Saturday Roundup

News
Tha Alameda Newspaper Group went to a CycleOps event in SF last night, and the same story shows up in various forms in several of their publications. All focus on the on the BHR Landis received to repair his deteriorating hip in September and how it has improved the quality of his life. This longest version has more comments on the current situation inside his doping case, and whether or not he'll race again any time soon:

But whether Landis will ever face a race again is in question.

The U.S. Anti-Doping Agency hearing in May will determine if Landis is suspended for two years from competitive racing for using performance-enhancing drugs during the 2006 Tour de France, and will be disqualified from the race retroactively and hence stripped of his title. The hearing is expected to last one to two weeks.

A panel of three independent arbitrators will then consider the evidence and return a decision, likely by mid- to late June, said Michael Hensen, a spokesman for Landis.

If they rule in his favor, the World Anti-Doping Agency may appeal, which will still block him from racing, as Landis said no professional biking team is permitted to hire a rider under investigation for using performance-enhancing drugs.

And if the arbiters rule against him, Landis is doubtful he'll appeal the decision.

"I don't think I'll have the money to appeal it," Landis said.

Landis said he's confident in the facts of his case, but is concerned that the procedures for the hearing will lead to an unfair outcome.

"I know I didn't do it," he said of the doping allegations. "Second, (my) case is very strong. My only concern is the process" of the proceedings, he said.

A shorter version has pictures of Landis smiling on the CycleOps trainer, wearing CycleOps kit, and running a bunch of happy spinners into the ground.



The Age.com's Greg Baum is wringing his hands over the Ian Thorpe controversy as well as the loss of innocence in sport. He also manages to get Floyd Landis' current situation incredibly wrong , sigh:

Floyd Landis, last year's tour winnner, fared worse: he was stripped of his title the next day upon returning a positive drug test.

Blogs
Recovox News tells us that NO ONE could keep up with Floyd Landis' power output Friday night in San Francisco. He posts some great pics to prove how hard everyone was working.



Heather and Dave really enjoyed spinning with Floyd Landis last night in San Francisco. They have a slideshow of additional pictures; Landis appears to be enjoying his Anchor Steam, the local brew, probably before the sweaty exertion shown above.

PelotonJim feels as though he has passed through a time warp and it's last July again, only the name he is reading is Ian Thorpe instead of Floyd Landis:

Ian, you should give Floyd a call. I’m sure he will welcome you to hell. Bad enough that this past week saw most of your records broken, now you need to endure this. For all of you, forgive me if I don’t readily jump on a story broken by L’Equipe.

Pommi found a new video, mostly from the FFF San Jose Town Hall, about the purpose of the FFF, and some clips of Landis around the ToC. He also discusses the dustup at DPF surrounding the banning of gadfly chris_t.

The final call tomorrow...

Cindy at Knitting Park still remembers being falsely accused of stealing candy in second grade, and sees it happening with Landis too. We get a plug.

Velochimp reports the case has been dropped, with Mr. Pound's apologies. Could be a joke, we'll wait for verification.

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