Saturday, July 28, 2007

Saturday Late Roundup

For more news from earlier today check out the Saturday Early Roundup.


News
BBC has more on Suh and Jacobs defending Vino. It's the "flow cytometry test" at issue this time, and Vino is also trying out the "it wouldn't make sense" and "I've been tested more than 100 times" lines. Here's a clue: those don't go over. If it really is a botched test, the best thing to do is release the information ASAP.

The Boston Globe writes that a year after the Floyd Landis affair professional cycling is still ridden with scandal and sponsor pullouts. Dr Gary Wadler of WADA says cycling stands at the abyss, and Dick Pound is heard from as well:

If Tour officials "don't realize what they've been doing is well short of what is required, then the sport really is in trouble," said Richard W. Pound, the president of the Montreal-based anti-doping agency.




The Daily Mail reports that even before the yellow jersey has been awarded Dick Pound is already considering investigations into possible doping by potential Tour de France winner Alberto Contador:

The Mail on Sunday can reveal that Dick Pound, the chairman of the World Anti-Doping Agency, is to pursue further investigations into evidence that appears to link Contador to doping and which could yet see the yellow jersey stained beyond redemption.
When last year's victor,Floyd Landis,rode into Paris in glory only to be disgraced days later by a positive testosterone test — a result the American is still contesting — it appeared the Tour had reached its nadir. But this year there has been no relief from the scandal of doping.


The NYT Juliet Macur
writes of the "teflon peloton" in which cheating is seen by many cyclists as something whose detection is avoidable, and whose methods have evolved. One of her sources is Joe Papp, who testified on behalf on USADA at the Floyd Landis hearings in May. Papp claims to have gotten hate mail and threats since his testimony at the hearings, and has much to say about the doping culture in cycling:

The cycling culture is such that athletes are brainwashed into believing that doping is acceptable, and even necessary, Papp said. He likened it to “being in the mob” because the cyclists have the backing of their teams to use performance-enhancing drugs, the promise of secrecy from their teammates and the audacity to look the drug testers in the eyes, knowing full well that their doping will go undetected.



Lancaster Online.com pursues a story about "cheatin' hearts" and Farmersville native Floyd Landis' name inevitably comes up.

ABC News posts a story which simply put, says that for many pro cyclists it's dope or go home.


Bicycling Magazine
writes that Vinokourov denies doping unequivocally and that, as in Floyd Landis' case, the LNDD is at fault. He has retained Maurice Suh and Howard Jacobs, Floyd Landis' lawyers, as his legal counsel.


Blogs

EveryManTri, sponsored by BMC, doesn't buy Landis' program for fixing pro cycling.

His solutions: 1) form a cyclist union to help better control the invasive and pesky random drug testing and 2) have the cycling union pull out of the Olympics so that riders would not have to conform to the Olympic drug testing rules.

I almost fell from my chair when he said this. Talk about some big testosterone balls. That would be like getting caught with your hand in the cookie jar and telling your mom that not only should she do away with the jar, but that you won’t do your homework until she gives you all of the cookies



Kashmir Bitches provides us with a bit of a laugh in the form of a cartoon.

Steroid Nation has the Tour de France nearing it's cycle end, or is that end cycle?

Rose Cantine writes about Vino and the fact that he , like Floyd Landis, is denying that he doped. She wants to give him the benefit of the doubt.

Joeschmo notes that Vino has retained the Landis dream team of lawyers, and that his team still believes in him.




10 comments:

Unknown said...

Andreas Kloeden, warrior of T Mobile, has some interesting comments about why he is considering retirement

http://www.velonews.com/tour2007/news/articles/12993.0.html

Unknown said...

I assume it is not the French in general but just LNDD in particular who blunder on under a culture of presumed competence. They have been shown in the Landis arbitration hearings to have failed to properly perform complex but routine analytic chemistry procedures even though they have been at it for several years. Now, with an Emily Litella like "never mind", they move on to hematology and perform complex tests that they have never done before and, with their indefatigable blind confidence, leak the Vinokourov results to L'Equipe.

Spike

Davis Straub said...

"If it really is a botched test, the best thing to do is release the information ASAP."

How is Vino suppsed to release the information?

DBrower said...

Vino ought to have some test data already.

TBV

Strider said...

As someone who really really hates cyclists (and I have met a lot of those selfish sociopaths), it is just so delightful to me to see that your idols have disgraced your sport time and time again throughout the Tour De France Farce.

But if you really want to think about it, follow the link to my blog and read all the postings I have done under the tag 'cyclist menace' to read what I really think of cyclists in more detail.

Cheerio for now

wschart said...

To interject a lighter note:

Did Joe Papp get any hate females too?

Sorry, couldn't resist. Been married to an English teacher to long!

strbuk said...

You know wschart sometimes I scare myself with my spelling, or is it my sometimes faulty thought process , or perhaps my occasional inattention to detail? Anyway keep those comments coming, and who knows what kind of "female" Joe Papp gets.

:-)

str

Unknown said...

TBV,

How long did it take Floyd to get his data? If I remember correctly, it was a couple months after being declared positive.

How would Vino have this information already?

Mike

Ken (EnvironmentalChemistry.com) said...

In regards to Dick Pound's latest tirade in the Boston Globe article above:

Is there anyone who hates cycling (especially American teams and/or the TDF) any more than him. You'd think with the vendetta he has against cycling that some cyclist for an American team ran over and killed his dog during a stage of the TDF when he was a child and then got up and kicked his dog for good measure.

This man is beyond obsessed, he is a fanatical zealot of the worst kind. He seems bent on destroying the TDF any way he can. I feel sorry for any cyclist who wins the TDF, because in Dick Pound's mind if they won they are guilty of doping because one can not win the TDF without doping. Other powers to be (e.g. IOC, ASO, UCI, etc.) need to stand up to Dick Pound and force him out so that someone who is a little more rational can take over WADA and reform it. While WADA is being reformed, someone needs to reform UCI. It feels really weird to say this, but I'm really feeling sorry for the TDF and ASO because of the actions of Dick Pound and UCI.

Unknown said...

Of the cyclists how who were thrown out one way or another (and I'm not talking about cycling superstars such as Bradley Wiggins who had to leave as his team left, just those accused of doping), how many signed the charter before the race?? Also interesting to see what cyclists from other generations think of the cyclists being banned now......

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/other_sports/cycling/6921084.stm