Monday Roundup

News
The Montreal Gazette says that outgoing WADA head Dick Pound did Canada proud as they post a profile of him on his last day on the job. They contend that he knew a liar when he saw one, and that Floyd Landis was lying about his innocence. Obviously the Gazette takes Mr. Pound's word on this one.

The CyclingNews reports that Jacques Rogge now admits to the possibility of Jan Ullrich losing his Olympic medals, and the investigation started just in time. Rogge also thinks the defection of sponsors from cycling is a good thing, it will teach the cheaters a lesson. The fact that it may kill the sport seems of no consequence to the head of the IOC. And Werner Franke is at it again, he is now accusing ALL of the 2006 T-Mobile Tour de France riders of doping. Franke offers no details or proof to support his claims.

The Hartford Courant posts its columns of "fives" for 2007 and Floyd Landis makes the "five to forget" category.

The India Times roundup of sports scandal writes in a fairly nuanced way:

2006 Tour de France winner, Floyd Landis has been on a rollercoaster ride since the time he won the championship. His involvement in the alleged positive doping test of July 20, 2006 continued and on September 20, 2007 the hearing committee gave its final verdict. Landis was found guilty in his explosive doping case and banned for two years. The American rider was also stripped of his title. The Tour in 2007 was also marked with three riders and two teams withdrawing during the race following positive doping tests, which also included pre-race favourite Alexandre Vinokourov and his Astana team.

NRC Handelsblad has the best single summary of the Rasmussen affaire, courtesy a pointer from Jean C at Rant. Nobody comes out looking good, but Ras is the one left holding the bag.



Blogs
Eli gets a mention just to illustrate that misinformation never takes a holiday. He says that Floyd Landis lost his final appeal which of course has not even been heard yet.

Eric May contends for Landis snark of the day. However, it is early and it is New Year's Eve so there may be more.

Rant looks back on the year that was, and boy what a year. He recounts many pertinent happenings in 2007 and his comments, some amusing, show what a sad year it was in so many ways.

Podium Cafe noted some statistics from the NY Times website:

The New York Times, publishers of one of the world's most disappointing sports sections (is Murray Chass a sentient being?), listed the top ten most-read sports stories on nytimes.com for the last year. Numero uno: a profile of Floyd Landis' legal case and future. No single baseball, football or other story generated more readership on their website. Number ten was the story of Rasmussen's removal from the Tour.

Conclusion: Cycling's disgrace is the world's favorite pasttime.

All I Wanna Do is Bicycle's year end list writes Landis off, and now says the "Free Floyd" shirts he's hawking are "ironic".

And as we know, comedy is tragedy that happens to someone else.

Happy New Year!


Allusorily Related
The Inquirer, one of our fave tech sites, gives some "trust but verify" advice for the new year. Basically, don't take the first answer you get as the truth.