Wednesday Roundup

News
The Herald Sun tells us about this year's presentation to the stars of the AFL ( Australian Football League) in which the Floyd Landis situation was harshly used as a cautionary tale:

In a rare insight into the league's war on drugs, the AFL's medical heavy-hitters and a hard-nosed cop ran selected journalists through a presentation shown to every player in recent months.

It was a serious message.

Page one of the power-point presentation, steered by AFL medicos Dr Peter Harcourt and Dr Harry Unglik, featured disgraced American cyclist Floyd Landis.

The graphic talked about the shame heaped on cycling in the wake of last year's Tour De France controversy.

"Another Tour, another drug scandal," it read.

There is a warning that AFL tests are "state of the art . . . the most sensitive available".

"We're clipping at the heels of people like this (Landis)," the presentation goes on.

There follows other examples akin to movies shown to high schoolers with gruesome results of traffic accidents as a warning. "Signal 30, Signal 30"...

Sports Illustrated on Campus writes in a blurb:

There's good news for collegiate bike racing fans who feel that Indiana's Little 500 doesn't involve enough alcohol. This weekend Rice University will be holding its 51st annual Beer Bike. The competition involves teams of bikers racing around a track, with the added rule that designated chuggers must chug beers before their team's bikers are allowed to start. This year's race will go on despite the constant warnings from Floyd Landis that combining drinking and bike riding will lead to positive steroid tests.

Snark O' the Day
The Central PA Gazelle posts a "snark of the week" candidate in a spoof of the wiki defense. Just don't try the Power Punch please!

Blogs
Paige Dunn reports on some Landis appearances in San Francisco Friday and Saturday, tickets to Q&A still on sale.

Spinnin Wheel is able to enjoy his her DVD set of the 2006 Tour.

Rant asks where the 18.5 minutes have gone and uses this Watergate reference to point to important data needed but thus far deined the Landis team by USADA and the LNDD:

But going back to the data, it’s incumbent on USADA and LNDD to provide the data in order to establish whether or not the lab’s claims of a positive doping test are correct. They can’t just hide the data and hope that the case will go away. And if they can’t — or won’t — produce the data, then the arbitration panel should do the right thing and throw out the case on the grounds that the lab has not sufficiently proved their claims of a positive test. To do otherwise will show the world that anti-doping cases aren’t about following and enforcing the rules, they’re about punishing the unfortunate souls accused of doping by our current witchfinder generals.

One has to wonder just who plays the part of Rose Mary Woods in this current scenario.


Things I think About read with interest "Where are the Data Files?" and thinks the whole thing is a full blown circus. He wonders just how many "technicalities" one case needs to achieve a dismissal?

FLITM is dancing in the streets to announce the return of the Free Floyd T shirts at cafepress. The dude abides!

Durham in Wonderland cites the Landis case as an example of how badly handled investigations can be, and compares this debacle to the Duke rape case.

North Star Mental Fitness blog appreciates Floyd Landis' secrets for success,which boil down to just plain old fashioned hard work. These are Floyd's secrets for making successful changes in your life:

1. Taking care of you and achieving your goal has to be a priority. Every day you must have a commitment to do what is necessary to reach your goal.

2. Taking care of you and achieving your goal must be motivated by what you want for yourself. You must be motivated by what you want for yourself and not because you feel you have to or should.

3. You must work harder than you normally work on achieving success and more than most people would work to be successful. Pushing yourself and working hard is the secret of success.

3Coach.be isn't sure about the Landis case, but takes some inspiration in his hip work (machine translation):

Since a fall some years suffered had driven round Floyd Landis in the peleton with “kapotte” hip. After its touroverwinning of 2006 - or he who that tour now did win? - Floyd under the knife went and got an art hip. At present weet I not much concerning the sport-loving verderzetting of its professional wielercarriere, but that he on the bicycle sits and is train, is certain. Marco, 3coach.be duatleet undergo now by the end of April a similar intervention. After many years' with pain to have trained, there also an end comes to its current sport-loving career for Marco. Much sterkte, and hopelijk returns you with your new hip, this time without pain and can we together work for the road to Kasterlee!

Thought for the Day

A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, design a building, write a sonnet, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, solve equations, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.
--- Robert Heinlein---

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