:America: :America:
Well done Mr. Landis… :bravo:
No kidding. :bravo: :bravo: :bravo:
I don’t give a crap about the :America: stuff, but I’ve been meaning to start a thread on the Tour lately. Floyd Landis’s story is a pretty great one – maybe as good as that of Lance Armstrong recovering from Cancer to win the Tour.
A few weeks ago the NYT ran a story on Landis, who was figured as one of the favorites to win this year’s Tour, despite the fact taht he suffered from an extremely painful, debilitating arthritic hip condition, for which he was making plans to get a complete hip replacement after the Tour. Fucking incredible. The world’s toughest sporting event, competing against the world’s top cyclists (except that no. 2, 3, 4 and 5 from last year’s Tour were all disqualified this year due to drug tests) and the guy’s about to have his hip replaced. Landis apparently never complains about anything, but people say his type of condition is incredibly painful. What a stud.
Then a week or so ago in the toughest, and one of the most critical, stage of the race, extremely high in the mountains, with very steep inclines and very high altitude gains, very near the end of the Tour, he totally bombed and slid from 3d place back to 11th and everyone said that’s it, it’s over, he’s out of it.
So the next day he makes up for it, puts in a kick ass performance, even though he’s only got one team member who keeps up with him for a short while and then fades (and good team members are essential in cycle racing), wins a decisive victory in that day’s stage and is again a top contender. He continues to do well the next few days and wins the Tour. Fucking amazing.
Floyd, you da man. 
He is scheduled for a hip replacement surgery later this year.
If he recoups he hopes to ride the TdF next year.
I just listened to his Mama say so…
Maybe 9 straight years of :America: :America:
Mother T wrote: [quote]I don’t give a crap about the :America: stuff,[/quote]
Yeah, it’s the individuals, not their countries earning the glory, but anything that pisses off the Frenchies has to be good.
Following the Tour de France route (at a leisurely pace) would be quite a nice holiday, don’t u think?
Damn! :fume:
[quote]Floyd Landis, who on Sunday became the third American cyclist to win the Tour de France, tested positive for illegally high levels of testosterone during the race, his team announced today.
If a second test confirms the results, Landis may be stripped of his Tour de France championship. [/quote]
Not that he would be only rider found guilty of illegal drugs or doping. Not even close. . .
nytimes.com/2006/07/27/sport … 0&emc=eta1
. . . but it’s a shame that such practices seem to be the norm in pro cycling, just as they are in baseball, bodybuilding, etc.
Of course, Landis’ guilt is not yet certain. . .
[quote]Testosterone, an anabolic steroid, is used for strength and endurance, and also for quicker recovery, said Donald Catlin, who runs the Olympic drug testing laboratory at U.C.L.A. Its use raises a rider’s ratio of testosterone to epitestosterone.
Catlin said that the test to discover high levels of testosterone is two-pronged and labor-intensive. The first part, to see if there is a high t/e ratio, can take anywhere from 8 to 12 hours, he said. The second part, to see whether that high ratio comes naturally or from an external source, is also lengthy.
“This is not a slam-dunk case,” he said of Landis’s case. “There is work to do, and if there’s ever a test that won’t repeat a positive, it will be a really complex analysis, and this is one of them.”
He also said that if Landis had a naturally high level of testosterone, someone would already know it or someone would be “running around finding the past results and plotting them on graph paper” to prove his innocence.
“These data are saved and someone can look them up,” he said. . .[/quote]
. . . but the sport is definitely seriously tainted.
[quote=“Mother Theresa”]Damn! :fume:
Of course, Landis’ guilt is not yet certain. . .
[quote]Testosterone, an anabolic steroid, is used for strength and endurance, and also for quicker recovery, said Donald Catlin, who runs the Olympic drug testing laboratory at U.C.L.A. Its use raises a rider’s ratio of testosterone to epitestosterone.
Catlin said that the test to discover high levels of testosterone is two-pronged and labor-intensive. The first part, to see if there is a high t/e ratio, can take anywhere from 8 to 12 hours, he said. The second part, to see whether that high ratio comes naturally or from an external source, is also lengthy.
“This is not a slam-dunk case,” he said of Landis’s case. “There is work to do, and if there’s ever a test that won’t repeat a positive, it will be a really complex analysis, and this is one of them.”.[/quote][/quote]
But actually, his testosterone was not very high, just the epitestosterone was low, skewing the ratio…he tested 11-1, and the ratio limit is now 4-1 (used to be 6-1)
It’s possible the beer, being pissed off from a bad stage, plus cortisone injections, plus bonking on stage 16 may have naturally affected his system. Lots of people are rushing to condemn him over this, and they are probably wrong in this case. Certainly, sample ‘b’ will not be proof either way. They’ll need to do more study.
