Saturday Roundup

Leadville moved to a separate post.

News
While of limited interest to most here, a site that inspired TBV has announced the first probative ruling in the cases that it is following. Four years after the first shoe dropped in legal disputes over ownership of Linux, a US Federal Judge has ruled against SCO in favor of Novell, in a way that also helps IBM and Linux. Groklaw broke the news and provided the full ruling, and has been quoted in the other media, like Computerworld, and Wired.

We hope we don't run that long.

AP Report on Leadville has quotes. Seems like the crash was early, and catching Weins up after the flat was too much work. At least in public, Landis is saying Wiens would have won anyway, and vents a little frustration at the communication about the post-hearing decision making process:

“It’s been three months since the hearing and I haven’t heard a word — nothing at all,” Landis said. “If they’re going to do it right and they’re going to take their time, that’s fine, I don’t mind. I just don’t know what the time frame is. It would make it a lot more simple if they just said ’it’ll be next January.’ That’d be fine.”

later,

At least Landis has had some good news lately: his book is selling well.

Facing potential financial problems just a few months ago, Landis was able to pay attorney fees with advance money from the book and hasn’t yet started looking at life after racing. Of course, he’s still waiting for that decision that could change everything.

The Sentinel Online has a short report on Leadville.


The Gazette also reports on an injured Landis finishing second today at Leadville with Floyd happy to have had something to focus on other than his pending arbitration decision:

“This race was good because it was something to train for and I could focus on that,” Landis said. “I couldn’t completely forget about the other stuff, but at least was something to focus on.”

The NY Times reviews yesterday's announcement that Tailwind is getting out of cycling and could secure no new sponsor for the cycling team formerly known as US Postal and then Discovery Channel. The many recent doping scandals, including that which Floyd Landis is still embroiled in, were cited as contributing factors to the demise of Lance Armstrong's former team:

Armstrong agreed. “There are too many questions in the sport,” he said, citing, in addition to the doping scandals, the poor relationship that was evident last month between the company that organizes the Tour de France and the International Cycling Union, the sport’s governing body, which oversees competition but does not control most of the sport’s top events

The CyclingNews also provides a comprehensive report on yesterday's Disco announcement, and notes possible troubles for Astana.

VeloNews' Patrick O'Grady is starting to feel like an advance man for a criminal carnival rather than a cycling journalist, and even though he's been playing the piano in the whorehouse for years now he guesses that with things the way they are now instead of quitting he'll have to start playing a little louder.

Bicycling says "adios Discovery".

Blogs
Ungewiss is a harmless voyeur, and among other things, wishes he knew for sure whether or not Floyd Landis was guilty of doping to win the 2006 Tour de France.

Tammie is a youth worker whose very first "google alert" was Floyd Landis. She believes Floyd Landis is innocent and found real meaning for those who work with confused kids in the first few chapters of "Positively False".

Run to Win got married this week, but planned ahead for his blog on shoes and how to choose and maintain them. He provides links to the Landis case and states the obvious, the jury is still out.

Absolutely Alex's Adventures talks about cycling's uphill struggles and the demise of Discovery. He also notes that the Floyd Landis affair didn't exactly help.

Rant celebrates the first anniversary of his "epistles" on Floyd Landis and the current situation in cycling. He links his first rant ever. Happy Anniversary Rant, who'd have thought we'd all still be here today?

It Glitters likes "Positively False" but is not exactly a fan of Greg LeMond.

Cycling Under the Influence gives us a sidebar link as he launches his site, demonstrating the lack of work ethic that he admits explains his cat-4 pack fodder status.

Oaktown Girl discusses Bonds, mostly, but TBV gets dragged in late to the comments.

DaBearz rants about ESPN, and says of their coverage of Landis:

Floyd Landis, from the United States, which is purportedly a nation built on the philosophy that a man is innocent of a crime/wrongdoing until proven guilty, was essentially dealt the guilty verdict when ESPN covered his steroid scandal during the 2006 Tour de France. Of course, ESPN had someone in mind for the job to tout the guilt of Mr. Landis in the form of the ultimate ex-patriot, Greg Lemond, who for the past several years had been trying to start a forest fire in the hopes that his legacy would be revamped by destroying the reputation of Lance Armstrong. And what did ESPN, with Greg Lemond, use as their bait to catch the fish with? Why, of course, that very thing which is the current hemorrhoid in the side of all professional sports these days: steroids. And while Lemond and ESPN didn't manage to create much in the way of credible evidence to point the finger at Armstrong so he would have to give a major mea culpa to the American public, the two subverters of goodwill did destroy Floyd Landis' credibility. To this day, no one really knows whether Landis truly juiced himself due to some contradicting test results, but because all of these results were founded in France, the biggest backstabbers in the world, it's automatically assumed by the American public that ESPN is accurate and dependable.

Back in the Day
While looking around the site that had the 20 mile picture above, we came upon this shot of Landis doing some announcing at the Tour of California.

(Photo: McCusker)

The story goes that though without Official Credentials, wearing a suit gave access to many areas, including the announcing podium, as shown. We know from personal experience that carrying a clipboard, perhaps enhanced with a hardhat, also works for those purposes.