Floyd Landis speaks...

[ny biker]

I also experienced a local bike race, where there was a kids race during the intermission. Little boys and girls in their (at the time) Discovery "kits" throwing elbows just to get to the start line. How do we explain that to the kids? I don't know.

Same way you explain the baseball players. "They cheated because they were greedy and it's bad to cheat."

I worry more about the older kids who play sports and might be coerced by coaches to use steroids or otherwise conned into thinking they should use drugs.

[AMP]

Just got off the phone with my DH who was listening to the Jim Rome show on the radio (I love his show; he can translate ballsport talk so I don't sound like an idiot at any male/female social gathering. Excellent resource when no one lets you talk about horses or bikes. It's a sports call in show.)

Rome said that the wrath has already begun. He's felt it himself just by bringing doping up, not accusing anyone.

I really think that Landis knows everyone dopes, and initally felt that he shouldn't get picked on if everyone does it. Then I think he thought that because he saw how Armstrong has handled all the accusations, he could just keep denying.

His suspension is over. He could have kept his mouth shut, but like David Millar, he had to 'fess. No, he's not the class act that Millar was and he's in for a trouncing big time.

I think he thinks he deserves it. His father-in-law committed suicide during all the hoopla in '06.

There are getting to be many, many suicides and attempts in procycling. I think that these boys start out with the highest of aspirations and then succumb to "everybody's doing it." They can't take the mental pressure.

[SheFly]

Be careful about vindicating him for "fessing up". He's had PLENTY of opportunity for that before now - in the middle of a very publicized Tour in the US. In the supposed email (posted on DrunkCyclist), there is a line to the effect that he is trying to write down in a story, everything that has happened. To me, that screams book deal.

Don't get me wrong - I was a Tyler believer for over two years, and legitimately believed Floyd too. I just don't think that he should be let off the hook now - he lied to a lot of people, including his Mennonite parents. The timing and motives are, as McQuaid said, rather suspect.

SheFly