Mr Landis said he drank beer and whiskey the night before his amazing performance in the mountains…
I agree that the truth is not known yet. So far, my understanding is that he only tested positive for high levels of testosterone. The Tour is the most grueling sporting event in the world and I believe it’s an undisputed fact that super-macho types tend to naturally have higher levels of testosterone. They’re still testing and evaluating Landis, so I won’t draw any conclusions yet. . .
except that professional cycling is undoubtedly suffering from serious problems with blood doping and other illegal practices. No further investigation is needed to reach that conclusion.
[quote]In May, the police in Madrid raided what they described as a doping laboratory and seized steroids, hormones, the endurance-boosting drug EPO, nearly 100 bags of frozen blood and equipment for treating blood. The investigation led to the removal of several of the top contenders from the field on the eve of the Tour de France.
That scandal and Landis’s situation have created the biggest doping crisis for the sport since 1998, when the nine-man Festina team was kicked out of the competition after performance-enhancing drugs were found in the car of a team trainer.
The cascade of doping issues has led many of those who follow the sport closely to feel that cycling is overwhelmed and may need to be radically overhauled.
“It is bloated and sick and needs to go into a rest home,” said Jeremy Whittle, the cycling correspondent for The Times of London. “It’s a combination of the grueling nature of the event, the influx of corporate sponsorship and the corruption of so many of the people who are involved in it.”
. . . in 2005, cycling had a higher percentage of adverse analytical reactions than any other Olympic sport, with 3.78 percent of urine samples producing a positive result.[/quote]
nytimes.com/2006/07/29/sport … cling.html
[quote=“bike4saletw”]But actually, his testosterone was not very high, just the epitestosterone was low, skewing the ratio…he tested 11-1, and the ratio limit is now 4-1 (used to be 6-1)
It’s possible the beer, being pissed off from a bad stage, plus cortisone injections, plus bonking on stage 16 may have naturally affected his system.[/quote]
Now I wonder, does a skewed ratio of epitestosterone/testosterone (whatever the reason) enhance the performance of a rider?
well, I still hope that this isn’t true-but it’s not looking good for Landis-a leak from ICU identifies that the testosterone was from an ‘external source and was not naturally produced by his own system’
nytimes.com/2006/07/31/sport … r=homepage
Possible scenario: Landis boks on stage 16, uses a patch to aid recovery while sleeping (with hopes of staying with the leaders in the mountains to allow a good TT and a podium finish), drinks beer, takes epitestosterone to compensate for higher testosterone-but the beer interferes with that, he surprisingly wins stage 17, tests positive…oops.
He cheated, like armstrong did…Landis will have to pay the piper and hopefully people who race roadbikes will think twice before using illegal substances.
Where’s your proof of Armstrong cheating? It doesn’t exist, does it? Just a case of people having difficulty accepting that he could be so strong and dominant year after year, right?
As for Landis, evidence so far does suggest he may have cheated, but I’ll still wait a couple of days before drawing any conclusions regarding him.
[quote]CHATENAY-MALABRY, France Aug 3, 2006 (AP)— Testing began Thursday on Tour de France winner Floyd Landis’ backup doping sample, while his lawyer reiterated he expects the result to confirm the original positive finding for elevated testosterone levels.
However, Landis is “certain” he hasn’t ingested banned substances and is “pretty sure” he can prove his innocence, lawyer Jose Maria Buxeda said outside the French laboratory.
The result of the “B” sample test will not be available before Saturday, Buxeda said.
However, the entire process of determining whether the American cyclist is guilty of doping or whether his body naturally produced the higher than normal testosterone levels as he contends could take six months to a year, the Spanish attorney said.[/quote]
abcnews.go.com/Sports/wireStory?id=2268654
[quote=“hannes”][quote=“bike4saletw”]But actually, his testosterone was not very high, just the epitestosterone was low, skewing the ratio…he tested 11-1, and the ratio limit is now 4-1 (used to be 6-1)
It’s possible the beer, being pissed off from a bad stage, plus cortisone injections, plus bonking on stage 16 may have naturally affected his system.[/quote]
Now I wonder, does a skewed ratio of epitestosterone/testosterone (whatever the reason) enhance the performance of a rider?[/quote]
Testosterone has a muscle building, regenerative and aggressivity increasing function. The first function is typically used during preparation to increase muscle mass which has more of a long term effect. In this case the 2 latter effects could have helped him. But just testosterone wouldn’t have such a huge effect on his performance as observed on the 17th part of the tour. So experts suspect that he took other “helpers”, but of course proof is always difficult.
