Irregular Report 15

Congratulations to Dave Zabriskie and Tyler Hamilton for winning the USPro time trial and road race respectively. Both championships are are rewards for hard work in the face of additional challenges. Well done.

Here and There
The VeloNews says reports state Manuel Beltran's "B" sample from the Tour de France also tested positive for EPO.

The CyclingNews reports that the Vuelta is the first race to use the UCI's "bio-passport" and that all riders were tested prior to the beginning of this year's third Grand Tour. Testing for the "new" EPO CERA will also apparently be done.

Rant posts part one of a two part interview with Mike Straubel of the Sports Law Clinic at Valparaiso University. In this installment they discuss the stunning CAS decision that came down against Floyd Landis earlier this year:

DR: When I first read the Landis decision, I thought, “Boy, this is a really strongly worded opinion.” It really seems like [the CAS panel are] taking Landis’ legal team to task.

MS: They certainly believed all of USADA’s/WADA’s experts and none of Landis’ experts. And it sounds as if not only the legal strategy and the way in which Landis’ lawyers made their arguments, but the way in which the experts … were aggressive [in their testimony and statements for Landis] backfired, too. I think there was one section of the opinion where the panel took the experts to task for being a little too partisan and a bit too much advocates rather than experts.

Straubel is a professor whose law clinic successfully defended LaTasha Jenkins. He concludes that the award given in the Landis case is legally consistent with the presumptions built into the WADA system, and carefully avoids saying whether he considers it to be absolutely or morally correct. He's concerned that, basically, an athlete has no way of making a defense on the merits of a test that has been declared to be positive.

Look also for Part II, forthcoming.

Racejunkie discusses the usual cornucopia of topics including the "fabulous" Vuelta which started yesterday.

Healthy Living manages somehow to cite Floyd Landis in a discussion of menopausal hormone testing. Don't think that Floyd has ever been tested for his FSH levels.

The Spoof , in a noble attempt at humor, drags the Cowardly Lion into the doping mix and predictably invokes the name of Floyd Landis.