04/19/24
May 20, 2010
Floyd Landis admits to doping.: "Nearly four years after he began waging a costly, draining and ultimately losing battle to discredit his positive test for synthetic testosterone at the 2006 Tour de France, Floyd Landis told ESPN.com on Wednesday that he used performance-enhancing drugs for most of his career as a professional road cyclist, including for the race whose title he briefly held."
Wow. I thought he was doping, but for him to finally admit it after fighting the truth for so long is a shock. Since he raised funds to fight the charges, he's probably opened himself up to some civil lawsuits. Landis is a dope.
posted by rcade at 06:48 AM on May 20, 2010
I didn't rob the bank, your honour. I couldn't have. I was robbing a different bank at the time. What a moron - to do it in the first place, to then deny that he did it and bankrupt himself (and impoverish others) defending that position, and to then say that he didn't do the drug he got caught for doing but that he was doing a bunch of others that they didn't spot.
That stage he won the day after he tanked was one of my favourite days of sport watching. I suppose it gets filed for certain now in the same folder as Ben Johnson's win in '88 - it was awesome, but it wasn't real. If his "diary" reveals that none of the Lance Armstrong admiration I have felt in my sport watching life was worth the effort either, I might have to go and find him and headbutt him.
posted by JJ at 07:05 AM on May 20, 2010
Doesn't Landis have a book coming out soon? I just assumed that this is an attempt to drum up some interest in his book...Maybe that is how he's hoping to pay back some of the money he raised for his defense.
posted by yzelda4045 at 08:34 AM on May 20, 2010
Nice that he tries to cop to the charge and make people forget about him at the same time by smearing Armstrong. No idea if Lance is guilty or not, but if you're so wracked with guilt, how about concentrating on your own crimes?
Landis is a dope.
That's the one thing I've never wavered in my opinion about during Floyd's career/scandal (has there been another athlete where you couldn't tease one apart from the other? The closest analog is someone like Lindsay Lohan and even she had to get famous for acting first). He comes across as someone very lucky to be good at riding a bike. It's time to point said vehicle at the sunset and pedal like a son-of-a-bitch.
posted by yerfatma at 08:37 AM on May 20, 2010
The hell of it is, I think he had a valid procedural beef...and it's a damn shame that nobody is going to remember that. The testing process needs reforming, badly, and Landis has probably just made it impossible for that to happen. What a pisshead.
posted by lil_brown_bat at 08:37 AM on May 20, 2010
it's a damn shame that nobody is going to remember that
I'll certainly defer to you on whether or not he does, but if there's any justice in this world, no one will remember him at all soon enough.
posted by yerfatma at 08:42 AM on May 20, 2010
So we're to believe Floyd spent 4 years bankrupting himself, wrecked his marriage, and ruined his life - and now comes clean because his conscious is bothering him?? He's either a moron or he sees more financial potential in now coming clean and accusing others. I'm leaning towards the latter.
But with zero credibility and no proof of his claims about others, this seems like a waste of time.
I have no doubt that a large percentage of top riders are still juiced. There have been cases of domestic Masters riders busted for doping - and our races usually have prizes like a gift certificate to local bike shop - so I'm pretty sure when the stakes are high and your career depends on it, a lot of people turn to the medicine cabinet. Same is true in almost any endurance sport - running, cross country skiiing, etc. The benefits of juicing are too big to ignore when the margin of winning a 2500 mile race might be a few minutes.
The only way this stops is if the penalties against suppliers - doctors, teams, etc - are equal to penalties against riders. Currently a bike rider can be banned for two years and forced to forfeit all salary and winnings during period he was doping - that's pretty stiff for someone whose career might only be 5 years. But the team owner, mgmt, doctor who help orchestrate doping just fire the rider and keep on going - no one questions their involvement.
posted by BikeNut at 09:24 AM on May 20, 2010
I suppose it gets filed for certain now in the same folder as Ben Johnson's win in '88 - it was awesome, but it wasn't real.
I'm sure hoping your file is a lot thicker than just Johnson and Landis.
posted by Spitztengle at 10:07 AM on May 20, 2010
And the whole time I thought it was the Jack Daniels..........
posted by gfinsf at 10:46 AM on May 20, 2010
Marion Jones, Floyd Landis, ... We're waiting Barry.
posted by sbacharach at 11:24 AM on May 20, 2010
Well, he is still saying that the test result that got him banned is a false positive. Which is more disturbing, the false positive or false negatives for all the stuff that the lab should have caught?
posted by apoch at 11:29 AM on May 20, 2010
I'm sure hoping your file is a lot thicker than just Johnson and Landis.
