Thursday Roundup
News
Times (UK) returns to a story that has been submerged for a while: Ian Thorpe, the Australian swimmer has a case before CAS after his national ADA declined to pursue him. FINA, the international swimming federation, thought he was let off too easily, and took it to CAS. The story says Thorpe has just submitted his evidence. As far as we understand, it's a T/E ratio case only, where the longitudinal study didn't support prosecution according to the ASADA. Probably his evidence is an analysis of the longitudinal, if we're guessing. (Tip from eightzero in a comment).
PPOL News advertises Ergon grips which Dave Wiens used at Leadville last weekend to come in first ahead of Floyd Landis.
Mountain Flyer has a story pointed to by the PPOL ad above, giving details of the race as Wiens saw it. The winner had problems of his own, including a soft rear for the last 20 miles that he had to fiddle with. Now we can really play the what-if game, 'cause if Landis hadn't tried to run him down so hard after his own flat, then he might have had more left at the end, and with Dave slogging with a soft tire... And that's why they run the race.
New West Boise thinks that there must be a huge backstory to the abandonment by Tailwind of its' Discovery cycling team, how else can it be explained that a sponsor was almost on board and then, nothing? The author has an interesting solution to the problem of finding sponsorship for an American cycling team. It is also noted in the piece that the Women's Tour de France was just completed and an American, Amber Neben, came in second.
CyclingNews Letters go over the usual ground of doping.
Sunday NY Times "PLAY" magazine insert will be running a profile on Landis, and it's warmed up here in a chat with the author, Sara Corbett.If Landis was wrongly accused, then it’s an unbelievable tragedy for the sport and for him personally. If he cheated to win and has spent the last year getting people to donate more than a million dollars to his defense fund, well, that’s a remarkable act of hubris. I don’t know which scenario is true. Nobody seems to know. But all this puts Landis at the center of a pretty interesting paradox, and that’s what I most wanted to write about.
The full article is a long, detailed, and somewhat painful read, but well worth the time.
Blogs
CFA recommends the above NYT Magazine piece about Floyd Landis titled "The Outcast", and feels even more conflicted about Floyd than before. Read it and weep.
Online Sports News posts the NYT Floyd Landis profile.
Fatty writes what he swears is the last, well one of the last, in his entertaining Leadville chronicles from last weekend. Fatty wanted to break 9 hours, and almost did it and while he was at the finish line cooling off there was time for pictures with family, friends, and the cowboy below.
"Cowboy Floyd" and Fatty at the finish area after the Leadville 100. Landis' right hand still seems to be holding on the grips.Did Floyd have to come back to the finish line and hang around with a bunch of stinky guys more than two hours after he had finished the race? No. Was he acting like a diva? Nope. Would he talk with and take pictures with anyone who wanted? Yes.
Floyd’s cool.
Golf Punk says that golf is now the number one sport, and cycling is merely a pharmacy on wheels. Everyone in cycling is dirty, including super fan Robin Williams. Actually it's just a bad time in sports altogether. Golf had better watch out, it could be next.
Rabbit Ramblings gives a good overview of the current doping situation in cycling with even a little history thrown in. When all is said and done, Boo thinks that Lance Armstrong did dope for all of his TdF wins, it's easy to pass those tests and still be a doper. Conversely he thinks that Floyd Landis did NOT use testosterone in winning the 2006 TdF. He feels cycling needs less money not more, and that it will come through better than ever after some tough times.
Triple Crankset reviews some of the latest cycling news, and thinks Landis second at Leadville was a "showcase" for any future employers -- depending on how the arbitration might be decided.
15 comments:
So we still have no outcome from the hearing? Does anyone know what is taking so long? Is the panel sequestered at the Hilton or something?
Better watch out, Golf Punk! There already has been an Italian golfer who tested positive and, if I recall correctly, at recently retired pro golfer has made comments about golfers using PES. The pot should watch what it calls the kettle!
Hey doorknob, TBV mentioned this on Tuesday:
tbv@trustbut.com said...
I'm sure they're on billable hours, and golf games aren't billable.
:>)
The Women's Tour de France is not over and Amber Neben (USA) is currently #1 GC. I wish more people were covering this. With such a strong team and such a strong performance so far these girls deserve some props and ecouragement.
I am afraid that the long awaited decision was made some months ago. What we are waiting for is Campbell's scathing (and I do mean scathing) dissent.
It seems like they are imposing the sentence through the wait so even if they rule in Floyd's favor he sits out for over a year.
