Floyd Landis speaks...

[arielmoon]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100520/...BvcnRsYW5kaXM-

[zoom-zoom]

What a tool. So he's admitting he's a liar, then throwing his friends under the bus? Who does he expect to believe him?

[BikeDutchess]

Guess my copy of "Positively False" is on its way out to the recycling bin...

[Thorn]

When all this started, one of the biochemists here on TE said of the results

...so this either means Floyd is a plant or Floyd cheated...*

Well, ladies, it looks like we can finally rule out that he's a plant

*(http://forums.teamestrogen.com/showthread.php?p=105391 post #10) -- one of my all time favorite TE quotes.

[Biciclista]

I just cannot understand what possesses healthy people to stick needles into their arms and.... ugh...
Why can't people just compete without all the BS?

[TrekTheKaty]

This really PEEVES me off! I always gave him the benefit of the doubt. I read the book (but didn't pay retail, just in case he DID cheat). He was so convincing. Even Lance stood up for him.

I had wondered what happened to Floyd. He hadn't been around racing this year. Is this for attention? Money? Another book? Blackmail? Why now?

Not the black eye for cycling we need while fighting the cancellation of state funds for the Tour of Missouri.

[Biciclista]

This really PEEVES me off! I always gave him the benefit of the doubt. I read the book (but didn't pay retail, just in case he DID cheat). He was so convincing. Even Lance stood up for him.

I had wondered what happened to Floyd. He hadn't been around racing this year. Is this for attention? Money? Another book? Blackmail? Why now?

Not the black eye for cycling we need while fighting the cancellation of state funds for the Tour of Missouri.

yeah really. Glad i didn't buy his stupid book. OR read it.

[Nanci]

Great timing, too. I bought his book and believed him.

[PscyclePath]

I had wondered what happened to Floyd. He hadn't been around racing this year. Is this for attention? Money? Another book? Blackmail? Why now?

OUCH_Bahati is a fairly small team... He was up here in northwest Arkansas the week before last, racing in the Joe Martin Stage Race there.

I bought the book, and pretty much believed it... but apparently even CyclingNews.com and VeloNews have their doubts about the latest story. And there _is_ apparently some sort of book deal in the works here.

[Biciclista]

wow, there was a Nanci sighting!!

Yes, right Trisk. But he came to our town, and looked into all of my friends' eyes and implored them... that makes me pretty mad.

[kacie tri-ing]

This really PEEVES me off! I always gave him the benefit of the doubt. I read the book (but didn't pay retail, just in case he DID cheat). He was so convincing. Even Lance stood up for him.

I had wondered what happened to Floyd. He hadn't been around racing this year. Is this for attention? Money? Another book? Blackmail? Why now?

Not the black eye for cycling we need while fighting the cancellation of state funds for the Tour of Missouri.

NOOOOOO I believed him too!!!!! I really really did :-(

I checked it out of the library, BUT I still believed him. I am so sad!!!

[jobob]

I read the book (but didn't pay retail, just in case he DID cheat).

That made me laugh out loud. Thanks!

[Possegal]

A year or so ago we had a speaker at our weekly scientific rounds, and it was the chief scientist for USADA. He started the talk out by saying something like - the lawyers have informed me that I am absolutely not to talk to you about Floyd Landis, other than to say that this has taken over my life for the last X years. His talk was very interesting, sort of a 'sports doping through the years'. He gave some case reports without naming the athletes. A few of us in the room knew where his chimera data was coming from!

I believed Floyd had doped, however I didn't believe he was a habitual doper. That admission caught me by surprise.

[AMP]

Actually, I'm proud of Landis. I believe him when he says that he has to get it off his conscience. He's lately been working with underprivledged at risk kids, and it's my belief that he knows he can do no good with them unless he quits lying. And, trust me, he's about to be crucified publicly. Much like Greg LeMond who spoke out against blood doping and has lost most of his business and been dragged into ruinously expensive lawsuits. I'm proud of LeMond too.

In the AMGEN Tour, Dave Zabriskie is wearing the yellow jersey and Levi Leipheimer is right at his heels. Two of the individuals Landis named. Folks are NOT going to be happy.

This month's copy of Bicycling magazine has Armstrong mentioned 60 times.

There is enormous money behind the scenes: Trek, Oakley, fi'zik, Radioshack...so many others.

Then we get to Lance's work with cancer research and his foundation. And we have to ask ourselves if the good that comes out of blood doping outweighs the bad. Incredibly tough moral/ethical landscape to navigate. But I also believe we MUST examine these issues; you and me, the ordinary people. And I insist that we must inform ourselves dispassionately: read, read, read; examine sources, and think, reason our way through.

On Sunday I stood with crowds in my small sweet town of Auburn as we watched the AMGEN tour race through. I whistled for Fabian Cancellara and team SaxoBank. I had tears in my eyes as I took in all the little children wearing jerseys and helmuts, dressed like their heroes to cheer the race, waving American flags.

Blood doping is the destruction of this sport and will ultimtley turn it into no more than pro wrestling.

BICYCLING MAGAZINE this month has an article about amateurs injecting steroids to win over a pair of socks. (Yeah, I know it's not the socks, it's the ego, but it's a compelling read.)

What gets me about blood doping is that a rider still has to train just as hard, and actually, can train harder and recover faster.
Should r-EPO be legalized? What will it take to level the playing field? Should there be two standards? One for riders who train naturally and one for those who use steroids and r-EPO?

Two months ago when I started to get back into cycling, I started reading and what I found sickened me. Try googling "blood doping, cycling." For once in my life I didn't shy away from what I didn't want to know, didn't want to hear. And this was one of those times I went from being a girl to being a woman. There is doping and it is terrible.

Getting back to Landis who "drank the kool aid," got caught, tried to bluster and lie, and utimately told the truth. Now watch the show as he gets his skin flayed off. Whoosh.

I'm such a coward I'm debating whether I can post this.

As Bob Newhart said, "I make a motion that we face reality."

[Biciclista]

AMP of course you can post !
Lance could have been a hero without the dope. Maybe he wouldn't have won so many times.