Saturday Roundup

In an article we didn't post yesterday, the AP/Eddie Pells reports Gatlin's appeal to the 11th circuit was rejected, and he's chosen not to try the Supreme Court. It's over for him for this year's Olympics. The AFP has a story where other runners are glad he's not there at the trials.

Eugene Weekly, home of this week's US Olympic track trials, notes doping is the elephant in the room. Jones, Landis, and Gatlin are targeted by dubious statements that probably reflect popular sentiment. Then it rips into one of Gatlin's erstwhile competitors who is happy Gatlin isn't there -- because it is his turn.

The Register-Guard takes a sympathetic look at the therapist, "one of track's great healers", alleged to have spiked Gatlin.

The AP runs a pre-Tour puff piece that touts ASOs efforts to ensure a clean race.

VeloNews catches up on the Monday release of the Landis award.

Velocity, to which we linked recently, discovered us in return. He "doesn't want to argue technicalities" about the Landis tests, because he made his mind up with the improbability of the Stage 17 ride. He cites Stewey O'Grady as his source of unquestionable judgment on the matter.

BikesnobNYC watched the HBO "Real Sports" on Millar and Slipstream, and came away less than impressed by the journalism -- perhaps warranting a "seal of disapproval."

Racejunkie says

Floyd Landis at least gets to enjoy The Crappiest Weekend Ever, as CAS kindly announces that they're gonna wait to formally announce their near-inevitable decision to jack him til Monday, giving a good two days for an alcohol-induced blackout to take effect before he has to hear the verdict.

We believe there are a lot of cheap bars near the border in Mexico should he disappear for a while. Anyway, RJ goes on with a confession:

I'm not a paid troll for disgusting dopers like Jan Ullrich and Roberto Heras, as those who believe I'm part of the cabal of amoral pro-doping sport-destroying scuzzbags might suggest--I do it for free-

And so do we, though we mostly limit our sympathy to those who have experienced procedural and fairness related problems once in the sausage making machine that is a doping accusation.

Since we do it for free, and have been doing it daily for nearly two years, our nerves are growing thin. We haven't decided exactly what were going to do post-verdict, but we've warned before that we're likely to become progressively more sporadic.

We do expect to provide analysis of the award, and will follow any subsequent legal action that may happen. We also hope to get access to the exhibits etc. from the CAS appeal once the award has been made, as there should be no reason to maintain tight-lipped discretion.

Obsessive-compulsives that we are, we'll probably at some point update references, indexes etc. that we expect to have long-term utility to those who may look at the case for various reasons. It ought to remain of interest to policy makers, law students and scholars, and web surfers with too much idle time.

Beyond that, we'd like to get out of the unpaid grind, except for special occasions when we're so moved.

Things do have a natural lifespan, and this is about over.

Remember the TBV Triathalon in October!