Irregular Report 45

As we noted the other day, expect the reply in Landis v. USADA to turn up in Pacer in the next few days.


The Boulder Report notes the Dude at the end of an evaluation of the AToC route. We agree the placement of the Palomar climb is a bummer. Maybe if they mix Idyllwild in too...

Joe Papp's blog is posting articles from elsewhere about Leogrande, and has pointers to Rant and us.

Podium Insight has a timeline of the Leogrande affair which is an addition to the discussion, but very incomplete -- It might usefully show when Papp testified in the Landis case, and when Papp and Leogrande began communication.

Rant comes to the rescue, explaining Papp and Leogrande first met in 2005, and did training together in 2006. Later in 2006, Papp got popped in Turkey. (At some point in late '06 or early '07, Papp contacted Arnie Baker and was rebuffed.) In March of 2007, Papp seemed to help direct Rock Racing at Redlands, where Leogrande did well, but Papp's business dealings with Rock fell apart for reasons that aren't clear. The pictures were taken, according to Papp, in March, at Leogrande's house. Then, in May, Papp testifies at the Landis hearing, stage 1 of whatever deal he struck with USADA. A small remaining part of the puzzle is the date of the postcard from Leogrande to Papp. Speculating, we'd guess it was from after training together in 2006, before Papp got nailed in Turkey, but we've seen nothing about that. Papp's discussion so far haven't said, nor has he addressed why Kayle would send him such a card if Papp hadn't been involved in the supply chain. (Maybe he did. TBV hasn't the time or interest to read the award.)

One of the things Bill Hue has been wondering about is Papp's involvement with the supply chain, and possible prosecution for trafficking We should assume that Papp has been cooperating with USADA, and take it for truth that he hasn't been prosecuted by the Feds so far. The lack of further charges by either party might mean there are no trafficking issues hanging over Papp, or that he cooperated enough, or that his holiday is dependent on continued cooperation. Suppose he was involved in Leogrande's supply, as suggested by the card, and he is cooperating with USADA and the Feds. Then take the "more stuff" claims made both by Papp and Sonye in comments at Rant, and you might reasonably conclude he has provided access to the supply chain, and there there are continuing investigations that are promising enough that nothing explicit is being said -- except perhaps, for some chain rattling.

With that, we take off our tin-foil hat for the night, and seek a container of half-and-half.

---

A time warp has pointed us to Michael Robertson's July 31, 2006 offer of $100,000 for Landis to take a polygraph on the TdF allegations. That might conveniently cover the fine CAS imposed, not that we trust lie detectors.

Velo Vortmax rails against SOP problems with the Biological Passport.

The Hook/Juanita Giles gets all philosophical, literally, about Plaxico Burress, mentioning Landis in the process.

The Creative Minority Report labels cheating teens the "Floyd Landis Generation", reflecting transformation into badly understood metaphor. Most of the facts are wrong, but there you are.

At DPF, Strategy brings to light some criticism of WADA and the IOC over doping control made by Bengt Saltin at an anti-doping forum in Berlin. The original report is in German.

He demands independent and competent specialists to oversee the control systems in order to improve the level of the laboratories used by WADA/IOC. According to Saltin, the labs are not good advisors to WADA/IOC, because the labs are in it for the money and anti-doping is a lucrative business for them.