Tuesday, February 27, 2007

Tuesday Roundup

News
Cyclingnews produces part two of the saga of Oscar Pereiro's long wait with little Landis content other than the following quote:

"It is different... I have become very well known. I cannot walk down the street without being recognised," he said. "Every two or three days there is more news about the Tour. For example, today Landis speaks, blah blah blah. There is too much stress."


Blogs
CityBikesMike passes on a letter written by Chris Fortune of Saris Cycling Group who is a friend of Mikes. This marks an escalation in the public support from Saris, a sponsor who did not disconnect from Landis when The Trouble started. Saris also ran the January training camp for Landis.

Dear fellow industry members:

I am writing this letter today on behalf of Floyd Landis, both in support and in defense of his character. Saris Cycling Group and I have supported and will continue to support Mr. Landis. Floyd has always been a man with integrity, one who has followed through with every commitment he has made to us. The damage done to his previously flawless reputation alone is cause for us to come together, and call attention to the injustices that have been brought against him. Over the course of the past eight months, Floyd has been fighting an uphill battle against WADA, USADA, the UCI and the people who have brought the lawsuits against him. In the United States, the law states that one is innocent until proven guilty. Floyd has been held guilty until proven innocent during this entire ordeal.

Not only do I believe Floyd's word, but also his use of our PowerTap during the Tour gives cold hard data to show that his performance was not out of the ordinary. All of his data from Stage 17 indicates that his performance fell within his normal training zones. Details can be viewed at our website: http://www.saris.com/athletes/PermaLink,guid,c6e3591a-1445-404b-a16d-bd1962ec8c2c.aspx

Many of his friends and supporters have abandoned him since the Tour, leaving him with staggering legal fees. A fund has been set up in his name, The Floyd Fairness Fund, http://www.floydfairnessfund.org/, with all proceeds going to help Floyd pay these fees. I am asking you to help out, not for the Floyd whose reputation has been tarnished, but for the Floyd who is dear to us. I have personally known Floyd to be a man with integrity, pride, and an obvious love and dedication to the sport.

Included are some links from the Los Angeles Times and Fox Sports.com. Please read these. They offer a bit more of an unbiased viewpoint.

http://www.latimes.com/sports/cycling/la-sp-landis23feb23,0,6092667.story?coll=la-home-headlines

http://msn.foxsports.com/other/story/6497808

Please forward this on to anyone you know that you think would be interested in helping Floyd.

Thank you all for your time and consideration.

Sincerely,

Chris Fortune
President
Saris Cycling Group, Inc.
cfortune@saris.com
ph) 608 274-6550, ext. 124
fax) 608 274-1702



Crash Fistfight finally catches up on his vacation blogging. Part of which involves a stage of the ToC with a "Landis sighting" near the finish line.


gnat23 talks about the final stage of the ToC , going to the FFF presentation in San Pedro, the Landis army of men in suits, and "job offers" with fringe benefits from the Landis team. She is charmingly delusional.

Speaking of delusions, limegreeny was positively "swoony" over FL during a stage of the ToC. And the comments support it.

Peterson-Weaver-Wilson-Curtin-Remington (et al) Family Blog went to Long Beach FFF and has some pix.

Barkdust only almost saw Landis at the ToC, but he's a TBV reader so we'll link anyway.

Phantom Reflections is bummed about Ullrich, but glad Landis is fighting. We think age and bank balances have a lot to do with both decisions.

Go Faster Jim says much the same, only he's also worried about the fairness of the hearing process.

PJ at Endless Cycle amplifies Rant's comments about the possible effects of rushing the B sample test. In a comment, Ed adds an afterthought,
"am I the only one who wants to see more of Floyd’s smoking hot wife?"

Amber, consider this a make up for limegreeny above.


TBV (that's us!) talks about uncertainty in the CIR, and the discussion is picked up at DPF.

Chris Writes
about following the ToC, and intends to follow up on Landis and Mr. Pound. He'a a believer.

Rant talks about being an early adopter, and LNDD's IsoPrime. We're still not sure if there's smoke or only fire there with old software versions.


Forums
At Topix, Pommi provides proof the AFLD and USADA LDPs differ, by way of a picture of the slide we'd seen at the SF FFF event.


In this, we see that the USADA version has incorrect sample numbers, and the AFLD version has the numbers "corrected" with writing that is not struckthrough, dated and signed, yet each document was presented to the agency as the one true original. (click the image for full size).


Thought for the Day

"If you're in a boxing match, try not to let the other guy's glove touch your lips, because you don't know where that glove has been." -jh-


9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Here is a start on the "errors" in the Landis case. I'm trying to put one together because I have yet to see a comprehensive list of known errors and potential problems with the prosecutions case. and as close as I follow the case I don't know them by heart.

Please let me know what needs to be added or it would be great if you could keep the updated list on the blog site. I've come up with 10 in about 10 min. I'm trying to keep the list to things that may be reasons to dismiss the case. no matter how big or small, anything that seems to be a violation.

Whats wrong with Floyds case?

1. LNDD used same lab techs involved in both the A & B samples. (CAS threw out Landiluse case because of this.)
2. Not high Testosterone but a low Epitestosterone causing a skewed T/E ratio.
3. LNDDs MS Software is original program version, known bugs effects unknown but plausible.
4. Old software for MS is not ISO compliant.
5. 2 different sets of “original” documents.
6. MS equipment not run at proper pressure, “major errors” will result per the manufacturer. Contamination is a possible result.
7. LNDD did not have a copy of the user manual to know what the proper pressure was.
8. One of the samples attributed to Landis may have actually been mislabeled and is another cyclist urine.
9. LNDD had information linking Landis to samples prior to testing. (Against WADA rules)
10. LNDD leaked information to Pat McQuaid about who tested positive at TDF and Pat fired the first shot with “worst case scenario.”

what else am I forgetting.

Atown, Tx.

Anonymous said...

Document alteration is a clear smoking gun of misconduct.

Thomas A. Fine said...

You know, someone should start a thread over at DPF, called "hottest wife". Amber, Odessa, and Haven would be a good place to start - they're the wives of arguably the three most popular married cyclists, they're all pretty damn hot, and they all have these sort of yacht-club names.

Any other U.S. cyclists with hot wives?

tom

Anonymous said...

Dare I say that you may have forgotten Randi Zabriskie and Kristin Danielson.

Unknown said...

RANDI ZABRISKIE....holy smokes!!

strbuk said...

Hot wives Thomas? I am amazed that you would suggest such a poilitcally incorrect topic. Shame on you. How about hot cylists, male variety? Now that would be a topic worth discussion, if I could think of any. :-)

str

Terry21 said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Cheryl from Maryland said...

And I just thought the swoony bloggers were evidence of ZZ Top Rule #3 -- Every girl's crazy about a sharp dressed man!

Thomas A. Fine said...

Well strbuk, hot male cyclists are already frequently mentioned by some of the female posters there, and I admit as a guy it's disarming to be reading an analysis John Doe's strengths and weaknesses and suddenly seeing something about how "yummy" he looks in spandex.

So I was just contemplating my revenge. But really such a thread would probably not be very entertaining there. So I figured if I aired my idea here I'd get the joy of suggesting it without the pain of actually having to witness it's existence.

And by the way, I'd imagine Floyd is crushed that you didn't think of him while trying to come up with hot male cyclists.

tom