Floyd Landis speaks...

[TrekTheKaty]

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."

Excellent point. So maybe Landis shouldn't have been stripped of the TDF win. He beat all the other dopers fair and square. He just got caught because he was the winner.

I do realize that the whole sport is corrupt. I think the public was naive to think they could clean it up all in one year. I believe Lance is innocent, too. I was hoping he came back to prove he could race against all the "newer, cleaner" riders. But maybe it's all a joke on us.

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.

I'd go back to Nascar, but they just threw out Jeremy Mayfield. Apparently, there's more than moonshine and "black gold in them-there-hills".

[kacie tri-ing]

I am just posting again because I am still so upset!

[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.

[kenyonchris]

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.

Uh...wow. I'll bite.
Not for ONE MINUTE do I think he is doing it because he is lying awake at night worrying about his street cred with the poor kids. Sorry if that sounds cynical (more cynical than my original post). His timing, the inflammatory statements, the very poor manner in which he has staged this "confession" and the connected allegations are all incredibly suspect as to the validity of his motives.

[ny biker]

To hear the boys from Radio Shack tell it, Floyd is just pissed off because (a) Johan refused to give him a job and (b) he didn't get to race in the Tour of California this year.

Which brings me to my next point -- if you're going to accuse Lance and Johan of something, you'd better have your ducks in a row, because they are smart strategists with plenty of experience handling the media and plenty of good lawyers.

[Triskeliongirl]

That was me

I hate to do the 'I told you so' but I have long given up on the idea that any of these guys are riding clean.

But to me its not just the riders fault, its the fans fault too, and what has become of the sport. They don't blow up those mountains on gu and water.........

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

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.

[Triskeliongirl]

But you guys know, now I do admire Floyd for speaking out because he is trying to clean up the sport. Better late than never, like the rest of these guys.

[ny biker]

But you guys know, now I do admire Floyd for speaking out because he is trying to clean up the sport. Better late than never, like the rest of these guys.

I disagree. Anyone who keeps on lying and lying and lying while asking total strangers to donate money to pay his legal bills deserves nothing. I just feel bad for his mother.

David Millar did it right -- confessed immediately and was one of the first big names to join the first team that was built on an anti-drug policy.

And p.s. if DZ needs drugs then Garmin would be the last team he would want to race for.

[Nanci]

I disagree. Anyone who keeps on lying and lying and lying while asking total strangers to donate money to pay his legal bills deserves nothing. I just feel bad for his mother.

I agree. He's gotta be getting a huge paycheck for this. Probably an even better book deal; Poor Little Floyd Tells All. Insider's Guide To TDF Doping.

[TrekTheKaty]

I disagree. Anyone who keeps on lying and lying and lying while asking total strangers to donate money to pay his legal bills deserves nothing. I just feel bad for his mother.

What she said.........

[ridebikeme]

With everything i've read, it was indeed Frankie AND his wife, that's something that just came to light not too long ago because Frankie and Lance had had their first conversaion since all of this. Regardless of who talked with whom, there's a scenerio that keeps popping up. That scenerio is jealousy/bitterness , whatever you want to call it... and I'm beginning to believe that there is a reason for it. I'm not sure what will come of this situation, but there will come a time where we WILL know the truth. AS others have mentioned, the TDF is simply too long and rode at such incredible speed that the human body isn't designed for that... at least not without help.

At any rate, the next few weeks will be interesting.

[ny biker]

AS others have mentioned, the TDF is simply too long and rode at such incredible speed that the human body isn't designed for that... at least not without help.

I don't know who's doing what, and I admit that every time someone races way better than anyone else I wonder what he might taking.

On the other hand, Laurent Fignon has admitted to doping during his career, and Greg LeMond beat him in the TdF. So do we assume that LeMond must have doped also? That would make him a pretty ferocious hypocrite.

I do think that there are many cyclists racing today that are clean. For starters, I might be naive, but I believe that the guys on Garmin would not bother joining that team unless they intended to ride clean. And they're awfully successful.

[snapdragen]

Dammit. I still like Floyd. I'm sad, disappointed, I pretty much have stopped watching bike races, I don't trust any of them when they way they are clean. But, for some unexplainable reason, I like the guy. Maybe because he has corgis.

I like this from the article jobob posted:

"So burn down Babylon. Burn pro cycling down. There will still be racing, there will still be races. Burn it down, so we can build it up again new. I condemn Landis' original decision to participate in a corrupt, immoral system. But I'll stand in front of the flames with him and watch it burn."

[kenyonchris]

"So burn down Babylon. Burn pro cycling down. There will still be racing, there will still be races. Burn it down, so we can build it up again new. I condemn Landis' original decision to participate in a corrupt, immoral system. But I'll stand in front of the flames with him and watch it burn."

EVERY system has some corrupt aspects, and opportunities to do the wrong thing. That does not mean that the entire thing is corrupt. Landis made "wrong decision" in deciding to cheat. The problem is, he then did it again. THEN he lied about it, took people's money under false pretenses (which is stealing), perjured himself (several times), and tried to leverage others to get what he wanted. He did not participate in an immoral system, he made the system immoral by participating in that behavior. HE IS A CRIMINAL (on at least one count, he has admitted to lying under oath at the least). Standing next to a criminal and burning the system does not make him accountable. I think that quote is ridiculous.

Landis's "original decision" to dope is just the tip of the iceburg. That affected a small group of people. To lie, to steal, to perjure, to effectively attempt to blackmail...the list goes on. Far beyond a "wrong decision."

Corgis or not. He's a criminal.

[AMP]

Here are some jumping off places for blood doping in professional cycling:
*David Walsh, sportswriter for The London Times co-wrote
L.A. Confidentiel: Les Secrets de Lance Armstrong. I don't believe this book has been translated from the French.
*He also wrote From Lance to Landis.
*I also watched an hour-long interview with Greg Lemond on YouTube. The man is an artless speaker and not particularly charismatic; there was no slick "spin," but he convinced me of the problem of doping. I watched him and cried.

*www.velocitynation.com has a 4/20/2009 article with physiologist Michael Asheden that lays out the EPO testing ol Lance Armstrong.
Also same site today: Armstrong's former wife is cooperating with the invesigation.
These are just the briefest of starts.

Frankly there's just too much written on the subject of blood doping for me to ignore, pretend, or try to blame the French (which alarmingly keeps popping up.)

It is sad. But I would rather take the guy who came in dead last clean than a winner who cheats.
I don't buy the jealousy angle. Anger, yeah. But why isn't anyone attacking Michael Phelps if this is all about jealousy? Are cyclists the only jealous athletes?
The more I read about this, the more the subject of Omerta keeps coming up. There's just too much money involved. My husband read that the difference between doping and not doping is competing in world class races and million dollar deals or working in a bike shop.
I'm glad this spotlight is on the sport. I hope it does the good it's meant to.
My hero at this point is special agent Jeff Novitzky who led the investigtion against Barry Bonds and Marion Jones and will be lead on this one.
The professional racing side of the sport needs a thorough scrubbing.
'Nuff said.