Cycling: Landis Fallout
Wow. I was shocked this morning when The Duke announced on the radio that Floyd Landis had tested positive for extra-high levels of Testosterone. The surprise was not that a cyclist had been caught cheating, but that a champion had been unmasked as a fraud.
With a back-up test still pending, it seems that Floyd doped for his then-unbelievable stage 17 win. No one had ever done anything quite like what he did that day (except for Mickael Rasmussen the day before, but we'll get to that later), and now it seems to have been an achievement of science, not of spirit.
My initial thought was, well, they're all doping, and he just got caught. But when I found out it was stage 17, I re-thought that. I don't believe that the sport is clean; I suspect most riders are getting away with doping. But I do believe Floyd gambled a little more than everyone else, boosting his testosterone a bit too far, and cheating his way past everyone else. Let's call this "extra-cheating."
Indeed, the rules actually leave some room for a little cheating. According to the AP article on the positive test, a normal human ratio of testosterone to epitestosterone in the body is 1:1. But a racer is considered clean if his ratio is 4:1 or less. So while everyone is probably cheating to get to that ratio, Floyd extra-cheated past that ratio.
I suspect that Floyd, suddenly out of the Tour and with nothing to lose (he may never race again with a hip surgery scheduled for after the Tour), decided go all or nothing and extra-cheat his way back into the race. It almost worked. Good job by the officials to catch him.
I will know look up who will slide up to first in the tour with Landis out of the picture...ah, it's Oscar Pereiro of Spain. He's the man who made up nearly 30 minutes to take the yellow jersey on stage 13, because all of the favorites didn't think he'd last through the Alps. Looks like Oscar gets the last laugh!
Yesterday, the greatest individual performance on a stage of the Tour was Floyd on 17. Landis rode out early and stayed away to the finish. We can now throw that performance out and say that the greatest performance was Mickael Rasmussen on 16. Good ol' Rasmussen, who would win the King of the Mountains jersey, rode out early and stayed away to the finish. He didn't win with as large a gap as Landis, but he also didn't have above the legal limit of Testosterone coursing through his body. He gets the Ken Griffey Jr. Award for athletic achievement over-shadowed by cheaters. His ride on 16 should be remembered forever.
Updated Sports Sauna Membership
Mickael Rasmussen
Oscar Pereiro
Banned from Using the Sports Sauna
Floyd Landis
With a back-up test still pending, it seems that Floyd doped for his then-unbelievable stage 17 win. No one had ever done anything quite like what he did that day (except for Mickael Rasmussen the day before, but we'll get to that later), and now it seems to have been an achievement of science, not of spirit.
My initial thought was, well, they're all doping, and he just got caught. But when I found out it was stage 17, I re-thought that. I don't believe that the sport is clean; I suspect most riders are getting away with doping. But I do believe Floyd gambled a little more than everyone else, boosting his testosterone a bit too far, and cheating his way past everyone else. Let's call this "extra-cheating."
Indeed, the rules actually leave some room for a little cheating. According to the AP article on the positive test, a normal human ratio of testosterone to epitestosterone in the body is 1:1. But a racer is considered clean if his ratio is 4:1 or less. So while everyone is probably cheating to get to that ratio, Floyd extra-cheated past that ratio.
I suspect that Floyd, suddenly out of the Tour and with nothing to lose (he may never race again with a hip surgery scheduled for after the Tour), decided go all or nothing and extra-cheat his way back into the race. It almost worked. Good job by the officials to catch him.
I will know look up who will slide up to first in the tour with Landis out of the picture...ah, it's Oscar Pereiro of Spain. He's the man who made up nearly 30 minutes to take the yellow jersey on stage 13, because all of the favorites didn't think he'd last through the Alps. Looks like Oscar gets the last laugh!
Yesterday, the greatest individual performance on a stage of the Tour was Floyd on 17. Landis rode out early and stayed away to the finish. We can now throw that performance out and say that the greatest performance was Mickael Rasmussen on 16. Good ol' Rasmussen, who would win the King of the Mountains jersey, rode out early and stayed away to the finish. He didn't win with as large a gap as Landis, but he also didn't have above the legal limit of Testosterone coursing through his body. He gets the Ken Griffey Jr. Award for athletic achievement over-shadowed by cheaters. His ride on 16 should be remembered forever.
Updated Sports Sauna Membership
Mickael Rasmussen
Oscar Pereiro
Banned from Using the Sports Sauna
Floyd Landis
posted by Prof. A at 11:54 AM
8 Comments:
P.S. I think that today's fallout will actually improve Lances image, at least in the eyes of more intense cycling fans. Lance never did what Floyd did on stage 17. And he never got caught, at least not caught as crystal-clear as Landis was. So even if he did cheat, his performance never indicated that he extra-cheated.
