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Landis Fails Second Testoserone Test

By Jeralyn, Section Off Topic
Posted on Sat Aug 05, 2006 at 09:04:09 AM EST
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It's over for bicycling champ Floyd Landis.

Floyd Landis was fired by his team and the Tour de France no longer considered him its champion Saturday after his second doping sample tested positive for higher-than-allowed levels of testosterone.The head of France's anti-doping commission said the samples contained synthetic testosterone, indicating that it came from an outside source.

The Swiss-based team Phonak immediately severed ties with Landis and the UCI said it would ask USA Cycling to open disciplinary proceedings against him. "Landis will be dismissed without notice for violating the teams internal Code of Ethics," Phonak said in a statement. "Landis will continue to have legal options to contest the findings. However, this will be his personal affair, and the Phonak team will no longer be involved in that."

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    Landis Fails Second Testoserone Test | 13 comments (13 topical)
    Re: Landis Fails Second Testoserone Test (none / 0) (#1)
    by sarcastic unnamed one on Sat Aug 05, 2006 at 09:57:34 AM EST
    'Tis a shame. Some talking head last night said it is possible that there is enough anti-another-American-winning-the-Tour sentiment such that Landis' samples were tampered with. A DNA test of the samples would presumably indicate if any such tampering occurred (assuming the facility that did the DNA testing was on the up and up), but the Tour doesn't allow such testing. Sounds a little like sour grapes to me, but you'd think the accused would have at least some recourse to defend himself - not that the Tour is a court of law...

    Re: Landis Fails Second Testoserone Test (none / 0) (#2)
    by Aaron on Sat Aug 05, 2006 at 10:06:02 AM EST
    The whole doping and steroid thing in cycling is hurting the sport immensely. The Tour de France this year was a shadow of what it was last year because so many top athletes were ejected before it even started. This is just par for the course in cycling. Few Americans understand the immense pressure on these internationally recognized athletes, winning the Tour de France literally makes your career and professional life as a cyclist equating to multimillion dollar contracts and endorsements. That kind of pressure can get you to do almost anything in order to win, just as we see with baseball players and sprinters like Barry Bonds and Justin Gatlin. If things like blood doping and steroid use weren't so dangerous to the long-term health of young people, I'd just say let them do it. But the rules are there for a reason, and if you can't adhere to them you should be stripped of your titles and fired. I just hope the tests were legitimate and not doctored by some flunkies at a lab, that is also a possibility under such pressure.

    Re: Landis Fails Second Testoserone Test (none / 0) (#3)
    by Che's Lounge on Sat Aug 05, 2006 at 11:04:14 AM EST
    Few Americans understand the immense pressure on these internationally recognized athletes, winning the Tour de France literally makes your career and professional life as a cyclist equating to multimillion dollar contracts and endorsements. Another honorable competition dishonored by capitalist greed.

    Re: Landis Fails Second Testoserone Test (none / 0) (#4)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Aug 05, 2006 at 11:13:06 AM EST
    We have to remember the Cyclists who were projected to win the Tour were banned under circumstances that did not seem fair. Did they have a chance to have back up sample tested? If you disqualify the top competitors for doping can you really ignore Landis. His win was miraculous and that leg of tour was inexplicable (maybe explained now). Compare the sympathy for Landis with the Vitriol against Bonds who has never failed a drug test.

    Re: Landis Fails Second Testoserone Test (none / 0) (#5)
    by Quaker in a Basement on Sat Aug 05, 2006 at 12:05:19 PM EST
    "...it is possible that there is enough anti-another-American-winning-the-Tour sentiment such that Landis' samples were tampered with."
    We wuz framed! Did you give the same level of credence to the O.J. defense team?

    Re: Landis Fails Second Testoserone Test (none / 0) (#6)
    by Dadler on Sat Aug 05, 2006 at 12:47:13 PM EST
    Greg LeMond is sounding more and more prophetic every day. Remember when he won the Tour after coming back from being shot in a hunting accident? That Cheney gets around. LeMond has also been a stinging critic of Lance Armstrong.

    Re: Landis Fails Second Testoserone Test (none / 0) (#7)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Aug 05, 2006 at 09:51:17 PM EST
    Posted by Jade August 5, 2006 12:13 PM
    Compare the sympathy for Landis with the Vitriol against Bonds who has never failed a drug test.
    Where? This blog? The MSM? Care to spell out what you're really getting at?

