OUCH drops Bahati Foundation drops Floyd.

[Charles M]

Bahati Foundation Pro Cycling Team Official Statement
Newport Beach, CA May 27, 2010 – The Bahati Foundation Pro Cycling Team will be moving forward without the continued support of OUCH Medical Center due to the recent turbulent media environment. We are extremely thankful to Dr. Brent Kay for his generous support and respect his decision to minimize involvement in the cycling world at this time.
Also, due to the media intensive environment, the team and Floyd Landis have decided to amicably part ways. We support his courage to come forward in an effort to facilitate a drug free and fair sport.
The team is working to update sponsorship and continue supporting the mission of the Bahati Foundation. The Foundation supports youth in inner-city through the sport of cycling and GIVEBACK programs.
Proud supporters of the Bahati Foundation Pro Cycling Team include: The Bahati Foundation; Cannondale Bicycles; Louis Garneau (clothing, helmets and shoes); Shimano (components); PRO (wheels, stems and handlebars); RAHA SPORTS (Sports Marketing); Colorado Premier Training (coaching and wind tunnel testing); Endure Media Group; Tifosi Eyewear; Challenge Tires, Fi'zi:k (saddles and bar tape); MapMyRide (GPS and mapping technology), Feedback Sports (bicycle stands), Prolong (Energy Drink) FuDog (bags), MotorTabs (Electrolyte replacement), TriFlow (lubricant), Chamois Butter (chamois cream).

[cfacink]

Again the innocent end up most damaged...Don't blame OUCH but Floyd should have stayed clear until he resolved his issues....

[Walter]

Again the innocent end up most damaged...Don't blame OUCH but Floyd should have stayed clear until he resolved his issues....

Well said.

More of the short-sighted "me first always" and the heck with everyone else mentality on Landis' part. He drops this in the middle of the TOC to disrupt it because the organizers would not cave to his demands and now the collateral damage to Ouch (his support for a long time) and his team (they supported him when he had nowhere else to go).

He had to know this would follow his outbursts had he thought for just a millisecond beyond his bitterness and considered anyone else.

From a release from the team:

***
“We got an email this morning saying that in light of the situation with Floyd, some of the main sponsors have backed out,” Bahati Foundation rider Jason Donald told VeloNews on Thursday.
***
Donald laid blame on the team’s decision to sign Landis.

“I knew from the beginning that signing Floyd was a poor decision on our part,” Donald said. “I knew immediately that was a bad decision. Floyd is looking out for himself, and that’s pretty obvious by what has happened with the team. That was never any concern of his. There’s nothing that Floyd can do or say that does anyone, anywhere, any good. It’s pretty obvious that what he was doing was going to put the team under.”
***
Tension within the squad came to a head at the Joe Martin Stage Race in early May, as the team became vaguely aware of Landis’ plans.

“How has the Landis thing impacted us? You can just imagine. We were at ground zero, so the impact was profound,” Crawford said. “From the very first day, we knew he was a controversial character. But I don’t think any of us dreamed anything like this would happen. I’ve been in cycling for 30 years, and I’ve never seen anything like this. I certainly didn’t expect to be in the eye of the hurricane. But here we are.”

[Charles M]

I don't get why he would sign with Bahati and bring OUCH in in the first place in the case that he's really been planning this whole mess and really did have good intent...

It's like running toward a cliff and at the last second pushing the freind that's trying to keep you from killing yourself off the edge with you.



If Floyd really did intend nothing but good things, He's knowingly screwed Bahati and OUCH. Just slapped them in the face for no reason what so ever beyond the desire to screw them.


It's either that, or he never intended to do the right thing and simply wanted back in racing and only when that died along with his lack of performance did he decide to lash out at everyone... Team mates, the sport, Bahati and OUCH...



Either way, Floyd looks like a petty, greedy, self centered person. it's that or he's exceptionally stupid.

[benb]

If only he had kept his mouth shut and obeyed Omerta!

[Auk]

If only he had kept his mouth shut and obeyed Omerta!

No, but the respectful thing would have been to step away from the team and any ties to them before making his announcement.

[djg]

If only he had kept his mouth shut and obeyed Omerta!

Or maybe how about just giving the team and his EXTREMELY loyal supporter some distance and some breathing room before lighting the fires?

Really, given that he wasn't accusing Bahati of anything, he could easily have given them some separation from the mess (well, obviously by not signing in the first place, if this was planned all along; but simply leaving for a month and then coming forward in a different way could have put the same substantive information/accusations/whatever on the table without the same collateral damage).

