Saturday, August 18, 2007

Saturday Roundup

News
The CyclingNews is chock full of interesting stuff this morning, none of it is directly about Floyd Landis. Perhaps most notable are the statements from the Association of Professional Cyclists (CPA) about the treatment of Cristian Moreni and Pat McQuaid at the Tour de France this year. CN also reports that John Eustices' Univest Grand Prix race in September through southeastern Pennsylvania will be broadcast in part on NBC with individual affiliates picking up the coverage on their own.

Blogs
Digital Influence Mapping likes the Authors@Google program and feels it introduces the employees to alternative viewpoints and styles of leadership. Floyd Landis' talk in July there is cited.


Cyril's Gleans
goes far and wide to pick from what is out there to read and ponder, and uses a snarky phrase to link "The Outcast".


2point8 praises the restraint shown by photographer Larry Sultan in the Floyd Landis shots used in the NYT Magazine piece "The Outcast":

Can’t think of a better photographer to address the strange psychological purgatory where accused-doper Floyd Landis lives; that cinched space between personally right and publicly wrong. And Landis just so happens to live in Southern California. There’s nothing street about these images (save for the whirling dogs by Landis’ wife); Sultan accomplishes so much with stillness, he needn’t the flash of motion or slice of a moment to pull you in.




Racejunkie read "The Outcast" and it is indeed "The Land(is) of Confusion", with all due apologies to Genesis fans everywhere. RJ is surprised and impressed that Floyd has "maintained an even strain" over the past year, many would not have and that's a fact.

The Outdoor Journey bemoans the "turd smoking purgatory" in which Floyd Landis finds himself more than a year after his disputed 2006 Tour de France win and subsequent USADA hearings whose resolution seems interminable:

Whether or not Landis is guilty is beside the point to me. What’s troubling is the shitty evidentiary process and the relative lack of appeals available to the defendants. Presuming Landis is innocent, he is still fucked by the Stazi, er, I mean the United States Anti Doping Agency and the aptly named Dick Pound. Once you piss in a bottle and turn it over to the authorities, your life and your future as a professional athlete is out of your control. If they determine your sample tests positive, it’s game over for you baby.



Robinson Crusoe's Island
talks about steroids being a controlled substance in the US and only legally obtainable through a prescription making the distinction between them and steroid precursors. He then cites Floyd Landis as an example of someone who used nandrolone.

8 comments:

wschart said...

Slow day for comments, so I'll put this slightly OT one up:

It's official, Contador and Levi will be participating in the first Tour of Missouri. Columbia, where I live, will be the finish of stage 4, so I will get a chance to see some of this in person.

For details:

http://www.tourofmissouri.com/

I just wish that Landis was part of this.

strbuk said...

wschart, that IS exciting news we posted that yesterday and thought that it seemed appropriate that Disco bow out on US soil.

str

Eightzero said...

A couple of interesting things in CN Sunday edition:

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news.php?id=news/2007/aug07/aug19news

1. Vino seems to think the anti-doping movement is a violation of "human rights." When I read the headline, I figured he might be On To Something. I'm not sure the *exact* sequence of events on the release of his "A" sample results, but somewhere along the line, it seems like someone broke the rules. But this is a far cry from what Vino is complaining about - he calls the out of competition testing "a clear violation of human rights." Wow.

2. There's a note about T-Mobile's women's team and their willingtness to participate in additional anti-doping measures. They note "...in women's cycling...doping cases are rare." I've often wondered about why that is. Anyone ever see any statistics vs. cycling and/or other sports by gender? Could it be (maybe) women are less likely to take risks with their bodies? (No, I'm not saying they're not tough - giving birth to a 8+ pound baby seems like it might be kinda tough - I'm suggesting maybe females are just a bit...smarter...than those of us poisoned with a Y chromosome?)

nahual said...

So 8~0 how many boys or men do you know that are addicted to diet pills or who are bulimic, or anorexic? Putting a needle in an arm goes just as easily to female as well as male. I'm guessin' it is more related to the nature of the activity or goal as to what stupid behaviors will be exhibited. "...than those of us poisoned with a Y chromosome?)"

Cock a doodle do!

wschart said...

8-0:

Interesting question regarding women vs. men re doping. I can't recall any female cyclists who have been busted for PES, but other sports have had some women either caught, or accused. Off the top of my head it seems that track and field, and swimming have had some cases. Of course there was the whole East German thing, but then there are questions about whether or not EG female athletes did indeed have that double X or not. As much as anything, I'd suspect that, in general, women's sports are not as "big" as men's, with less money involved; hence less pressure/incentive on participants.

Strbuk:

Sorry, I either missed the post yesterday regarding the ToMo, or perhaps more likely, forgot. Two things start to go when you get old, one is your memory and the other is . . . dang! I forget what the other is.

strbuk said...

Memory, what's memory?

:-)

str

nahual said...

two things may start to go wschart for the three kinds of people in the world: those who understant mathematics and those who don't!

That humor won some math humor contest this year, somewhere, hopefully while the presenter was riding a BICYCLE,

Eightzero said...

And of course, I missed the obvious: there's less economic incentive for females to use PEDs. That whole 70 cents on the dollar thing.... :-(

Still would be interesting to see number of tests v. number of positives grouped by sport and gender. Seems like such info would be available from the USADA under a FOIA request? hmmm....