I'm not with you here. I'm not giving up on Landis. Two relevant links:
1. On the Dan Patrick show, an ESPN reporter said repeatedly that only the ratio was out of whack, not the total level of testosterone. Perhaps cortisone shots, which Landis was taking with approval of tour, or beer, which Landis publicly drank, could throw off the ratio. Reporter also said, but did not support, that in the history of anti-doping, any athlete who has challenged this ratio-test has won.
Search for that on ESPN.com, as they won't let me direct link. I have insider password, if you've lost yours.
2. Testosterone isn't something that takes effect immediate. Also from ESPN.com, here is a doping expert who made clear during his interview that he is no Landis apologist:
"It makes no sense to me why an athlete would take testosterone the day of a race when it doesn't work that way. It doesn't make sense in terms of the pharmacology of the drug, and it really doesn't have the attributes that would be attractive to a cyclist -- particularly one running the risk of violating anti-doping regulations." - Dr. Gary Wadler, a member of the World Anti-Doping Agency's prohibited list and methods committee.
Link: http://sports.espn.go.com/oly/tdf2006/news/story?id=2531677
I'm just saying... leave Landis in the Sauna until the appeal process finishes.
I believe the first reporter is John Eustice, ESPN's cycling John Clayton. I've heard him once or twice since I wrote my initial reaction. He seems very heavily pro-Landis. If what he is reporting is true, that Floyd's testotesterone levels were fine, but his epitesterone was LOW, then it seems Floyd will win his appeal and I should perhaps back off.
I haven't heard that little knuggaht from Doc Wadler until now. Of course, Floyd still might have juiced and might have gotten the psychological boost he needed to do what he did on stage 17. See Jason Giambi for the psychological aspect of cheating.
Anyway, I suppose I was a little hasty with Floyd. My old explanation for how he did what he did on stage 17 was simply that because he had bonked the previous day, he had actually not tired out his muscles nearly as much as everyone else, so he felt way better than anyone. Maybe he didn't need the drugs.
Yeah, it was Eustice. And, yes, he was clearly pro-Landis.
Also, yeah, you're right. Landis might have cheated the night before for the mental benefit. Or, maybe he'd been doping the whole time. The tour only tests the winner, the runner up, and three random finishers.
With that in mind, and guessing that Landis was never a random test, this is Floyd's testing schedule:
Before the race: Everybody tested.
Stage 7: Finished second alone. Would have been tested.
Stage 11: Second with one other. Tested?
Stage 17: First. Tested positive.
Forgetting briefly the issue Floyd's normal levels of testosterone, and pretending that unbalancing the ratio of T-to-E gives the same benefit (I have no idea if it does), it seems in theory possible that Floyd could have been doping the whole time. Or at least long enough for the benefit of a whacked out ratio to benefit Stage 17. He might have only been tested once in the previous two weeks. Just a thought.
Lastly, on the Jason Smith All Night show on ESPN (Smith is from Syracuse, and Syracuse University. He does "football on the 4's", which I have to believe is a 44 shout out. Holla!) Smith had a British commentator talking about how one characteristic of a drug-free Tour would be that riders would have good days and bad days. In what might have been a back-handed slap at Lance, the commentator said this Tour had that. Riders would fare really well when they felt good, and perform poorly when they didn't. Obviously, both Landis and Pereiro both "suffered" from this inconsistency.
Lance cheated, didn't he? Didn't he? Did he? I'm curious where you come down.
Whoa. Landis said today he was tested 6 times during the Tour. So, umm, not sure when those happened.
But, his comments make me increasingly uncomfortable with him. Bummer.
Link: http://sports.espn.go.com/oly/cycling/news/story?id=2532396
I'm pursuaded that Lance cheated as much as I'm pursuaded those guys who finished 2-5 (except the Kazakhstanian, Vinokourov) last year cheated. It's more than likely he cheated, but he was still the best rider out there. Lance did occaisionally have bad days.
He also had a much better team than Landis did this year. When Landis cracked on stage 16, he was all alone. US Postal would have been there with him, I believe.
I just realized that the "British Commentator" Fyall is talking about is OLN's voice of the tour Phil Liggett, a man who's opinion on this I trust more than anyone. If he still believes in Floyd, than so do I. Of course, I probably have absolute faith in him because he's old and has a British accent...
Today's news does not seem to look good for our boy, Homestarrunner. It's a shame.
Also, sports journalism, for all its myriad faults, seems to do a better job of getting stories than, say, the White House press corps does. -- Just seems relevant.
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