[Charles M]

I just had someone on the phone draw a nasty, off color parallel...



A guy gets on a bus, lets his family get on at the next stop.

then detonates his vest...

[CHF]

But it sounds pretty accurate to me.

Biggest sign that he's not going about this appropriately is that Greg Lemond is squarely in his corner on this one. Just further proof that evidence isn't required in the court of public opinion.

[cfacink]

I thinks he is an ASS HAT.....just by the way he has conducted himself through his post Postal cycling career. Maybe he will tell us he was drinking jack and that caused him to tell all his STORIES.....

[sonicCows]

*

[texbike]

It's either that, or he never intended to do the right thing and simply wanted back in racing and only when that died along with his lack of performance did he decide to lash out at everyone... Team mates, the sport, Bahati and OUCH...

Either way, Floyd looks like a petty, greedy, self centered person. it's that or he's exceptionally stupid.

Me thinks that this be the case...

I personally think that Landis threatened to use the "nukes" if Amstrong/TOC/Radioshack didn't respond with the financial or career consideration that he wanted. When Lance and the TOC essentially said "go F yourself", he had no options left and decided to blow up EVERYTHING around him. Like a nuke, the fallout doesn't discriminate between the guilty and the innocent.

A lot of people are going to get hurt due to Landis's ego and short-sighted stupidity. As one other person stated, OUCH! :)

Texbike

[deanster]

The time for Floyd's mea culpa was when he was caught after the TdF. At least he should have quietly admitted his guilt instead of flinging the excrament like a monkey in a zoo all over the sport that made him millions.

Floyd is a petty pathetic figure like the person in the tour of Ga giving Lance the finger his first year away from Postal lashing out in a jealous rage at some of the cyclists around. Doping or not at least LA is giving back in a big way. I am not a fan of LA but am about what he does (being a CA survivour myself).
Now it would be nice for FL to start to give back the money he fraudulently accepted from so many of the people he duped.

[retrogrouchy]

The time for Floyd's mea culpa was when he was caught after the TdF. At least he should have quietly admitted his guilt instead of flinging the excrament like a monkey in a zoo all over the sport that made him millions.

Floyd is a petty pathetic figure like the person in the tour of Ga giving Lance the finger his first year away from Postal lashing out in a jealous rage at some of the cyclists around. Doping or not at least LA is giving back in a big way. I am not a fan of LA but am about what he does (being a CA survivour myself).
Now it would be nice for FL to start to give back the money he fraudulently accepted from so many of the people he duped.

Close to a million Dollars, just for legal funds, right? He is a really, really sad human bean now....
His wife wised up, and left him. I presume she has / will have custody?

[Tom]

I dunno. OUCH and Bahati and all of them were pretty happy to ride Landis' name until he started talking. I wouldn't cry for them, they knew what they had.

[nahtnoj]

Do you guys really think the timing of the announcement was up to Floyd?

The FBI is investigating Lance, Inc.

This came out during the TOC because the feds knew that a lot of guys who spend a good bit of the year living abroad would be at home to hear the news that their lives were about to come crashing down around them.

Wake up to the big picture.

[Walter]

Do you guys really think the timing of the announcement was up to Floyd?

The FBI is investigating Lance, Inc.

This came out during the TOC because the feds knew that a lot of guys who spend a good bit of the year living abroad would be at home to hear the news that their lives were about to come crashing down around them.

Wake up to the big picture.

Yes...the timing was solely up to Landis.

The FDA (not the FBI) made no announcement. They would have no interest in this breaking. That is not the style of law enforcement. I am sure they would have preferred to keep in all sub rosa while they did their due diligence (if anything is really underway…I know there has been talk of the same investigator that handled BALCO being assigned to the matter). What the FDA was (or was not) doing was independent of Landis and his 15 minutes of being in the spotlight.

It certainly looks as though the timing of Landis’ announcement was driven solely by his threats to the ATOC organizers....”Let me in or else”…and he followed through.

[Big Dan]

Floyd needs to keep talking.
Bring down the gravy train and the so called "cycling experts".

:cool:

[johnnymossville]

Floyd needs to keep talking.
Bring down the gravy train and the so called "cycling experts".

:cool:

:)

[JohnHemlock]

Floyd needs to keep talking.
Bring down the gravy train and the so called "cycling experts".

:cool:

For what purpose, exactly?

[flickwet]

At any given moment in time has any good ever been the result of Landis' existence? Petty,Greedy, self centered AND STUPID