Monday Roundup

News
AP/Yahoo reports on brinksmanship by the UCI, "telling" pro teams to boycott the Paris-Nice race unless ASO plays nice. We think some of our readers might run to the rulebooks to figure out whether what McQuaid is saying is viable under the UCI regs, or whether the ASO opened the door to this by chosing to run under the French Cycling Federation (FFC) rules. For some reason we don't think this is going to go well for the UCI.
Also at ESPN.

The CyclingNews posts a feature about the team oriented doping programs that have sprung up recently in cycling. The piece compares the A.C.E program, which is a private for profit anti-doping program developed to help not only cycling but also other sports, with Dr. Rasmus Daamsgard's CSC program which seems to be a stop gap until the UCI can get up to speed with its promised "blood passport". Neither program is punative in nature, and ACE will share results with the UCI and WADA which would be the agencies responsible for "prosecuting" and sanctioning athletes found with AAFs. The first edition of CN's daily updates posts the reported complaint filed to the UCI by Quick Step's Kevin Hulsmans' concerning the female doping controller assigned to him during the ToC.

The VeloNews drops the news this morning that suspected "John Doe" cyclist Kayle Leogrande, who filed suit against USADA for testing his "B" sample when they "A" sample had not been found positive, admitted to a Rock Racing soigneur that he had indeed used many doping substances and had tried to confound the doping controls:

In a sworn affidavit obtained by VeloNews, dated October 27 and filed with the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, Suzanne Sonye says Leogrande confided that he had used testosterone gel, had taken “lots of things,” including EPO, and that he had put soap on his wrist prior to entering a doping control at Superweek, hoping that by urinating on the soap, it would “f— up the test.”

How VN got that affidavit is an interesting question -- the goodpath is that Sonye or her attorney provided it; the bad is that is was leaked by someone at USADA. We have not heard whether the B sample tests will be done, being the subject of the law suit. They apparently have not been tested yet. There is also a claim in the article that the confession was passed to Rock management (Frankie? Ball?), with no visible response. Ball issued a statement saying he supports his riders, is against doping, and will take appropriate action if an offense is found to have occurred.

AFP/VeloNews reports a two year suspension from CONI for Marco Fertonani, a testosterone positive by LNDD in Feb 2007, a little before that Landis alternate B samples. AFP says he alleged problems with LNDD, which were rejected by CONI, obviously. We don't know if the details are available - we suspect they are not, which makes it hard to compare and contrast with the Landis case. There's no speculation if he'll appeal, and he probably won't get any hints from the Landis case before he needs to make a decision. CyclingNews had an earlier story, which quoted his attorney as saying:

"We have given a detailed technical report, in which we outlined the reasons why there are these minuscule variations in the values of Fertonani, which explain the mistakes by the lab,"

We also don't know why AFP is talking about this now, as CyclingNews had an earlier announcement of a CONI finding on December 21, 2007.

The Carroll County Times pens a piece on how "cheaters" are "prospering" nicely and includes Floyd Landis in with a host of the usual suspects. Right.

Blogs
FattyM agrees with some of Floyd Landis' comments on Team High Road after observing their "tactics" at the Stage 6 finish of the ToC.

GMR reviews the recently completed ToC and posts support for Floyd Landis as his March 19th CAS hearing nears.

Tyler Brandt posts his promised "controversial" picture taken with Floyd Landis from an event held before the beginning of the ToC. The photo comes from Tyler's blog.