Wednesday Roundup

News
LA Times/Hiltzik report on the arbitration rulings first made public here. He paints a distressing picture of the wisdom of the decision, as do the comments to our posting. Hiltzik also says USADA has asked Landis for a large number of invasive materials that would seem to have little to do with the substance of the case, including donor lists and media and political contacts. The article also says,

Landis' attorneys said Wednesday they were considering whether to appeal the decision to federal court.

Which would presumably take the form of asking for injunctive relief from additional B sample tests. This might be viable now that the arbiters have explicitly said they don't have the authority. Landis would have exhausted his remedies through arbitration, be left with a separate matter with USADA and the UCI, and have need for immediate relief to preserve the status-quo.

LancasterOnline announces a planned group ride to show solidarity with Floyd Landis to take place in Lancaster, Co. PA. Landis' former home. The fund raising "Keep the Faith Ride" was the idea of Melanie Sensenig and will take place May 12 two days before the beginning of his USADA hearings. Details about registration will be available soon on the FFF web site:

Keep the Faith Ride will follow 20 miles of scenic roads near Landis' hometown of Farmersville. The caravan will pass the Landis family home.

Sensenig said the route follows many roads Landis, 31, used to ride before he moved to California at age 20.

The Monterey County Herald takes Sunday's James Raia article originally printed in the Sac-Bee and reworks it with a reference to the Sea Otter Classic where Floyd Landis made his comeback after a hip fracture in 2003.

PCWorld/Network World covers the "wiki" and social network parts of the defense, talking with Baker and discussing "crowd sourcing"

Baker says the wiki has brought to him lab workers who have provided critiques of the procedures used by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) accredited labs that tested Landis's urine sample.

Blogs
Scienfiction Twin is relieved that the ice in which the Landis case has been packed is finally starting to melt.

Rant compares the handling of Landis' case to how the Australian Agency has handled Thorpe, and thinks the Ozzies have done a more professional job.

Hugh is excited about the upcoming "Ride with Floyd" FFF fund raiser to be held in Austin Texas on Sunday April 15. He also mentions the Monday April 16th FFF Townhall to be held at the Alamo Drafthouse Cinemas.

Andrea Rat isn't sure about Tyler Hamilton's innocence or guilt, or Lance Armstrong's for that matter. She IS sure that Floyd Landis is innocent, though she can't say why she thinks this.

Forums
DPF has begun discussing the ruling, with Bill Hue repeating the comment he made here, and which will be expanded in Part IV of our series on the legal process of the case. His later comment there in response to someone who thought him cynical:

My opinion of the arbitration decision while critical, is not cynical, in any way.

I'm one of the people who think it is plausable that Landis doped.

Landis takes no offense in that, as long as he gets a fair chance to show he didn't.

Where I now join Landis is in the belief that the system in which he is being judged is extrordinarily skewed against the athlete. After reading this decision, I'm very concerned, as should you and everyone else, that the system in no way equates to justice. If the system that finds him "guilty" is unjust, how can we rely on its determination to reflect the "truth"?

My opinion has been formulated upon a tremendous amount of time consuming personal research and after a lot of thought and reflection. That is the opposite of reacting cynically.

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