Some balanced info about the Stage 17 debaucle:
From www.pezcyclingnews.com by Jered Gruber:
"Dr. Gary Wadler, a member of WADA (World Anti-Doping Agency [you know the one Dick Pound heads]and a spokesman for the American College of Sports Medicine thinks that it just "[doesn't] add up."
According to Wadler, "Testosterone creams, pills and injections can build muscle and strength and improve recovery time after exertion when used over a period of several weeks," but of course, if Landis had been on testosterone the whole time, levels from previous tests would have been affected.
Of course, if Landis used testosterone that DAY it would account for the abnormality, but he would have gotten no performance enhancing effect: "so something's missing here. It just doesn't add up."
Of note otherwise...Landis' performance in Stage 17 in terms of power was hugely impressive. No question. BUT, it was nothing different than what he had done in training countless times before. How do we know this? Floyd rides with a PowerTap, Floyd's coach is Allen Lim, and Allen Lim makes all of Floyd's data known on Bicycling.com.
It is interesting to note that Floyd's solo exploit on Stage 17 was oh so much like his training in the mountains: time trial in the valleys (he often switches to a time trial bike in training) and climb like hell when the road tilts upwards.
Floyd did nothing super-human that day. He rode everyone off of his wheel and proceeded to ride exactly how he would in training. Again, this does not have anything to do with abnormalities in testosterone/epitestosterone ratios, it only shows that hey, Floyd rocked a great ride on Stage 17, but it wasn't superhuman - it was what one should have expected in that situation from Landis."
2 comments:
I'm hoping there was some sort of testing error. But I'm not even sure how high the levels of testosterone were above the control.
(This is me doing my best Jim Rome):
Look, if something was found, something was found. It's extremely naive to think that this was just a freak occurence and that he's totally clean. I'm guessing this entire sport is full of juice.
None of these activity-seekers (they're in great shape, but there's not much athletic about pushing your feet and legs up and down) can take any pride in themselves anymore, regardless of wether or not they juice. The sport has been tarnished and is as dirty as boxing and baseball. Mulder and Scully put it best over a decade ago: Trust no one. And Landis' mother should be ashamed of herself and her son.
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