Floyd Landis, no more the hero.
Long-time reader Jay Kumar passes along this comment: "I guess I should be shocked, but I
July 27th, 2006
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Floyd Landis, no more the hero.
Long-time reader Jay Kumar passes along this comment: "I guess I should be shocked, but I
Geez, at least wait for the tests on the B sample before passing judgement.
The drug testing situation is ridiculous and unfair. It’s obvious especially in the Tour, where everyone is on drugs.
Check out http://www.arthurdevany.com/archives/2006/06/mark_sisson_on.html for why endurance sports should allow drugs, and it’s unfair of them *not* to.
If the cycling analyst on ESPN was correct, this story is actually being quite misreported by all media right now… and is just bizarre to be calling a “doping scandal”.
He explained that Landis did *not* test at high testosterone levels. Instead, his explanation was that there are two types of testosterone and that Landis merely showed an abnormal ratio of one to the other… and he wasn’t very clear how that kind of doping would even be an advantage. He also wasn’t clear how they could even call it “doping” yet without getting a LOT more information form the labs, because as he stated the ratio between the two is rather dynamic and inconsistent anyways.
I think we need to wait for more information here, because I’m hearing some awfully iffy stuff (and flat-out factually-incorrect reporting)… and I’m wondering if it isn’t Paris simply trying to tear down another American without much valid reason (like they tried to to Armstrong for 7 years).
Landis doesn’t sound very postive though. The one statement I heard form him had him admitting that “If Sample A is positive, I don’t see a lot of hope for Sample B”, or something to that effect.
OK I’m now officially calling complete and utter B.S. on this whole thing, now that I’ve found out more about what the specific thyroidal abnormality is.
I was really, really sick a month or so ago (it’s still hanging on somewhat even) and the subsequent bloodwork (two seperate tests) showed that I have basically the exact same hormonal imbalance in my own blood. I’m to go back in a few months to have more tests done to see if anything’s changed with it.
So I guess I must be a doper too.
That alone, for myself at least, pretty much shoots down the “it can’t be a natural imbalance” theory for me — I currently have the thyroid-based same abnormality that shows up in the blood.
And while I like to think of myself as decently in-shape, the I.T. profession doesn’t have the same performance demands as Cycling I’m afraid. I’m not shooting my blood up before I go into the server room every day (OK, well.. Mt. Dew doesn’t count doe sit?).
Sure, I realize I’m just a random guy nobody reading this will know but, I can’t believe there’s not some other dude out there on the couch screaming at the TV, yelling “YOU IDIOTS, I HAVE THE SAME ABNORMALITY TOO!”. Maybe that’ll come up in the next few days. *shrug*