Thursday Roundup

News
The Daily Lobo writes that sports is in the gutter, and gives lots of examples including Floyd Landis and the 2006 TdF. Something needs to be done and fast, like punishing the offenders with stronger sanctions and fines. Kobe Bryant's adultery is also cited. How exactly do you sanction that?

The VeloNews reports that Pat McQuaid is ready to talk about the structure of the pro tour, as long as the UCI runs it:

"The UCI is prepared to renegotiate the structure of the ProTour," McQuaid told the regional French newspaper Sud-Ouest. "What we won't do, however, is compromise as to the leadership of the UCI and the governance of cycling."

But Patric Clerc seems to feel differently about this issue:

"The piloting of cycling's reconstruction cannot be given to the UCI," Clerc said. "We will have to do it with all those who reject the current system in order to find our values again: riders, teams, sponsors, federations ... will all need to unite." That unity has been elusive since the creation of the ProTour in 2004.

Stay tuned. Things will likely get uglier before they get better.

Velonews has some other interesting articles, including an interview of a self-flagellating Joe Papp with a doctor about some of the medical problems he had caused by following the advice of the doping underground. We can be in total agreement with the message, "don't try this at home."

VN: How much blood did you lose into the hematoma?

JP: I believe the quantity of sludge that was removed surgically was close to 1200mL - is that possible for a horrible internal hematoma in the gluteus maximus?

VN: Yes it is. You basically lost one fourth of your blood volume into what should have been a trivial bruise because your blood was way too thin from medically unsupervised and incompetent abuse of anticoagulants. This would put most people into class 2 hypovolemic shock.

Velonews also passes on the word that yes, CONI is appealing the Petacchi case to CAS. This is because they disagreed with the Italian Cycling Federation's clearning him of his asthma inhaler overuse charge. Thisparticular scenario could not happen in the US, because USACycling turns its cases over to USADA at the beginning. However, WADA, and UCI and USADA itself could appeal to CAS should Landis win in his case at the initial stage.

And, as we know, CAS appeals are "de novo", which means the CAS panel considers the case from the very beginning, as if the earlier proceeding never took place. Completely new evidence and argument may be made, and the scope is not limited to errors the original panel may have made.

Yes, this is multiple jeopardy. It is this way to keep the Elbonian Frumble Federation from waving their hands and clearing their star with a nod and a wink with no recourse for the enforcers of fair sport. Most people believe this policy to be a Good Thing in the struggle against doping. It only seems troublesome when your honest federation clears your star of something, and is then hauled before a less friendly audience -- as, perhaps Petacchi is experiencing.

CyclingNews gives its take on the UCI/ProTour/ASO issues as well.

CyclingNews Letters are still talking about the folding of Team Disco, and one writer wants to know why it is taking so long for the Landis decision to come down. The world wonders, too.


The Daily Peloton blurbs the Univest Grand Prix to take place on September 8 in southeastern PA. DP also writes about the Cyclospotif 100K which is a cross between a timed recreational ride and a race where a "secret" guest rider will participate. Wonder who that could be, knowing that in 2006 Floyd Landis made an appearance at the Univest race at the request of John Eustice. With the Shenandoah race below in the same vicinity, we wouldn't be surprised.


Blogs
Triple Crankset writes about the recall of some Smith and Nephew hip resurfacing implants due to mislabeling. The wrong size may have been used in hip resurfacing surgeries, with some of the mislabeled devices being distributed in the US. One hopes, and assumes due to results at Leadville, that Floyd Landis' BHR device is not on the recall list.

Surface-Hippy, about hip resurfacing, is invoking Landis as a positive example, and it corrects misinformed details-- but doesn't talk about the recall.

Recovox News announces that Floyd Landis has been invited to and will be participating in the Shenandoah Mountain 100, the finale in the National Ultra Endurance (NUE) Series to be held on Labor Day weekend near Harrisonburg, Virginia. Landis accepted an invitation to race the Shenandoah Mountain 100 made by Scott Scudamore, who served as MC at a Floyd Fairness Fund event held in Northern Virginia in January:

"I am honored to be invited to be part of the Shenandoah Mountain 100 event. I look forward to racing on the challenging course they have put together since it includes the kind technical trail riding that first got me hooked on mountain bike racing," said 2006 Tour de France Champion Landis, who started his career growing up and racing his mountain bike throughout the mid-Atlantic.

PedalPushers Online gives a transcript of a Landis Book Tour appearance in Suffolk County on June 28 under the headline, "The Jury is Still Out." On the peloton knowing what was coming on Stage 17:

What happened was, we made a plan in the bus as you often do, and I didn't make it perfectly clear to everybody on the team that I didn't want anybody to know what was going on so a couple of the guys told their friends and well in the peloton next thing you know, everybody knows. So, rather than get upset about it, since everyone knew what I was going to do. I decided we'd just pretend that it was a joke. (laughter) They weren't very happy about that because I can tell you, I've been in that position where I'm working for someone else in the race, and when you get to the last mountain stage in the tour, the last thing you want to do is race up the first mountain in the stage as hard as you can. And I certainly didn't make any friends doing that. But my only choice at that point was to pretend that it just didn't matter because it was just going to be a wild gamble. But ordinarily it's not wise to tell everybody exactly what your plan is.