Monday Roundup

In case you have missed it last week be sure to read Floyd Landis' op-ed piece,"Dopers Must be Stoned" (or so says Patrice Brunet).

News
The Richmond Times Dispatch quotes a former prosecutor as wondering why the Feds went after Barry Bonds the way they did and not Floyd Landis. Perhaps he needs to refresh his memory on what it means to testify before and ostensibly lie to a grand jury and the consequences therein.

The Maryland Daily Record writes about new procedures in joint replacement surgery and mentions Floyd Landis' hip resurfacing.

The CyclingNews reports that the CAS has asked Alejandro Valverde's lawyers to respond to the case filed against him by WADA and the UCI which seeks a two year sanction. But the cyclist's legal representatives claim that since he has been cleared to ride by the Spanish Superior Council for Sports to compete, WADA is merely trying to find another path to a suspension which they did not obtain in September. Outgoing WADA president Dick Pound claims however there may be evidence against Valverde:

Hinting at the case against Valverde, WADA's President Dick Pound had said at a press conference Thursday according to the AFP, "There is still the evidence coming from the documentation that is available to the UCI that would indicate this particular cyclist might have been involved in Operación Puerto.

In a CyclingNews update this afternoon former Telekom soigneur Jef D'Hont had a conversation with Rudy Pevenage who claims that Jan Ullrich was doping when he won the 1997 Tour de France and Ullrich's was not the only name that came up in the Focus magazine piece:

According to the magazine, a meeting at d'Hont's house on March 16 of this year, Pevenage admitted to having advised Ullrich and others on blood doping. He said, about "30 to 40 percent" of the riders were informed of the practice, but later they all knew about it. "You gave up a half-litre of blood three weeks before. And it is well-stored. Good, you feel a little weak for the first two or three days, but then you start to recover... You feel a lot better and then at that point you get back that extra half-litre," Pevenage described the process.

Even Lance Armstrong's name came up in the conversation. "I don't understand why Jan could never beat the other one [Armstrong - ed.]," Pevenage said, and wondered about his blood values. "One day someone told me the American is unbelievable. He starts the Tour with a hematocrit value of 46 and at the end his still has 46. How can he do that?" questioned Pevenage. "With blood doping," suggested d'Hont.

The VeloNews also covers the Valverde squabble with the UCI and WADA.

Blogs
Rant will be taking some time off to work on another project, but in the meantime he has a bunch of things he wanted to talk about including the recent WADA summit, the Rasmussen case, Patrik Sinkewitz, and the Balco investigation. But wait, Rant has a an assignment for his loyal readers.

The Philman says that no one seems to follow the rules anymore in the "win at all costs" society we all live in.

Say Hi decided the answer to a question about whether Landis will ever confess based on an interpretation of The Call to St. LeMond.