A normal adult has a test… to epi… ratio of 1:1 as mentioned earlier, since epi… is formed together with test… in the human body. There might be some variance, but 11 times the amount, doubtfully. Even if Landis ratio is typically abnormal, then why didn’t anybody notice this before? So it should be on his records. This is probably also the reason why he dropped out of the races in the Netherlands, where his test… to epi… levels were probably back to normal.
Anyway, taking testosterone alone wouldn’t have had such a huge effect. What the result do proof is, that he was doped (waiting patiently for the B sample). Also, drinking alcohol would negatively effected his performance, so I doubt that anybody that want to win the TdF would have had a beer during the tour. Landis also often blames his hypothyrodism to have caused this scewed ratio, but testosterone has no role in this condition.
The results of the backup sample will be out Saturday, until that, we shall not judge him, and hope the best for the sake of this great sport.
[quote=“almas john”]
Following the Tour de France route (at a leisurely pace) would be quite a nice holiday, don’t u think?[/quote]
If you get lost, or might want to think it over, here is the google earth data for the entire tour route. Good luck. You might spend several holidays there biking. Of course depending on your condition.
I think Armstrong is as clean as Ullrich…
I know some suspect Armstrong of having cheated. I don’t, because I’m not aware of any such evidence. I’m not saying such evidence doesn’t exist; I’m just not aware of any such evidence.
So, my question is: for those who accuse Armstrong of cheating (2 of you now), do you have any evidence to back that up or is it simply an unsupported hunch? I don’t mean that as an insult or argument; just curious.
Just assumptions based on common sense…
It has come to the point where it’s hard to trust anyone in professional cycling, and many other sports.
Top riders are under an enormous amount of pressure (team directors, internal team competition, agents, sponsors, fans, medical advisors, the press) while pushing their bodies to the limit (which is by the way not that healthy anyway). Then they are enticed, encouraged, pressured to take illegal substances. Then there is the possibility of working as hard as anybody in the field without ever finishing on a podium. Then there are ways to not get caught. Do the math…
Sure, everyone is innocent until proven otherwise…
I still believe Lance was clean (despite the fact that doping is rampant in pro-cycling), until there’s any actual proof to the contrary. But for Floyd, it looks like the party is over.
[quote]The International Cycling Union announced early yesterday that Floyd Landis, the third American to win the Tour de France, had officially failed a drug test during the race. In response, his team fired him, and others in the cycling world, including the Tour de France director, Christian Prudhomme, began to distance themselves from him.
Prudhomme said that the Tour’s runner-up, Oscar Pereiro of Spain, would probably be named the winner, pending Landis’s disciplinary process. Landis would be the first champion in the Tour’s 103-year history to be stripped of his title because of doping allegations. In a news conference in Spain, Pereiro said, “I feel 99 percent champion.”
In a statement yesterday, Landis, a 30-year-old who lives in Murrieta, Calif., vowed to fight the accusations.
“It is now my goal to clear my name and restore what I worked so hard to achieve,” he said. Also, his lead lawyer, Howard Jacobs, said in the statement that they would prove that Landis was not aided by any banned substances during the Tour.
Landis’s positive drug test is the most recent disgrace in a string of doping scandals that have tainted cycling. On the eve of the three-week Tour last month, nine riders, including three favorites, were disqualified for being implicated, or for their teams’ being implicated, in a doping ring in Spain. Nearly 60 riders, coaches and others in the sport have been linked to that drug ring.
For years, the cloud of doping has hung over the sport. In 1967, the British rider Tommy Simpson collapsed and died during the Tour. Amphetamines were found in his jersey pocket. In 1998, the entire Festina team was thrown out of the race after drugs and doping supplies were found in a team car. Even Lance Armstrong, who won seven consecutive Tour titles before retiring after last year’s race, has had his reputation tarnished by accusations that he used performance-enhancing drugs. He has denied them. . . [/quote]
nytimes.com/2006/08/06/sport … r=homepage
I don’t understand why the drug test results are released to the public so early. Why don’t they wait for the second test? I assume some pricks who do the drug testing leak the info to the press.
The Germans have a new swimming star who just broke some world records.
My first thoughts were “Could it be that she takes illegal substances?”
It’s sad, I know.
And if it isn’t doping it is head-butting (World Cup), illegal maneuvers (F1), dubious refereeing and brawls (NBA), match-fixing (various sports) and so on.
With all these scandals, watching sports just isn’t what it used to be. :s