Tuesday Roundup

Happy New Year from the TBV family!

News
AP/Eddie Pells reports on Justin Gatlin's sanction, which has come down. The story is replete with painfully sanctimonious quotes from the Alphabet Soups.

We learn nothing of what really happened with Gatlin, except that in, "we'll go easy on you if you co-operate", the "easy on you" still means destroying your career. Gatlin played ball in both of his cases, the first for prescribed medication, and this one where he was probably spiked, and he's still screwed.

Chicago Trib/Phil Hersch throws Gatlin under the bus for associating with Trevor Graham.

The CyclingNews finishes its "year in review" feature for 2007 with the same sarcasm it started with, as far as the Landis case is concerned anyway.

The VeloNews Monday Mailbag gives advice to those who want to insure their bikes. In addition there are a couple of letters on doping one of which concerns lie detectors, you can probably guess in relation to which riders.
The VeloNews also posts a little more on Werner Franke's assertions of rampant doping in the 2006 Tour de France by the then T-Mobile squad.

The Washington Post has obtained Justin Gatlin's arbitration decision which it purports will be a four year ban from competition thus preventing him from competing in the upcoming summer Olympics. Chris Campbell, who participated in the Landis arbitration panel, was one of the arbitrators and wrote the dissenting argument:

One of the arbitrators, Chris Campbell, wrote in his dissent that Gatlin had been discriminated against under the Americans With Disabilities Act and had proven his sabotage claim only 33 percent, not the required 50.1 percent, according to the person who reviewed the opinion.

Gatlin could appeal the decision to the Court of Arbitration for Sport. Gatlin's Chicago-based attorney, John Collins, declined to comment, saying in an e-mail he wanted to read the opinion first. Gatlin also declined to comment through a family member.

The Pittsburgh Tribune Review goes over the year's top local sports stories and also includes a chronology of the year in sports.


Blogs
Racejunkie says "Happy New Year" and resolves to try some resolutions, again. He has one concerning potential Floyd Landis CAS result coverage:

1. I will not excoriate the know-nothing non-cycling press for whatever idiot comments they make after Landis inevitably loses his CAS appeal. However, on actual cycling freaks, it remains open season. I will, though, send the brilliant and faithful pro-Floyd analysts over at trustbutverify some nice flowers in consolation for their loss.

There are more, and they are very amusing, we'll believe the David Millar one when we see it. If Floyd loses his CAS appeal we will wait for the promised flowers with baited breath, but in the meantime we appreciate all the kind words.


True Story gives the first annual "Chang Awards", and Floyd Landis is nominated in the "*" category. He did not win, and we were not nominated as the "blogger of the year".

Irish KC reviews 2007 and feels Landis fans missed the point in an earlier blog entry. He also thinks Floyd got what he deserved when he was stripped of his 2006 Tour de France title, and yes IKC has read up on both sides of the issue.


Finger Food posts the best sports moments of 2007 and feels that the live stream of the Landis arbitration hearings was beneficial in that it revealed the lengths to which the anti-doping establishment will go to get the result it desires.