Tuesday Roundup
News
The Dallas Morning News covers today's appearance at the Richardson Bike Mart with Floyd Landis.
Two new fundraising rides have been announced today in the FFF Events section. One is to be held at 9AM on Saturday April 21 in Pensacola, FLA and is called the "Smith and Nephew Ortho Ride":
Event Description:
Sign up to ride with Floyd at 9am on Saturday, April 21, starting at the parking lot at 1151 Gulf Breeze Pky and riding down to the seashore and back. Or meet Floyd after the ride at the smith&nephew booth at the Andrews Institute Grand Opening, 1040 Gulf Breeze Pky, Gulf Breeze, FL.
Another ride which had been previously announced but is now official is the "Keep the Faith Ride" to take place in New Holland, PA on May 12. Floyd will not attend this ride, but it will take place over some of the roads on which he started his cycling career:
Event Description:
The Floyd Fairness Fund (FFF) is pleased to announce a fundraising bike ride for the 2006 Tour de France Champion, Floyd Landis. Proceeds will support Floyd in his efforts to attain a fair hearing as he fights unsubstantiated doping allegations and works to establish a legacy of advocacy for athlete's rights.
News 8 Austin has a short piece on last night's FFF Town Hall at the Alamo Drafthouse, with video. Among other things, Floyd talks about are: going back to the Tour, what the outcome might be from all he has gone through, the amount of money the case has cost him, and his recovery from BHR hip resurfacing surgery in September 2006. Below is one of his comments:
"We are trying to prevent this from happening to the next person who goes through this. We are not against anti-doping. We are for a fair system of dealing with is and preserving people's reputation until there is a final outcome,"
CBS Sportsline ,through an AP piece, mentions Tyler Hamilton's return to cycling in the USA this week at the Tour of Georgia, and that he and Floyd Landis have hurt the sport of cycling with their individual drug scandals. The story is reprinted in numerous places.
The Glenwood Springs Post Independent reprints Saturday's Vail Daily piece about Floyd Landis' participation in this year's Teva Mountain Games, but also mistakenly mentions Lance Armstrong's appearance in The Leadville 100 later this summer. To our knowledge Lance will still not be participating.
The Fort Wayne News Sentinel gets in a short "cheap snark" at Floyd Landis.
Oxford (GA) Press talks of Landis and the upcoming Atlanta Town Hall in an article on the TdG.
Snark O' the Day
Sports Illustrated's Pete McEntegart writes:
4. A French anti-doping lab began analyzing another sample from disgraced Tour de France champion Floyd Landis' on Monday. Is this really necessary? Haven't we already established that Landis is a dope?
Paging Austin Murphy: Go have a chat with your compadre.
Blogs
Rant read ATown's fine report on the FFF Town Hall last night in Austin,TX and hopes that the obvious labeling of the "blinds" by the UCLA lab just ain't so:
That’s disturbing, coming from the UCLA lab. I had certainly hoped for better from them. But the person doing the testing surely already knows that most of the samples he or she is testing belong to Landis. Still, it would be interesting to know, if the samples had really been properly blinded, exactly how the test results would have turned out. But now, because UCLA botched the labeling, LNDD really isn’t being tested on their ability to get the correct results. They’re merely being tested on their ability to perform the same tests, the same way. Whether they’ve been done correctly or not will be a major issue in the arbitration hearings a few weeks down the road.
Racejunkie writes about the B sample tests that are underway:
[I]t seems to me that Landis is in a bit of a Catch-22 here: if the B samples test negative, confirming the results on the A samples--which the Landis team of course would not contest--the lab gets to say, "see, we're both honest and competent after all!" But if the B samples test positive--which the Landis team of course would vigorously contest--the lab gets to say, "see, we told you Landis is a dirty doping lying pig!" So as far as I can tell, either way, they win and Floyd is jacked. Besides polishing these clowns' sterling rep and sinking Landis by implication, can anyone give me a legitimate reason this exercise is taking place?
Yes. we can: In Part IV, we find out it's because USADA wants backup for the S 17 test that might be found in violation of the ISL on procedural grounds.
The Information Cul-De-Sac got involved!! He wrote his congressman a letter on behalf of Floyd Landis and the FFF.
The Adventures of Mad Mal and Hobbs breaks startling news that within 10 days it will be announced by USADA that Floyd Landis is, pregnant. You heard it here second.
Dugard thinks the B sample testing shows that Landis is screwed, at least for a year, and that maybe he should take up golf.
Fun with baby Gant Part 1 gets hijacked by Drew in order to tell us about meeting Floyd Landis last night in Austin,TX at the FFF Town Hall held there. Drew seemed disappointed that attendance was not as high as hoped for in a cycling town like Austin. Floyd, looking natty, is pictured below with Drew.
Steve Lavey 20 Million Minutes wants to do a poll to see if his readers think that Floyd Landis cheated in last summer's Tour de France. He'll total the responses to his blog entry as his way of determining the publics' opinion. He also very briefly mentions Floyd Landis' FFF Town Hall last night in Austin, TX.
Bicycle.net gives us a plug.
Thought for the Day
A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on.-Winston Churchill-
