Tuesday Roundup

News
BBC blurb about of presentation. Doesn't mention LDP or filing.
MSNBC story from yesterday; looks based on USA Today.
Velonews picks up coming release.

San Luis Obispo opinion piece uses Landis as a hook for failure to take responsibility and making excuses. From Morzine to these Badlands. Sigh.

ESPN Radio talked about release today 1-4 ET, maybe also here. Reader Chris sends this summary:

A few minutes of discussion in the "Big Show" portion with Keith Olberman (former ESPN anchor, now host of Countdown on MSNBC). basically, Dan [Patrick] questioned Landis using the internet to bring out his defense (no reason why). KO disagreed, saying internet is where people are getting their info from today (traditional media on the decline, YouTube as example). typical means for defending yourself (e.g. 60 minutes or Diane Sawyer interview) not appropriate ... cycling is niche market that probably doesn't much interest mass media. most of those who care about the case (cycling followers) are mainly the "younger" generation who are going to get their info from the net, not 60 minutes, etc. so, Landis is correct in bringing his case public the way he is.

Sounds like a fair analysis to TBV. Olberman is pretty sharp.

John Dennigan comments:

Read the article "Catchy Carbon" in the November issue of Scientific American about the accuracy of the CIR test:

"...if the body were able to make testosterone from an artificial compound-such as the cortisone athletes sometimes inject to reduce muscle inflammation-might the natural hormone carry a synthetic-looking finger-print, Hayes notes."

Nothing on www.sciam.com website; discussed on Daily Peloton Forums with paraphrase.

Blogs
BluecollarMTB points to Biking Bis story.
Velochimp covers release and forum appearance, also selects Badlands quote. But no plug. Sniff.

Rant digresses into problems with another urine test that works too well. Mentioned here before via ZBicyclist from a WSJ report.

GodsofSport thinks it's a trick by the lawyers.

Forums
Ongoing discussion at Corante picks up some current interest, thanks to Rant for the reminder. I'd given up on that one since "Realist" is a bit, um, whatever.

Daily Peloton Forum is exploding with King Floyd holding court, with a fair amount of gushing and some heavily moderated but pointed and persistent skepticism. Landis vanished after lunch yesterday, and popped in at 11:40PM to check what arrived, and then signed off:

Looks like I have some work to do. I'll try to answer all of these but sorry if I miss some. Also, on second thought, I'll start a new subject in the cycling forum for those of you who want to know things about that. For now I have to get some sleep.

Then he checked back in at 7:40AM Tuesday:

[what song was running through your mind on the way to Morzine?]

The song was Badlands by "The Boss".

["Badlands. You got to live it every day. Let the broken hearts stand, as the price you've got to pay. We'll keep pushing till its understood, and these badlands start treating us good."]

Later, in a technical thread about tests, Floyd pops in a one liner after quoting a long thing about cortisone being different than testosterone, and the LNDD ought to know the difference:

Just a question: What if the control metabolites used were those of cortisone?

Ah, that is interrrresting.

The technical discussion is becoming worth following. This post questions the "best" metabolite theory that was offered by Jacobs in the summary of the filing. There is doubt the TUE'd cortisone could come into play at all, but Will (Geoghegan) says, "wait till thursday..."

RH: We talked about this in August, it was found that cortisone and testosterone do not have biochemical pathways wherein, the pathways share exact metabolites. So to answer your question, if the lab used metabolites associated with cortisone than the results are in principle not consistent with testosterone levels.

FL: I think I understand you to say that, had they used metabolites of cortisone, the results would not be reliable assuming we know that I used cortisone for my hip. What if the cortisone metamolite used appeared normal while knowing there should have been some there?

Hopar: I don't understand this question... In any case analyzing cortisone metabolite levels to determine testosterone levels will not be reliable - no matter what the result.

From the mass spectrometer data it is relatively easy to tell what metabolite was analyzed.

FL: Good.

Is that the sound of a trap being sprung?

A new perjorative colloquialism [verb, transitive] is proffered, dissected, and approved for wider usage:

The lab roostered up the test.

Definition: to ***k something up, in a loud, puffed up and self important way, foolishly intended to quell criticism.

In the other thread some boors arrive making very pointed comments, but not (yet) moderated.

Bicycling Forum unjealously points people at Daily Peloton.

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