Nothing new on the Tour de France.
On July 13, 1967, British cyclist Tom Simpson died climbing Mont Ventoux following usage of amphetamines, probably complicated by the now defunct practice of limiting daily water intake to only four bidons, circa 2 litres. His now-famous last words were said to have been “put me back on my bike”, although this is disputed.[5]
news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/in_dept … 831739.stm
Gaitlin, the 100 m runner has just been found to be positive to testosterone
The thing I don’t understand is why Landis doesn’t admit that he cheated. I mean two tests show that his elevated testosterone levels were due to foreign substances. The US cycling won’t find anything else that hasn’t been found already. It seems that this is attitude of many athletes…especially from the USA. Look at Barry Bonds, Jason Giambi, Rafael Palmeiro. You have open defiance of the charges against them. These people would have been better off admitting to what they did up front.
If you look at Ben Johnson, when the tests came back positive in 88 he admitted he cheated. He lost the respect of many Canadians but, in retrospect his actions were more honorable than those found in athletes today.
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[quote=“Grasshopper”]The thing I don’t understand is why Landis doesn’t admit that he cheated. I mean two tests show that his elevated testosterone levels were due to foreign substances. The US cycling won’t find anything else that hasn’t been found already. It seems that this is attitude of many athletes…especially from the USA. Look at Barry Bonds, Jason Giambi, Rafael Palmeiro. You have open defiance of the charges against them. These people would have been better off admitting to what they did up front.
If you look at Ben Johnson, when the tests came back positive in 88 he admitted he cheated. He lost the respect of many Canadians but, in retrospect his actions were more honorable than those found in athletes today.[/quote]
If you’re suggesting that US athletes lie to cover up cheating more than athletes from other countries do – which it appears you are – that’s totally absurd. The US may have more professional athletes than most countries, and hence more professional athletes taking 'roids or doing other illegal acts, but I would bet the global rate of lying among such drug-taking athletes is roughly comparable. Decades ago, when the Soviets and East German weightlifters and swimmers excelled through chemistry, did they willingly confess to the secrets of their success? Of course not.
I don’t believe that you don’t understand why Landis doesn’t admit that he cheated. First, there’s still a remote possibility that he didn’t cheat. Admittedly, that appears to be very remote. But if he cheated, which seems likely, then it’s only human nature that he would lie about it.
Take it from the beginning. He’s a great cyclist – one of many – who stood a chance at winning the Tour (after a number of top contenders were DQ’d for drugs). He has worked extremely hard for many years to get to this point and was now competing in the World’s premier cycling competition. Even a stage win in the Tour would be a proud lifetime accomplishment for most cyclists, but people were saying he actually had a chance to win it. And he appeared to be on target to do so, in third place overall near the end of the Tour. Then he totally bombed one day and his chances appeared to be completely over. He dropped back to 11th place and the papers all reported that it was over for him. The next day, however, he puts in a miraculous performance, leaving the others in his dust and cruising to a stage victory all by himself. Incredible! Suddenly, he’s again favored to win after having scored one of the most impressive comebacks in Tour history.
If he didn’t use drugs/doping for that miraculous comeback, it’s truly incredible. But if he did, it’s totally shameful. Not only is it illegal, but it suggests he’s not man enough to compete fairly by his own merits – he has to cheat to compete with others. Most people lie initially when accused of cheating, hoping that maybe it will blow over, maybe the proof against them won’t come to light, maybe somehow they’ll get away with it and everything will be OK. And once you’ve committed yourself to that position (“I did not have sex with that woman”), it’s hard to later change course and admit that what you said was untrue. They keep prying and asking questions and digging for proof, but you’ve already said you’re innocent, so you have to just dig in your heels, stick to your guns and hope for the best.
In the end, the proof may come in overwhelmingly against you (consider OJ Simpson), but after you’ve repeated the lie so many times there’s no going back. To then confess that you lied and mislead the people 20 times, or whatever, would be the epitome of shame and humiliation. By that point you’ve painted yourself in a corner and there’s no turning back, so despite the overwhelming evidence one must never alter ones position, insisting that the view of 99% of the people is wrong and continuing to maintain a phoney charade of honesty and integrity (OJ again). To me such a course of events doesn’t seem surprising at all; it seems quite common.
OJ was found not guilty, that doesn’t mean he was innocent.
I agree. Like most sane people I believe he is in fact guilty. But, aside from stabbing his wife to death, he also lied and outsiders probed and questioned, so he was forced to repeat the lie over and over and over and over and finally, even though everyone knew for certain he was guilty (except for the idiot jurors), he had to stick to his lie because he had repeated it so many times (also to avoid exposing himself to further criminal or civil damages).
Same for Bill Clinton – he lied when he said he never had sex with that woman. Then the swarm of bloodthirsty republicans attacked, probed, investigated and questioned him over and over and over, and because he lied initially it was hard to later change his position and admit the truth.
Same for anyone else who lies, including Floyd Landis. To lie initially when accused of doing something shameful, immoral or illegal is not a surprising reaction. When probed further on that point, it seems typical that people would dig into their position and find it increasingly difficult to fess up to the truth.
So, I don’t find it the least bit surprising that Floyd continues to insist that he’s innocent. I believe that’s the typical situation.
Liar! Liar!
Imagine, all of a sudden everyone says the truth for one day.
That would be fun… 
Who would you ask what question?
Not to forget the financial aspects of losing it all, hence the lies.
He has been fired by his team, he will lose the prize for winning the yellow jersey. A two year ban. Of course he is going to lie and defend himself not to lose it all.
Some cyclists have said the truth of what is going on but they have been alienated by the others for “spitting in the soup”.
[quote=“SHARLEE”]Not to forget the financial aspects of losing it all, hence the lies.
He has been fired by his team, he will lose the prize for winning the yellow jersey. A two year ban. Of course he is going to lie and defend himself not to lose it all.
Some cyclists have said the truth of what is going on but they have been alienated by the others for “spitting in the soup”.[/quote]
Maybe the most difficult part for Landis is not losing money, fame, and a yellow shirt but facing his religious-type folks back home…
I bet his mom feels bad for supporting him, now that he was fired from his team and had his second test come back positive.
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