the Mark McGwire-like "not talking about the past" regarding doping.

Spokes 'n' Folks gives a short report on the National Bike Summit from earlier this month and mentions that Floyd Landis was a suprize speaker.

Neil@Road gives us the pertinent details about tonight's fund raiser in San Francisco where the new CycleOps indoor power trainer will be launched through a benefit challenge between Landis and local athletes. One presumes that Floyd will not be riding the bike pictured below.




GOLF.com columnist is skeptical of drug testing in that sport, largely because of Mr. Pound, citing his Landis sliming as an example of what you would not want to see. Link from Kyle,rescued from the spam bin.

Gibbies Bioscience World is just catching up with the science of the Landis case, and thinks that injecting testosterone might be a stupid thing to do. He also thinks that the whole case is a total distraction from what was an amazing performance on Floyd's part.

Jessie Bartholomew promises a belated writeup of the January Power Camp that he helped run. If he wants, he can point to the Nessy Burger Memorial.

Forums
DPF is still wrestling with the Mass Discrimination in the IRMS. OMJ is not sold there is excess stuff in the F3 fraction, but even he is getting frustrated with the absence of data that would settle it one way or another. Tom Fine begins a thread to collect ranting about the absence of data to leave the science thread to science.

Thought for the Day

" He who does not heed the call of his own passions will inevitably end up somewhere he did not intend to go."