Sunday Roundup
News
KSBY Action News has video of the "Ride with Floyd" event held in San Luis Obispo yesterday AM. Alas, if you are on a Mac you may have to use the newest version of IE for Mac, which is not new at all, to view the video as it does not work in Firefox or Safari. The reporter doing the narration misstates a few basics anyway, such as the "high" testosterone levels were natural to Landis.
The Berkshire Eagle prints a story about American bike racer Will Dugan who postulates that cyclists racing in Europe almost all dope, and that people like Floyd Landis have tarnished the reputations of riders like himself who are ethical and race clean. We smell a snark here.
The Rocky Mountain News' Bernie Lincicome thinks that all of the various testing and retesting of the Landis samples is like a watered down version of the "cold war."
Forums
A new thread,"Has Floyd Landis been Winning his PR Campaign?" has been started over on DPF It asks if posters feel Floyd Landis is winning the PR campaign he has been waging.
Thought for the Day
There are only two or three human stories, and they go on repeating themselves as fiercely as if they had never happened before.
-willa cather-
6 comments:
TBV, I need to borrow some of your webspace again.
I have a litmus test for anyone who still has full confidence with LNDD, WADA, USADA, and truly believe Landis is an outright liar.
Most of us reading this blog are not professional athletes, so there is absolutely no reason for us to take performance enhancing drugs.
So, for some sum of money, you are asked to provide a urine sample that will be sent to LNDD for testing for anything they want. If they find anything they deem positive, they won’t call you, but you will find out when you see it on the front page of all the papers in your country. Even better, the local paper where the few hundred or thousand people know who you are. On top of that, you will lose your job.
Based on what you have read for the past 8 months, and you KNOW you have not taken any drugs (or maybe you have, so you can declare only that drug before the test), are you willing to provide the sample? Do you think you would sleep well at night for the next few weeks? It’s easy cash up front, just provide the sample. Only catch is your job and everyone finding out the same time as you. You know you did not take anything, you have nothing to risk. So, how confident are you with the system? What’s the lowest amount of cash you are willing to do this for?
Oh yeah, all results are final. There will be no appeal and you cannot see the details of the test – but remember you have nothing to worry about, right?
"Oh yeah, all results are final. There will be no appeal and you cannot see the details of the test"
Come on. There are 2 samples - each was subject to 2 tests (T/E ratio then synthetic testosterone - all positive).
Your sample is sealed and the B sample is opened in front of you - and you can see the testing procedure of your B sample by yourself, on site.
Oh also, 7 of the others of your samples are opened and tested in front of USADA representatives.
And in the case you have cheated, you not only have wrongly received the $500,000 prize, and the multi-millions benefits of being the Tour winner - you have deprived other racers (some/many/most of them are honest) of their due by flat-out cheating, which is dramatically evidenced by the fact that you took the lead of the race on the exact same day your sample are positive.
The benefits are worth a little lying, and if you a little clever, instead of finding stupid excuses like Tyler Hamilton (the lead racer in same team as yours, two years before), you can violently attack the laboratory which has performed the tests in a worldwide propaganda campaign, knowing fully that the laboratory is not allowed to comment - both diverting the issue, and increasing your chances to escape with a technicality.
The laboratory is not allowed to comment? Are you kidding me? Or does a leak not count as a comment?
"The laboratory is not allowed to comment? Are you kidding me? Or does a leak not count as a comment?"
The laboratory is not allowed to comment in general. Please find in the press a comment from the LNDD on Landis case and Landis dramatic fraud and conspiracy accusations.
As for the leak, the laboratory does not have the identity of the racers - only sample numbers. Even in the recent retesting, the samples were also anonymous (Landis samples were tested along with a whole bunch of other samples).
In the past (Armstrong story), French Ministry, WADA and UCI could well have leaked the results.
When only LNDD had the results (not WADA, UCI, or the Ministry), like for the scientific study of the anonymous positive samples of 1998 (not 1999) published in Nature, no leak occurred.
Maybe there is a witch-hunt or McCarthyism, but the victim might not be the one you think it is.
Please find in the press a comment from the LNDD on Landis case and Landis dramatic fraud and conspiracy accusations.
L'Equippe prints LNDD's words. This is a major factor of the issue at hand; The lab is sloppy and doesn't follow protocol. Errors. Errors. Errors. How can we trust a single result when THEY don't even trust their results?? [see link]
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/04/30/sports/EU-SPT-CYC-Landis-Doping.php
I work for the Smithsonian Institution, which is an independent agency of the US Federal Government. Many years ago, under Bush I, there was a proposal that every federal government employee be subject to regular drug tests. My colleagues and friends in the government were terrified -- the main issue was the lack of control of who would adminster the testing. We were alarmed that our urine would be tested by the low bidder with the least sophisticated tests. Right at this time, several Marines were almost thrown out of the miliary due to testing positive for opium. The Marines ate hamburgers on poppy seed buns and managed to be cleared. Fortunately, this incident and others caused the desire to test all federal employees to fall by the wayside. Drug testing is necessary in certain circumstances, but it is a complicated business that requires the utmost integrity. I continue to be shocked at any acceptance of of drug testing with out regular and rigorous monitoring.
Post a Comment