Wednesday Roundup

News
The CyclingNews says it's official, Bjorn Leukemans has appealed his two year suspension for testosterone use. In an update the CyclingNews reports on Astana's introduction to North America, and Johan Bruyneel's assertion that from what he has heard the ASO will deal fairly with the selection of teams for the TdF. There are also stories of conflict over the "special race calendar" and the possible unfairness of recent late night doping controls for Lampre.

The VeloNews reports that Rock Racing has named its squad for the upcoming Tour of California, and the rumored plaintiff in the lawsuit filed against USADA, Kayle Leogrande, is listed among the riders. The announcement was made in Malibu on Sunday, which VeloNews did not attend after being "disinvited":

Five riders guaranteed starting slots are former ProTour riders Victor Hugo Peña, Oscar Sevilla, Tyler Hamilton, Santiago Botero and Freddie Rodriguez. The sixth rider guaranteed a start is Leogrande. The 2006 national elite criterium champion made headlines over the weekend after several sources told VeloNews and the Associated Press that he is the "John Doe" suing USADA for testing his B sample from a 2007 Superweek event after his A sample tested negative

[...]

By naming Leogrande to the California squad, Ball could be defying Tour of California organizer AEG, which last week announced a round of anti-doping initiatives for the 2008 event and proclaimed that it would seek to bar any rider with an open anti-doping case from competing. Sevilla, Botero and Hamilton have also been named in connection with the ongoing Operación Puerto case in Spain. However, none of those riders is currently under a publicly disclosed formal investigation.

USA Cycling, the UCI, and USADA appear to be able to determne the makeup of the squads participating in the race:

USA Cycling CEO Steve Johnson said Tuesday that the review of rosters won't happen until at least next week. "I haven't seen any official rosters," he said. "The teams will submit their long teams to the race organizers, and the organizers will submit that to us. We will then query both the UCI and USADA as to what they consider to be open doping cases, answer yes or no, and will communicate back to the race organizer the status of anybody in question.

Stay tuned.

The NY Times "freakonomics" blog posts a guest entry by Bicycling's Joe Lindsey on why the legalization of doping won't work. Joe is replying to the suggestion that we just let everyone dope which was posted a couple of days ago.

Blogs
Rant advises three good reads and comments on them. First on the reading list is Larry's "curb your anticipation" series on TBV, Rant next suggests reading one of the latest entries in the "idiots series", and finally he recommends reading the WADAwatch analysis of the AFLD's recently released Landis decision. Have a box of bon bons at hand and enjoy.

CaliRado Cyclist posts an "interview" with retired WADA prez Dick Pound. Hilarity ensues, unless of course it really happened then it's just scary. Illustrations are included.

M-M-My Pomona tells why not to get involved with down-on-their-luck cyclists. We missed that advice, and look what happened to us.

Bourbon and Pork has a story from the 2003 tour, with a hopefully helping hand for Landis, with pictures.