04/18/24
July 14, 2010
Grand Jury Subpoenas issued: in the investigation into the Floyd Landis accusations of doping at the Postal Service team in the early 2000's.
Yeah, too bad the only federal investigator in the whole country is spending his time on investigating claims of defrauding sponsors and rampant use of drugs in a professional sport. As taxpayers we should all call up our representatives and request they employ more than one.
posted by apoch at 03:06 PM on July 14, 2010
As taxpayers we should all call up our representatives and request they employ more than one.
Well, maybe they could call up their representatives and request that the one they are using not waste $55million on this new case.
posted by grum@work at 03:22 PM on July 14, 2010
Generally speaking I'm a believer that where there is smoke there is often fire. On the other hand, in the case of a witch hunt I always route for the accused, and like to see irrefutable proof that the accusations are true. To that end, there was an article posted somewhere just the other day refuting every single one of Landis' claims - can anyone else find it cuz right now I cannot - including the one referenced in this article about the tour bus stopping to do blood transfusions for the Postal Team, including Armstrong. You see, Armstrong doesn't actually take the team bus from stage to stage due to his contractual press requirements. Instead, he stays behind, then takes a car service or a helicopter to meet up with his team at the next stop on the Tour. So that particular accusation is patently false and there is supporting evidence to the contrary.
posted by MW12 at 07:40 PM on July 14, 2010
The Festina affair and Operation Puerto suggest that large-scale investigations only go somewhere if they begin with the targets caught red-handed, which gives people an incentive to start talking.
For this, where you have events that took place not just a long time ago, but in another jurisdiction, I don't see it going anywhere unless you have an large number of whistleblowers, far beyond Landis, who are prepared to burn their bridges in the sport. At very least, dragging in the confirmed dopers and human trainwrecks who rode for Postal isn't going to look good, even if it's atypical in cycling.
posted by etagloh at 03:28 AM on July 15, 2010
How's that Bonds investigation working out for them? Thank goodness that the feds have nothing more serious to investigate than whether some athletes took PEDs several years ago. It's not like there is any serious crime or threats going on.