Friday Roundup

News
The CyclingNews opens its bulging Friday Mailbag and finds lots of letters, lots and lots of letters relevant to the Landis case. Here is an excerpt from Rod Skegg's letter which seems particularly pertinent:

To request Dr.Amory to examine the process and then ignore said advice by the only person who is qualified to offer an opinion because it did not produce the results expected by those persons who have the most to lose i.e. credibility and most importantly their income is, in my opinion, tantamount to admitting they were wrong. The problem they faced though was the case had been beaten into such a crusade by this stage they had nowhere to go, nowhere to hide and so the simple out for everyone was ‘Floyd is guilty’.


I don’t know if he is or isn’t guilty, and frankly it will have no effect on my life so I don’t care, however I have watched the entire procedure with interest and I see that it is not the cyclists who are ruining a wonderful sport it is the self centered, self interested hangers on who would not even have a job or an income if all sports were ‘clean’ (or maybe they are clean but we, the fans are led to believe they are all not, so as to justify the very existence of these people and the expensive rates they charge to produce the required answers?).

In other cycling news, the Italian Cycling Federation (FCI) has suspended cyclist Giuseppe Muraglia for two years for testing positive for human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG).


The VeloNews confirms Johan Bruyneel is going to Astana and the Legally Speaking column has more about free speech and the right to expression, obscene or not.



Blogs
Rant finds statements about Floyd Landis' appeal to the CAS by Travis Tygart of USADA and Matthew Barnett, a USADA attorney, baffling and disingenuous at best.

WADA Watch looks at some of the results reported in the Landis arbitration, and notices some trends that don't seem to make much sense to him -- he reported Landis results appear to be more consistent than those for control "blanks" processed at the same time. He wonders why the blanks are more consistent than the samples, since they are the ostensibly consistent control measures.

Fred Fortin says he's stickin' 'til the bitter end.

Spinnin' Wheel rode the Cadillac Mountain Challenge, and Floyd "rode" with her. She wore her Smith and Nephew kit and felt she saw a meaningful lucky sign as she rode that day for lots of people, and for all the right reasons:

I did the 72-mile version, and despite my lack of serious miles this year, it flew by. I rode for me, to enjoy the moment and the Park and the day and the challenge. I rode for my Dad, with whom I've shared countless hikes at Acadia, including a howling day up Cadillac Mountain some years ago. And I rode for Floyd, to remember what it's all about, to not lose sight of the joy of riding and what they can't take away.

Tredz says Floyd isn't going quietly, and has a fantasy that the truth will emerge from the CAS appeal. There will certainly be a result, but finding truth is not part of the process, by design.


The American Mind notes that Floyd Landis is not giving up.

Jack's Sports "Humor" spouts about Marion Jone entering the 2008 Tour de France as cycling is even more infested with drugs that track and field.

Abby Normal doesn't think Landis T-doped, he believes he blood doped, because Vino did, and there was no test for it in 2006. Confusing because there was a test -- Hamilton got caught with it, though true the LNDD didn't start doing it until the 2007 Tour. Of course, Landis hasn't been charged with blood doping, and a finding does have to be based on the charge.

Aside
Wandering about the wibble-web, we come across a post that illuminates the sporting world of the 70s: Must clean the cleats!