Tuesday Roundup
News
The CyclingNews says Tom Boonen is in hot water due to the confirmation of a positive test for cocaine, but that he may avoid a racing ban if the UCI stay out of it. Boonen will be meeting with is team today. More news is sure to follow-- expect Levefre, the Quickstep DS who blew lots of indignant smoke about Landis, to be mightily tap-dancing to protect his star during a sponsorship search.
VeloNews reports that despite the rumors floating about after Alberto Contador stole the Giro, Astana still insists the ASO will not relent and invite them to the TdF.
Fox Sports posted a piece last week on the biggest train wrecks in sports, and Floyd Landis was NOT on the list. Can decide if this is progress or not, but thank goodness for good ole Tonya Harding.
ESPN/AP say Justin Gatlin's last LAST ditch effort is trying to sue his way into the US Olympics time trials in three weeks. His Florida suit filed yesterday is based on the Americans with Disabilities Act,claiming his 2001 positive test resulted from his use of required ADD medication. Gatlin has a new attorney, Joe Zarzaur, meaning Suh is out of it. Even if Gatlin wins this suit, and places at the Olympic Trials, we don't see how he'll be accepted at The Games with the CAS ruling in place. The IATF, IOC and CAS in Beijing are unlikely to accept the jurisdiction of the US Court having already made their arbitration ruling. It looks like a hurdle into a dead end to us.
Blogs
Chris @Podium Cafe updates "Boonen Gate" with this apt little comment:To Boonen: you expect people to read through the headlines and understand the nuance? Get real. Take the example of Floyd Landis: he has an argument that procedural errors were made in his testosterone positive, but Casual fans and potential sponsors didn't wade through the details. His cycling epitaph reads "Cyclist... Winner... Drugs" and so will yours.
Racejunkie feels baby Contador may be getting some kind of a break, while Tom Boonen may be skating on thin ice. But, there is no doubt about how Paul Sherwin and Phil Liggett feel about Floyd "free me already" Landis, and they said so during VS's Dauphine coverage on Sunday:Phil and Paul Are Gods: y'know, I almost felt sorry for 2006 Tour de France second banana/maillot jaune anyway Oscar Pereiro yesterday, as the perfect team of Liggett and Sherwen said straight out they'd never seen him as the winner of that Tour and never will, because he took it on one escape where he wasn't even a marked man, then, mercifully switching the focus from the really pretty decent Pereiro's shortcomings and on to Floyd Landis' total hosing, expressed annoyance with ASO's handing off the jersey without a definitive ruling and that's it's flat disastrous for both the rider and the sport to have no resolution damn near two years on. Right on Phil & Paul--suck up the embarrassment of the complete farce that's been this process, CAS, and free Floyd already!
WADAwatch doesn't see why France is getting WADA support.
In Comments here, JRButcher trainspots lots of cars in the ongoing wreck that was the 2006 Tour.
Comments at Rant chew the Boonen bone. Some point out the irk Specialized must now feel having ponied up big money to hype Tom at The Tour; others point out that now ASO has a no-win, because they are going to be cruxified whether Tom is dis-invited, or allowed to come.
3 comments:
The fiasco related to the 2006 TdF has to be in the top 10 sports train wrecks. The fact that Fox doesn’t think so probably means they have no understanding about the circumstances, on several levels.
*AAF announced by Pat McQuaid shortly after the tour’s conclusion and identifying Floyd by innuendo, A Sample results were supposed to be confidential – Train Wreck.
*Dick Pound’s various bombastic and inappropriate statements (marching orders) – Train Wreck.
*Christian P’s piling on, naming Oscar P. the winner before the conclusion of the adjudication process. Train Wreck.
*USADA did not adequately review the files from LNDD before “deciding” to uphold the finding. Train Wreck.
*USADA delays and withholds discovery documents from the accused. Not meaningfully sanctioned for doing so. Train Wreck.
*Re-testing of B-Samples not associated with an A-Sample AAF. Train Wreck.
*Locking out the observers for the accused. Train Wreck. Not getting meaningfully sanctioned for doing so. Priceless. Train Wreck.
*LNDD’s excessively sloppy work and missing data that would tend to settle the issue. Train Wreck.
*LNDD didn't know what they were testing anyway. Train Wreck.
*Loose standard of proof necessary for an athlete sanction. Train Wreck.
*Will G stupidly calling LeMond just prior to his scheduled hearing appearance. Train Wreck.
*USADA parading in Joe Papp and Greg LeMond to the hearing when they had nothing probative to offer. Train Wreck.
*Greg LeMond refusing to answer questions from the side of the accused. Arbitration panel fails to sanction LeMond for his refusal. Priceless. Train Wreck.
*Stacked deck wrt the arbitrator pool for the USADA hearing. Hearing result was a foregone conclusion. Travesty. Train Wreck.
* Young – primary rules writer, USADA outside counsel, acted as prosecutor, is in the arbitrator pool club for CAS. Train Wreck.
*My tax dollars at work supporting an organization (USADA) that seeks to prosecute U.S. athletes in a “kangaroo court”. Disturbing and maddening. Train Wreck.
*French sanction of Floyd Landis in violation of the key intended purposes for WADA’s very existence. Train Wreck.
*Date of Floyd’s sanction, as announced by the USADA arbitration panel, being determined by what should be viewed as a rouge sanction (from the French) by USADA and WADA. Priceless. No, seriously - Priceless. Train Wreck.
*Defacto two-year suspension due to the length of the adjudication process. Train Wreck.
That’s just a quick and dirty summary.
Train Wreck. Train Wreck. Train Wreck.
AFLD legislatively decides who can and can't race in France. Train wreck.
ASO institutes a Bill of Attainder for OP "participants" refusing to let "the usual suspects" start the 2006 TdF. Train Wreck.
CAS award promised no earlier than June 2008. Is that light at end of tunnel an approching train?
Kudos to JRD and Eight-Zero:
Two years of pain summed up in 22 bullet points. Priceless.
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