Thursday, June 14, 2007

Thursday Roundup

News
The Houston Chronicle's Dale Robertson takes a look back at the "smarmy" Landis hearings while a decision is waited for. He thinks that no one looks good in this mess: USADA/WADA looks bad because of sloppy lab procedures, and Landis looks bad because of the "character issue". Roberson speculates that Floyd will go down in a 2 to 1 verdict by the arb panel and will not appeal to the CAS:

The latest conventional wisdom is he won't appeal to the Court of International Arbitration for Sport because he has run out of money, and his legal team is disenchanted with him


France24 takes a report from Basque TV stating that Iban Mayo tested positive for testosterone in a case that is starting to sound eerily familiar:

Mayo reportedly tested positive for testosterone, the banned male sex hormone which snared Floyd Landis on his way to overall victory in last year's Tour de France.

Mayo's 'A' sample will now be re-submitted for further testing.


Velonews carries a flash from the UCI that Mayo was cleared by IRMS followup, and bemoaning leaks and press reports. We still don't know why the IRMS was not done at Rome.

ESPN.com has a wire reports that drags Landis into a discussion of ex-NFL player Johnie Morton, who has drug testing problems in his attempt to be a professional "Mixed Martial Arts" fighter. Not only did he get knocked out in 38 seconds, and refuse a post-fight test, but his pre-fight test showed a T/E of, wait for it, here it comes, 83.

Blogs
Rant tells us that "someone" jumped the gun again on leaking doping results, and that Iban Mayo has been cleared.

Marty's Ride Across America notes that the training for the big ride continues, and though Martty is not much of a techo geek about the bike, he does have those "special" Floyd Landis water bottles holders.

Racejunkie wants someone to explain to him "why" in the wake of yesterday's three Giro non-negatives two of which may turn out to be TUEs, Floyd Landis is getting the shaft as the rest of the pampered peloton goes on its merry way?

WBRS Sports Blog wonders what athletes will think of next when coming up with "doping excuses" So far they have ranged from Jack Daniels to flaxseed oil, but the case of a Canadian wheelchair athlete may be the most inventive of all.

The Spoof offers the "humorous" suggestion that Landis appeal to The People's Court, beginning with a stool sample. Har. Har.

Velogal follows up her post of yesterday about Rep. Zoe Lofgren's letter saying the US didn't fund USADA or provide any oversight, pointing to Rant.

6 comments:

cam said...

and Mayo has know been cleared... http://www.velonews.com/news/fea/12407.0.html

Unknown said...

Perhaps Bostre really was paying attention during the Landis hearing and took some of the defense arguments to heart. His technicians in Rome who could have done the advanced work may be on training leave. If there was a simpler excuse I think we would have heard it.

The WADA Code International Standard for Laboratories ver. 4.0 dated August 2004 requires that the same lab that did the A sample confirmation must perform the B sample confirmation (5.2.4.3.2.2). This answers the question of why different labs are not used as a matter of course, but suggests that there should be some explanation of why the second lab became involved in this instance.
Pete Crosby

Unknown said...

Read Jeff Adams response to the WBRS Sports Blog.

Floyd's screwed.

http://brssports.blogspot.com/2007/06/now-thats-what-i-call-doping-story.html

cat2bike said...

What makes the guy in Houston think he knows how Floyd and his attorneys are getting along?

GMR said...

Fortunately for Iban Mayo the second lab for the Sample B was not done at the LNDD. If only Floyd had that option.

Remind me on the Sample A test after the T/E ratio is high do they also conduct an IRMS test?

How many metabolites do Rome and Spain use?

daniel m (a/k/a Rant) said...

cat2bike,

That's the thing about "conventional wisdom." It's almost always neither conventional nor wise.

- Rant