    Re: Landis Fails Second Testoserone Test (none / 0) (#8)
    by jimcee on Sun Aug 06, 2006 at 06:49:43 PM EST
    It would be sad if Landis was foolish enough to resort to doping to win because the chances of him being caught where pretty high. I personally believe that if he was doped it was so he could provide the proper escort for his team 'captain' both drafting to hold opponents back or to give his team leader a rest and blocking other teams from grouping near the front to set up a breakaway. In other words he was the hatchet, utility man, the yeoman who was never intended to win but just be a team mule. When the best riders were eliminated he became a front runner by fate alone. His miraculous stage, the one that made up his lost time from the stage prior could not be chaulked up to injections of faux testostrone because it doesn't work that quickly. Therefore he had probably taken it up until a few weeks before the Tour de France and his levels didn't drop enough to avoid detection once the race began. It personally think he 'won' because he couldn't resist the challenge. He was just a worker bee who was never meant to win but just help someone else win. On the lighter side, I do have to admit, half-heartedly, that a French laboratory is the last place I'd test for high testosterone levels. What do they consider high levels? Its a poor joke so save your snipiness.

    Re: Landis Fails Second Testoserone Test (none / 0) (#9)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sun Aug 06, 2006 at 07:48:31 PM EST
    Therefore he had probably taken it up until a few weeks before the Tour de France and his levels didn't drop enough to avoid detection once the race began.
    He had been tested several times previously in the race. It doesn't make sense.

    Re: Landis Fails Second Testoserone Test (none / 0) (#10)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Mon Aug 07, 2006 at 06:12:25 AM EST
    So the French lab cheated to let a Spaniard win? Landis tested at a ratio of 11 to one where 4 to one is the maximum allowed. He cheated, get over it.

    Re: Landis Fails Second Testoserone Test (none / 0) (#11)
    by Peaches on Mon Aug 07, 2006 at 06:39:23 AM EST
    The greatest mystery still remains. How did Lance Armstrong not get caught over all those years of testing?
    Compare the sympathy for Landis with the Vitriol against Bonds who has never failed a drug test.
    There should be no sympathy for Landis or Bonds. Bonds, nor any other Baseball player, has ever had to undergo the same rigorous testing as the bicycalists in Europe must currently undergo. There is no doubt Bonds has yused performance enhancing drugs. A little knowledge of Baseball, a cursory look at his career stats, and some comparisons of changes in his physical stature over the years will lead anyone with a little common sense to the conclusion he cheated. Lance Armstrong is another story. A seeming wonderful story, but his dominance of the tour over the seven year stretch makes one think he benefitted from the most advanced science in performance enhancement that stayed one step ahead of the science of testing. My geuss is some of this science was transfered to Landis, but he was not as dedicated and experienced as Lance in the routines and discipline one must go through in order to not get caught. Jimcee,
    In other words he was the hatchet, utility man, the yeoman who was never intended to win but just be a team mule.
    Landis was the leader of the Phonak team from the beginning. He was recruited to fill Tyler Haqmilton's place after Tyler was caught doping. He was one of the favorites going into the race before the doping allegations eliminated the other top riders in the race. He has not been a mule since he left the US Postal service team (two years ago, I think).

    Re: Landis Fails Second Testoserone Test (none / 0) (#12)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Mon Aug 07, 2006 at 04:56:31 PM EST
    Posted by Peaches August 7, 2006 07:39 AM
    There should be no sympathy for Landis or Bonds. Bonds, nor any other Baseball player, has ever had to undergo the same rigorous testing as the bicycalists in Europe must currently undergo.
    You're absolutely right about baseball. Bonds was tested only once before he was 40 and the steroids he was taking at the time were undetectable (I'm sorry, Victor Conte's "flax seed oil"). He's only been tested a handful of times since. Even after congressional intervention, the MLB drug policy is a joke. 4 positives are required before you are even suspended for a year. At least Track and Cycling test frequently and punish drug cheats that are caught. Plus "steroids" are old school. Bodybuilders, weightlifters, football players, and Track athletes have been using HGH for more than a decade. It's seen wide use in baseball for years now. Barry loved it. And there is still no official testing in any sport for it.

    Re: Landis Fails Second Testoserone Test (none / 0) (#13)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Mon Aug 07, 2006 at 05:36:06 PM EST
    Posted by Peaches August 7, 2006 07:39 AM
    The greatest mystery still remains. How did Lance Armstrong not get caught over all those years of testing?
    I think this is why the press is in overdrive on the Landis story. The tv ratings for the tour averaged .33%, for comparison's sake, 20 times as many people tune in for Wheel of Fortune each night. Armstrong hosting the ESPY's was a bigger story than Landis winning. But all that changed with the positive test. The Landis saga has captured the MSM and sports media's attention, while the "world's fastest man" and gold medalist Gatlin's getting caught is rehashed in AP blurbs. I think that by focusing so much on Landis, the media wants to get the public to ask your question exactly, Peaches.

    Landis Fails Second Testoserone Test | 13 comments (13 topical)