Sure. Shrek was a disappointment when I discovered that wasn't real.
posted by JJ at 11:31 AM on May 20, 2010
Sure. Shrek was a disappointment when I discovered that wasn't real.
Of course, because everybody knows that ogres get their strength from eating human beans
and isn't that where testosterone comes from?
posted by Spitztengle at 11:48 AM on May 20, 2010
The only thing worse than being a doping cheater is not coming clean when caught.
Think of it ... Clemens and Bonds (etc) are considered villans while guys like ARod and Andy Pettite (etc) admit to doping and are somewhat forgiven.
posted by cixelsyd at 12:04 PM on May 20, 2010
.
posted by yerfatma at 12:50 PM on May 20, 2010
Marion Jones, Floyd Landis, ... We're waiting Barry.
So is Barry...for that "inevitable" perjury charge from 5 years ago.
posted by grum@work at 01:17 PM on May 20, 2010
Lance denies it. Well, you could blow me down with a feather!
posted by Fat Buddha at 01:51 PM on May 20, 2010
When he got caught, I said I thought Landis was either telling the truth, or a total idiot. Looks like it's door number two.
posted by fabulon7 at 01:58 PM on May 20, 2010
Which is more disturbing, the false positive or false negatives for all the stuff that the lab should have caught?
Neither. The dopers have always had a step on the testers.
If his "diary" reveals that none of the Lance Armstrong admiration I have felt in my sport watching life was worth the effort either, I might have to go and find him and headbutt him.
I've talked about this before here, but the monument on Mont Ventoux to Tom Simpson is a testament to how those who deeply love cycling as a sport approach doping: love the sinner, hate the sin. Fausto Coppi relied on la bomba; Anquetil once said that only a fool would think it possible to ride Bordeaux-Paris on water; Merckx tested positive three times. (Hinault is an interesting exception, a champion in an era where the old-school shit was banned and testable, but before the ubqiuitous EPO use brought to a close with the Festina affair and the development of an effective test.)
I think William Fotheringham makes a good case for a 'Truth and Reconciliation Committee' for cycling, offering amnesty to the peloton in exchange for full disclosure:
[T]here is no framework for cyclists who wish to tell what they know, to contribute to cleaning up their sport. Anyone who wants to bring his misdeeds into the daylight will pay a price although [David] Millar would contend that the price is well worth paying. An amnesty, an open forum, is simply too radical a step.
posted by etagloh at 09:45 PM on May 20, 2010
Just to add: Hinault's never given a firm denial that he doped -- he offers the standard line that he never failed a test, but neither did Tom Simpson. But he rode at a time when the still-undetectable method of choice was transfusing your own blood.
The long interviews at Velocity Nation with David Walsh and Michael Ashenden are worth reading, as complementary backgrounders into what we know about the modern history of doping, and in particular, the post-Festina era.
posted by etagloh at 01:13 AM on May 21, 2010
Marion Jones, Floyd Landis, ... We're waiting Barry.
Barry, unlike Marion and Floyd, has never showed any real interest in convincing the public of his innocence.and has never sued anyone regarding steroid accusations. So I'm not really sure why he belongs in the same conversation as the other two, especially Landis.
posted by spira at 03:13 AM on May 21, 2010
I think William Fotheringham makes a good case for a 'Truth and Reconciliation Committee' for cycling, offering amnesty to the peloton in exchange for full disclosure
Absolutely. I've said it before that I watch really only the TDF (and the Olympics, and some of the other stuff before and after the TDF when I'm getting excited and then feeling bereft) to watch man pitted against man. It makes no difference to me if they're doing it (by which I mean a stage obviously, not the whole thing) in 5 hours or 6, I just want to know that what I'm seeing is what I'm seeing.
posted by JJ at 11:16 AM on May 21, 2010
The more I read about Landis, and the more I hear his words, the less I like him. Also, he looks like a recovered tweeker.
posted by Uncle Toby at 11:27 AM on May 21, 2010
I think William Fotheringham makes a good case for a 'Truth and Reconciliation Committee' for cycling ...
There's a good case for that to happen in any sport where reports of doping have become as widespread as they are in cycling and baseball. Why suffer the drip-drip-drip of new allegations and confessions when you can bring it all out at once and give everybody a good excuse to move past it?
The archives here show that I've spent plenty of time in high dudgeon over the shame of doping athletes in various sports.
At this point, though, I'm completely jaded on the subject. The only thing I care about is whether the leagues, teams and owners were willing participants.
posted by rcade at 11:58 AM on May 21, 2010
I haven't yet decided how I'm going to eat my crow, but I'm leaning towards Crow Creole.