Wednesday Roundup

News
Bloomberg/Mason Levinson is reporting Floyd Landis' CAS hearing will begin on March 19th, and not be open to the public:

Cyclist Floyd Landis's final appeal of the drug suspension that cost him a Tour de France title is tentatively scheduled to begin March 19.

The hearing before the Court of Arbitration for Sport, known as CAS, is scheduled to last five days and will tentatively be held in New York, Landis's attorney, Maurice Suh, said in a telephone interview.

[...]

Suh said he wouldn't seek to open the hearing to the public, as Landis requested during the initial appeal so that his defense could be widely heard. That hearing, which included nine days of testimony, was the first U.S. drug hearing not held behind closed doors and was broadcast on the Internet.

``They'll be no chance,'' Suh said about the possibility of opening the CAS hearing. ``We just thought we wouldn't make an issue of it.''

The Ottawa Sun posts a retrospective on the terrible year in sports that 2007 was, and for the first time Floyd Landis is referred to as having been "defrocked". It's nice to see a different, though rather odd, adjective choice now and then.

The UPI's Marc Ellenbogen writes of dishonor in sport and recounts an episode with a friend's sons during which he told them why Floyd Landis was punished and how they should consider him an inappropriate role model. He might also have told them of the courage it takes to stand up for yourself against all odds, and how hard it must be to hold your head up when you are disbelieved by society, but it seems likely he did not.

Blogs
Rant posts the entire Bloomberg article on the impending Landis CAS hearings.

Steroid Nation notes the Justin Gatlin arbitration decision and wonders how arbitrator Chris Campbell could come up with discrimination as a component of his dissent.

WADAwatch bids a "fond" farewell to former WADA president Dick Pound and has some helpful suggestions for incoming leader John Fahey which are too numerous and detailed to post here. It's a good read.

Pommi undeterred by a slight hangover, made it back to Diablo yesterday and looked for familiar faces.

Art O'Connor was more pissed off by Floyd Landis' participation in the Leadville 100 than he was by the doping allegations that "lost" Landis his yellow jersey from the 2006 Tour de France.

The Bleacher Report says that 2007 was a year filled with sports scandals, apologies, and denials, and steroids were a big part of that picture.

The American Idiot claims that while we in the US may not have the best athletes we do have the best drugs since the old USSR.

The Science of Sport looks into its 2008 crystal ball and anticipates, among many other things, Floyd Landis' upcoming CAS appeal.

Forums
HC has left a message for Floyd Landis on various newsgroups and cycling forums.