Even I, he who has been saying that we should be patient because that implies a 'fairer' result, am getting annoyed by the lack of a verdict in the case. I have not done any research into how long these arbitrations generally run (does anyone know this?) so I can't say it's particularly long or short, but it does seem odd that Landis could possibly end up serving more time in pergatory than a sentence would be - how would that be reconciled, I wonder?
It's confusing, and I wonder if this decision that will be handed down will have something unusal in it - this is the only way I can figure out this length of time. By unusual, I mean that there could possibly come some recommendations about testing procedures or accountability. It's POSSIBLE, but maybe I'm being naive...
do they actually have to render a verdict ?
raamman,
The whole point of arbitrations is to settle disputes. If they don't reach a conclusion, they haven't really done their job. So, to go with your question: If they don't render a decision, do they still get paid for their time?
- Rant
FreeKindred said...
The Women's Tour de France is not over and Amber Neben (USA) is currently #1 GC. I wish more people were covering this. With such a strong team and such a strong performance so far these girls deserve some props and ecouragement.
Actually, it's the Route de France, not the WTdF which is known as the Grande Boucle Féminin.
Still a good one which I've been following. So far only the TT stages have been decisive at all, a gruppo compatto finish or close to it every non-TT stage. Tomorrow looks like some mountains, and Neben has some serious climbers in 2nd and 3rd behind her - Bubnenkova and Jaunâtre.
Here's the place to follow it (en français):
http://www.org-rc.fr/
Dan said...
I am afraid that the long awaited decision was made some months ago. What we are waiting for is Campbell's scathing (and I do mean scathing) dissent.
Since we were just talking about Neben ...
I was just reading today what Campbell had to say in her 2003 doping hearing:
http://www.usantidoping.org/files/active/arbitration_rulings/arbitration_ruling_10_21_2003_neben.pdf
Clearly, he was torn. He felt compelled to follow the letter of the law, or rather, the rules, but felt they were absurd in her case - No intent to cheat and a quantity insufficient to improve performance. (It was determined Neben had gotten a metabolite of an anabolic steroid as an unlabelled ingredient of a vitamin supplement.)
"The fight against doping is not the fight against victims of a poorly regulated vitamin supplement industry."
(as Instapundit says ...)
Indeed.
Read the whole thing.
If Campbell finds actual wrongdoing/incompetence/negligence on LNDD's part wrt Landis, "scathing" may be just the beginning ...
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/more_sport/article2272701.ece
Anyone want to hazard a guess on the nature of the "evidence" provided by the Thorpedo? The PED issue appears the same as in Floyd's case - the T/E ratio and exogenous T. Anyone look into Ian's case closely to see other parallels?
The jurisdictional issue with the CAS/FINA and the ASADA is interesting too.
Dan (1:24) --
If the ruling was a 2:1 against FL, "the majority" would have voted to close the hearing and Chris Campbell would have had only ten days to compose his dissent.
I would like to think that the facts have been reviewed and unfortunately, it's now the politics that is keeping the verdict.
OK, so how many of us would like the ruling before the end of August?
Let me count the hands. Raise them high!
From the Neben ruling a chilling section:
Page 9 of 24
6.5 The extensive documentation provided to Respondent [Neben] demonstrates presumptively that the chain of custody of the sample was followed, that the laboratory analysis was correctly conducted, that Respondent’s urine specimen had not deteriorated or been contaminated, and that the proper laboratory procedures had been followed. Moreover the results of the Montreal Lab, an IOC accredited lab, are presumed to be scientifically correct and the test and analyses were presumed to have been conducted in accordance with the highest scientific standards (USADA Protocol, Ex.1, p.9)
…
6.9 Accordingly, USADA has met its burden of proving a doping offense was established from properly conducted testing and analyses of Respondent’s urine sample by the accredited Montreal Lab.
...
I hope the arbitrators give us more than a copy and paste of the above paragraph replacing Montreal with LNDD....
It just gets me that they "presume" that the lab handles it correctly and "presume" that they use the correct procedures. To me, that's the biggest problem with the current rules. Athletes are "presumed" guilty. It's just wrong.
Funny that you mention Thorpie. I thought this blog was about dope cheating in cycling, although I think it is a very clever tactic to deflect attention away from cycling to swimming.
I doubt very much Thorpie is guilty of dope cheating, and given he has not been caught red handed, I think he will be cleared.
However, Australian cycling is pretty rotten with this sort of thing, so you might want to mention all the terrible tricks our Aussie cyclist do to try to win, when they are not bashing their wives and stalking their ex-girlfriends.
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