Penultimate Irregular Report 49

La Cronica de Hoy says Landis/OUCH-Maxxis will participate in the Tour of Mexico in March, following the Amgen Tour of California.

Lancaster Online's big news of the year roundup has Landis' loss at CAS an also-ran story, behind: the economy, the election, some murders and fatal accidents, a politician retiring, a fraud case, and closing of a local landmark retailer. And the Phillies.

Cyclisme Review.eu (translated) passes on a rumor from Les Dessous du Sport that L'Equipe has been told to tone down the doping coverage, to the disappointment of the staff, and suggests this is bad news for the readership.

411mania posted a letter from Chris Bell about the death of his brother Mike. Bell's documentary film Bigger Faster Stronger included a visit by Chris to Floyd Landis' (legal) altitude chamber.

My older brother Michael aka MAD DOG in the wrestling world, passed away yesterday from unknown causes. He was residing at a sober living place in Orange County and was celebrating 60 days of being clean and sober from any drugs or alcohol. His roommates found him dead in his room at about 2:30pm yesterday and he was pronounced dead on the spot by medical experts. The cause of death is unknown and does not appear to be self inflicted.

My brother was my true hero growing up and I always wanted to be big and strong like him. He was the inspiration for me to make my movie Bigger Stronger Faster* because I saw how the American Dream negatively affected his sense of self worth. I will always remember my brother as the nicest guy in the world that sometimes got caught up in the wrong things. I am so sad right now over his passing. He was on his way to getting his life back on track and he was taken away from us at such a young age. My family thanks everyone who has sent emails and called. It really means a lot.

I Love you Michael.

Your little brother,
Christopher

In a development that can only be described as exploitive, uninformed, agenda-driven and typical, Bleacher Report headlines Bell's death as, "Breaking News: Two Years After Benoit Tragedy, 'Roids Claims Yet Another Victim". The article itself is more circumspect:

In the film, Mike Bell was said to have previous health issues, but no cause of death was known at release time. Once the film went public, the media went crazy claiming that Bell had attempted suicide in the past.

As we noted in Pause, Mike Bell was bi-polar. The Bell's hometown paper, The Poughkeepsie Journal has the best article.