cycling doping scandal season starts early
is it summer already?
landis is a sleazy enough character that his bombshell accusations directed at the likes of armstrong, hincapie & zabriskie should be taken with a grain of salt. not that all those guys are necessarily and categorically blameless — i’m finding it increasingly difficult to believe that anybody who makes his living in professional sports can do so without brushing up against some such unpleasantness — but the real story here is the brass fucking balls on floyd landis, who apparently just decided to admit what everybody already knew about his own $90k/year habit.
Landis had insisted he was innocent and wrote a book in 200 titled, “Positively False: The Real Story of How I Won the Tour de France.” His fans donated money for his defense. As recently as a few months ago, he was on “Larry King Live” to discuss his case and emphasize his innocence.
i don’t know which is more odious — the godawful tiresome hypocrisy of an industry that all but requires its employees to shoot estrogen into their eyeballs and then feigns shock and outrage when the dirty laundry inevitably gets aired, or the neverending barf parade of self-flagellating pro athletes blubbering their mea culpas into cameras — but it looks like we’re in for another round of both. i didn’t think it was possible to be more disgusted than i was with the tiger woods festival of judgment and public self-recrimination, but i think landis has pulled it off. tiger at least had the decency not to go launching his own scandalrama on purpose, whereas landis is by all indications just trying to whip up one more go-round of cheap publicity and fling a little more poop at his former colleagues in the process. pathetic.
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Supposedly, this is the leaked email:
http://forum.cyclingnews.com/showpost.php?p=213765&postcount=474
” 2002: I was instructed on how to use Testosterone patches by Johan Bruyneel
during the During the Dauphine Libere in June, after which I flew on a
helicopter with Mr Armstrong from the finish, I believe Grenoble, to San
Mauritz Switzerland at which point I was personally handed a box of 2.5 mg
patches in front of his wife who witnessed the exchange. About a week
later, Dr Ferrari performed an extraction of half a liter of blood to be
transfused back into me during the Tour de France. Mr Armstrong was not
witness to the extraction but he and I had lengthy discussions about it on
our training rides during which time he also explained to me the evolution
of EPO testing and how transfusions were now necessary due to the
inconvenience of the new test. He also divulged to me at that time that in
the first year that the EPO test was used he had been told by Mr Ferrari,
who had access to the new test, that he should not use EPO anymore but he
did not believe Mr Farrari and contin
ued to use it. He later, while winning the Tour de Swiss, the month before
the Tour de France, tested positive for EPO at which point he and Mr
Bruyneel flew to the UCI headquarters and made a financial agreement with
Mr. Vrubrugen to keep the positive test hidden.
2003: After a broken hip in the winter, I flew to Gerona Spain where this
time two units (half a liter each) were extracted three weeks apart. This
took place in the apartment in which Mr. Armstrong lived and in which I was
asked to stay and check the blood temperature every day. It was kept in a
small refrigerator in the closet allong with the blood of Mr Armstrong and
George Hincapie and since Mr. Armstrong was planning on being gone for a few
weeks to train he asked me to stay in his place and make sure the
electricity didn’t turn off or something go wrong with the referigerator.
Then during the Tour de France the entire team, on two different occasions
went to the room that we were told and the doctor met us there to do the
transfusions. During that Tour de France I personally witnessed George
Hincapie, Lance Armstrong, Chechu Rubiera, and myself receiving blood
transfusions. Also during that Tour de France the team doctor would give my
room mate, George Hincapie an
d I a small syringe of olive oil in which was disolved andriol, a form of
ingestible testosterone on two out of three nights throughout the duration.
I was asked to ride the Vuelta a Espana that year in support of Roberto
Heras and in August, between the Tour and the Vuelta, was told to take EPO
to raise my hematocrit back up so more blood transfusions could be
performed. I was instructed to go to Lances place by Johan Bruyneel and get
some EPO from him. The first EPO I ever used was then handed to me in the
entry way to his building in full view of his then wife. It was Eprex by
brand and it came in six pre measured syringes. I used it intravenously for
several weeks before the next blood draw and had no problems with the tests
during the Vuelta. Also during this time it was explained to me how to use
Human Growth Hormone by Johan Bruyneel and I bought what I needed from Pepe
the team “trainer” who lived in Valencia along with the team doctor at that
time. While training for that Vuelta I spent a good deal of time training
with Matthew White and Michael Barry and shared the testosterone and EPO
that we had and discu
ssed the use thereof while training.
Again, during the Vuelta we were given Andriol and blood transfusions by the
team doctor and had no problems with any testing.
2004: Again the team performed two seperate blood transfusions on me, but
this time Bruyneel had become more paranoid and we did the draws by flying
to Belgium and meeting at an unknown persons appartment and the blood was
brought by “Duffy” who was at that time Johans assistant of sorts. The
second of which was performed on the team bus on the ride from the finish of
a stage to the hotel during which the driver pretended to have engine
trouble and stopped on a remote mountain road for an hour or so so the
entire team could have half a liter of blood added. This was the only time
that I ever saw the entire team being transfused in plain view of all the
other riders and bus driver. That team included Lance Armstrong, George
Hincapie and I as the only Americans.
2005: I had learned at this point how to do most of the transfusion
technicals and other things on my own so I hired Allen Lim as my assistant
to help with details and logistics. He helped Levi Leipheimer and I prepare
the transfusions for Levi and I and made sure they were kept at the proper
temperature. We both did two seperate transfusions that Tour however my
hematocrit was too low at the start so I did my first one a few days before
the start so as to not start with a deficit.
2006: Well you get the idea……. One thing of great signigicance is that
I sat down with Andy Riis and explained to him what was done in the past and
what was the risk I would be taking and ask for his permission which he
granted in the form of funds to complete the operation described. John
Lelangue was also informed by me and Andy Riis consulted with Jim Ochowitz
before agreeing.
There are many many more details that I have in diaries and am in the
process of writing into an intelligible story but since the position of USA
Cycling is that there have not been enough details shared to justify calling
USADA, I am writing as many as I can reasonably put into an email and share
with you so as to ascertain what is the process which USA Cycling uses to
proceed with such allegations.
Look forward to much more detail as soon as you can demonstrate that you can
be trusted to do the right thing.
Floyd Landis
Comment | May 20, 2010
__________________
The average reader, as they meant it, was some suburban white subscriber with two-point-whatever kids and three-point-whatever cars and a dog and a cat and lawn furniture. He knows nothing and he needs everything explained to him right away, so that exposition becomes this incredible, story-killing burden. Fu
wow, that’s mighty specific. i wonder how much of this can be independently confirmed or refuted. certainly you can’t just transfuse a bus full of riders “in plain view of all the other riders and bus driver” without generating a witness or two. if nothing else, to corroborate the timing of the account — wouldn’t there be some record of the chronic engine problems, the dates and locations of these meetings?
i notice he doesn’t go into how he knows about armstrong’s super secret positive EPO test, or about the hush money supposedly paid to UCI. that’s the kind of thing that, if you’re going to put out there. you had better be specific about.
So a few more things came up in lance’s response (http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/video-armstrong-rejects-landis-allegations) and I think the biggest problem is pretty much what everyone at now team radioshack has to say: The guy just spent two years swearing up and down he never did anything, including testifying in court and generating a book, “Positively False.” And somehow, it comes out now?
More:
http://www.livestrong.com/teamradioshack/news_statement-from-counsel-team-radioshack-regarding-landis-allegations/
Yikes. Lance pretty much called him an addict and a crazy person. He’s exactly right about credibility: Landis has none, and even less after this.
Ugh, I need a shower.