Wednesday Roundup

News
ESPN reports on the CAS/D'Arcy decision which TBV discussed here last night. What with one thing and another the CAS sure has it's hands full lately, at least it would this seem to clearly be a case of the "criminal charge of recklessly inflicting grievous bodily harm" which obviously violates the ethics clause for Aussie swimmers, there doesn't seem to be a bungled lab test in sight.

The CyclingNews says that Bjorn Leukemans is off the Flemish state doping list which means he can race, but he is still not out of the proverbial woods yet.

The Boulder Report's Joe Lindsey is very suspicious of some of the performances at this year's Giro, and doesn't mind spelling out not only his concerns abut them, but also his disdain for the Giro itself:

RCS director Angelo Zomegnan sniffed in response that if riders didn't like it perhaps they could choose to race elsewhere. It was the kind of arrogance that can come only from a guy who knows the riders really don't have a choice, or at least won't organize themselves long enough to actually make their voices heard and force authorities to offer one to them. It was the kind of statement that only a person in total power would dare to make, presenting the illusion of a choice that doesn't exist to cover his own failings. In it is the implicit message: "I don't care how you survive the spectacle, just make sure it is a spectacle. Draw the crowds."

[...]

What do I want to see?

I want to see race organizers who don't imperiously flex their muscle to keep the rank-and-file riders in line. I want a riders' union that's not a puppet of the UCI, that actually represents riders' interests. I want to see riders not succumbing to the "So and so was a shitty rider and had to dope just to keep up" routine - just because that's true doesn't mean he's lying about the sport's problems. It's not like the stuff is hard to get.

I want to see results from the UCI - if there are 23 riders whose results need more scrutiny, what's the timeline for that? How do we ensure that these guys aren't allowed to continue racing and maybe cheating while we form a sub-committee to investigate...what to order for lunch?

I want to see results from the teams and independent agencies doing testing. I want to know more about USADA's new "Un-Dirty Dozen" program - like how the 12 athletes were selected and why only 12?

I'm going to start asking these questions and requesting - politely, but firmly - that they be answered.

Good luck on that last part.


New York Magazine interviews Christopher Bell, director of the documentary film, "Bigger, Stronger, Faster", which has an interview with Landis:

And then there’s Floyd Landis.
Floyd sleeps in an altitude chamber. There are four different ways you can increase your red-blood-cell count: You can sleep in an altitude chamber; you can train at altitude; you can inject EPO, a hormone that makes your blood produce more blood cells; or you can blood dope, which is just reinjecting your own blood a day before the race. The two latter ways are cheating; the two former ways are totally allowed. You ask, what’s the difference? They’ll say, “Well, one actually increases it a lot more than the other one.” Which is just another way of saying: “An altitude chamber doesn’t work as well as the drugs or the blood doping.”

What do you think of his story?
I don’t know whether to believe him or not. I wasn’t there when everything went down, but I did see the lab results, and they were very shady. The way they went about the testing was a mess.

This is the first public mention we've seen of Landis seriously using an altitude chamber. Could that have affected the hematocrits during the Tour? It he'd been doing EPO or blood doping, would he have also been using an altitude tent?


Blogs
Joe Biker is going to ride the Mohican, but he's going for TV time, not the win. We hope he has friends bringing video cameras, because the network coverage may be light. The horns on the helmet may scare people into giving him room, for fear of an altercation. He has a good earlier post telling you about the kinds of guys who run these events:

[T]here’s only one other thing that can give you 100% confidence for the last 2 1/2 hours of the Mohican 100. Get out a ball peen hammer and whack your quads ten times each and go out for a two and a half hour ride.

Peloton Jim is still waiting patiently in the square, waiting for the CAS decision in the Landis case while others sneak off to watch the Giro. How 'bout that Contador and Astana?