Landis - Labs - Cyclingnews

[Jason E]

For those that care, there is a Flash on Cyclingnews about synthetic's in The Floyd's Blood.

Then there is The Floyd's peeps pointing out the poor access they've been given to this Lab.

I like Landis, but am unsure of his side, but I do know I trust this lab about as far as I can throw it. As it has a concrete foundation, and I'm no Superman, I can tell you how far that is.

Anyway.....

[Big Dan]

Believe....

[Big Dan]

.

[wooly]

I want to blame the French on this one and support Floyd but MAN this is taxing. He's in a tough situation no matter who's to blame.

[merckx]

marcelo.

next......

[BdaGhisallo]

I wonder how a test that is only half complete and can never be complete, in that A and B samples both have to be tested and both have to show the same result to constitute a non-negative test (these are WADA and IOC rules), be construed as hurting Landis in his legal proceedings, even if the initial reports are true?

This IS a complete witchhunt. The USADA say that they wanted these tests to see how the French Lab works and whether it is competent to perform these tests!! It doesn't matter how competent they are now!! All that matters is what their competence and actions showed last July when the original tests were performed. Add to this the fact that Landis' expert was not allowed to witness these latest tests as is Landis' right under the WADA code and we have all the makings of a total sham!


Regardless of whatever Landis did or did not do, they are trampling all over his rights as an athlete, and violating their own frucking rules and regulations - that they themselves drafted, let's not forget - in an effort to get him. This is despicable behaviour, but no one will call them on it, and the majority of folks will go right along with it. The authorities' conduct of this whole process must raise doubts in our minds about the whole effort, regardless of what you think of Landis' ultimate guilt or innocence. If the evidence is so solid, and Landis' guilt not in doubt, why are they running roughshod over their own rules and procedures? They are railroading him!

You can understand their motivation, though. Having gone this far, if they fail to nail Landis to the wall, the ensuing lawsuits against will bankrupt the UCI, WADA and USADA!

[Dave B]

How does he get a fair shake in this mess. The lab denies his peeps access. Do you think the governing bodies don't want to admit they have a weak testing method?

Adding up all the snafus the lab had handling his stuff, you would think people would be more leary.

Anyway I guess in the long run it doesn't affect me at all.

It is a shame some people will never think thsi guy or many others are for real.

[wtex]

With all the leaks from that lab, makes me glad France wasn't a part of NATO . . .

[J.Greene]

This is starting to remind me of the Imus,jackson,sharpton thing. DOPING is killing cycling, and the UCI, WADA,USADA, etc are doing a good job of it too. ATMO to take one side over the other means your turning your back on the other 1/2 of the truth. With all that said....HIPSTRONG!!!!!!

JG

[Frog Hair]

I have a good friend on the Credit Agrigole team. I won't mention his name only because I don't want to mis-quote him. But we have spoken at length about the doping tests scene. He says that in France, because of the Cofidis scandal, that now all French based teams are subject to dozens of tests throughout the year. The smallest amount of the tests are conducted under the race umbrella, the biggest amount is conducted by an outside agency that is a watch-dog for the country and its teams and then another small batch is conducted by the team itself. Of note, they take far more tests than required so that they can find benchmarks for every rider. He says that you don't only have to register "high" in any area, but that a "low" number in any given test - or rather- any numbers that fall outside your own established benchmarks, become a point of questioning.
Essentially, once a rider has been tested enough that they can find his own perimeters, then they keep testing to watch those numbers.

Its going to take an expensive series of tests, done over and over again on every rider. I don't know if they are going to solve anything on the limited amount of tests they are doing now.

[benb]

Why haven't the Peloton just sat down at the start of a major race... they did sit and refuse to ride the TdF in 1997 when a French team was busted right?

If it's so bad why haven't they done the same for Landis? (Cause he's American?) Regardless of Landis' case it is high time the riders formed a Union and started fighting for their rights...

First demand would be any leaks to Le'Equipe exonerate a rider and invalidate the tests.

[72gmc]

This is like watching two bad boxers with their shoes tied together. What's on the other channels?

[Bill D]

Obviously there has to be some sort of balancing of the desire to rid cycling of drugs vs. the individual rights of the athletes to substantive and procedural due process. I don't see how that balance can possibly be struck when the governing bodies that run the show seem to have no regard for the due process side of the equation. They don't follow their own rules; there is clearly a presumption of guilt rather than of innocence; there are leaks and inappropriate statements to the media; they protect a lab that has at least the appearance of being a bunch of bumbling idiots. It's a circus (but not a fun one).

If no one involved in the process is truly a disinterested party, that means the *only* method of resolving *any* of these questions is to resort to arbitration or litigation. That's pretty sad for a whole lot of reasons, not the least of which are that good riders get improperly excluded from races and then it takes months or years to know who really won a race.

Add to this all of the hoopla about the ASO fighting the UCI over the ProTour and Unibet, and you have a seriously dysfunctional sport. How is it that other larger, more popular sports (e.g., football/soccer) don't seem to have nearly as many problems as cycling? It baffles me.

-bd

[ben rabin]

http://trustbut.blogspot.com/

[72gmc]

bd: I think it's the presence of an iron fist at the top. People the world over may hate Sepp Blatter, but FIFA chugs along under his pseudo-dictatorship. Contrast that with some American sports (MLB, NBA) that are saddled with weak or waning "bosses" and descending into various definitions of lesser strength and quality.

I think you have to have one immovable ego that makes everybody dance the same tune.

[ThasFACE]

This is all just getting too ridiculous. Guilty or not, Landis does not deserve this kind of treatment.

As an aside, I have been wondering about these samples. There seem to be many (A, B, whatever) of Landis's samples floating around, and now it seems that many of those have been tested. Does it become a concern at some point that the samples are no longer any good? That is, after all of this testing can we reasonably believe that the samples have not been contaminated in some way? (I know nothing of chemistry, so I really am curious)

[benb]

Actually I mentioned Floyd being reason enough for the riders to unionize...

But Floyd at least "failed" a test.

What's going on with Basso and to a lesser extent what happened to Ullrich is what's really scary. Neither of them failed a test either in or out of competition and Ullrich had his career ended over a bag of blood that didn't necessarily have anything in it? And ASO might succeed in ending Basso's career?

[ada@prorider.or]

This is all just getting too ridiculous. Guilty or not, Landis does not deserve this kind of treatment.



mm they also find traces of epo

well at least they had promotion at tour of california with amgen and landis

beleive me its even worse then you think it is
we only see a tip of the mountain

[AgilisMerlin]

ASO probably won't let him in any or their races anyways.


he is on a mission. either to compete or make some money. I won't be buying his book, though .