"The 33"-Road Bike Racing - Rumor Mill in Full Effect

Tour rider tests positive. Floyd pulls out of a post-Tour crit. People speculating. Hope that's all it is.

http://www.cycling4all.com/


A clean Tour de France 2006 ?? - it seems again an illusion

According to the UCI there was one dopingtest in this Tour de France with 'abnormal' results.
No more details, about the rider involved, the stage and the product were given but the team and
Federation of the rider involved, are notified.

The Federations of Belgium, France, Italy and Spain published a uniform message that the rider
involved was not belonging to one of their Federations.


Tour winner Floyd Landis forfeits his "goodwill" in the Netherlands and Denmark

All of a sudden, Tour winner Floyd Landis (Usa) and Phonak manager John Lelangue disappeared
yesterday afternoon from their hotel in Eindhoven (Ned) without giving any notice to the organizers.

Landis was expected to ride in the "traditional" criterium Acht van Chaam, yesterday evening and in
Denmark tonight, but also that participation is cancelled.
He should have been left to Germany, for an investigation of his hip by his teamdoctor, that is what
the organizers understood from some of his teammates.
The riders-coordinator John van den Akker, who has contracted him and many other riders,
have tried to get in contact with him and his team manager Lelangue, but so far that failed.

I looked at cyclingnews. velonews, and bicirace dot coms...nothing...

But I found this. (http://www.procycling.com/news.aspx?ID=2341) The US Federation is saying it's not an American rider. Floyd's got, I would guess, a US Federation international license. The "generic" Velonews article says the rider's federation's been notified.

The last three paragraphs are pretty telling, however.

Yuck.

I hope it ain't so.

Tuttobici website atricle says Floyd's got a Spanish license...

More out there on the wire... (http://wire.jacksonville.com/pstories/sports/20060727/74130830.shtml)

Tuttobici website atricle says Floyd's got a Spanish license...

Not that I am doubting this, but if that was the case, would not USA Cycling then say, "but we would not be notified as Landis does not race under a US international license" and end their involvement?

I looked at cyclingnews. velonews, and bicirace dot coms...nothing...

But I found this. (http://www.procycling.com/news.aspx?ID=2341) The US Federation is saying it's not an American rider. Floyd's got, obviously, a US Federation international license. The "generic" Velonews article says the rider's federation's been notified.

The last three paragraphs are pretty telling, however.

Yuck.

I hope it ain't so.

Yeah, that doesn't look good.

Man...I hope this isn't true. The Tour was tainted enough without this happening. When Jan, Basso, and everyone else got suspended I was mad and didn't feel like following the Tour. As time passed and the Tour got exciting I was sucked in to the action and forgot about all of the doping crap. It's not that I thought all the riders were clean, but maybe they were being a little more careful and not getting caught so that we didn't have to hear about doping all the time.

With the exciting finish to the TDF and all, I felt like racing was going to be the main focus again, not doping. But first we found out that Vino and his team were screwed and now this. I really hope it was some domestique instead of a big name. The Tour doesn't need another huge scandal.

Would these organizations admit that it was one of their riders? What's to stop them from denying it?

Would these organizations admit that it was one of their riders? What's to stop them from denying it?

What would be the point of denying? Unless the lawyers said not to, but then they usually say "we have not comment" rather than lying.

FWIW, Spain has also not been contacted, so they say. (http://www.cyclingnews.com/news.php?id=news/2006/jul06/jul27news2)

Would these organizations admit that it was one of their riders? What's to stop them from denying it?


That's what I'm thinkin'.

f

Well, so far they're saying that the federations of Belgium, France, Italy, Spain, USA, and Australia have all denied contact. They're also saying that it involves a "high profile rider." I also thought I read that CSC denied any contact, but I can't remember where I saw that.

Assuming everyone's telling the truth, we should be able to narrow it down pretty well.

Assuming everyone's telling the truth, we should be able to narrow it down pretty well.

Big assumption. Deny, deny, deny. Even if/when this rider is exposed do you think he's going to fess up? There will be some type of Shaggy defence (Wasn't me) for whoever gets busted.

f

Landis has a US liscense. He still leads the USAC points.

Not that I am doubting this, but if that was the case, would not USA Cycling then say, "but we would not be notified as Landis does not race under a US international license" and end their involvement?

No,
If they were smart, they wouldn't say that. Information about a positive A sample is not supposed to be public, and mentioning rider's names is not appropriate. What stinks is that there is even any public mention of a positive test, until the the whole process has worked its way through. In the emplyoment context, employers are never notified of a positive A sample until the employee has had the chance to have the B sample tested. Only after both samples are positive, and the MRO confirms the positive test does it become a positive test, and the employer is informed. I believe the process is supposed to be similar in sports drug tests.

I'm concerned that even if the B sample comes back clean, there will always be speculation that it was Floyd and that he got away with something.

I agree with merlinextraligh. This positive A sample "news" should have never been released.

""But the sport's governing body did say the rider's team and national federation were notified, as well as national and world anti-doping authorities. USA Cycling has not been contacted by UCI, spokesman Andy Lee said.

U.S. Anti-Doping Agency spokeswoman Carla O'Connell said that group had no comment.""


its the "no comment" that worries me

Hmm I didn't see Germany on that list...Kloden maybe...we all know no one else on his team was doping...oh wait...

+1 on Kloden. He'll say the breathright strips caused the positive.

When do they make an announcement? By tomorrow?

I can categorically say it's not me. Wait, I wasn't in the Tour de France.

But I did watch it on TV. And I WiLL test positive for Doritos. I'm from another country anyway (NY).

It was Landis. From cyclingnews:

Phonak confirms Landis positive
The Phonak team has confirmed the speculation that Floyd Landis returned a positive A sample after his win in stage 17 of the Tour de France. "The Phonak Cycling Team was notified yesterday by the UCI about an unusual level of Testosterone/Epitestosterone ratio in the test made on Floyd Landis after stage 17 of the Tour de France," said the team in a statement. "The team management and the rider were both totally surprised of this physiological result.

"The rider will ask in the upcoming days for the counter analysis to prove either that this result is coming from a natural process or that this is resulting from a mistake in the confirmation. In application of the Pro Tour Ethical Code, the rider will not race anymore until this problem is totally clear.

"If the result of the B sample analysis confirms the result of the A sample, the rider will be dismissed and will then pass the corresponding endocrinological examinations."

Oh Boy, in the other thread started by riskus:

Phonak confirms Landis positive (http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php?p=2824894#post2824894)

f

edit: beaten to the punch

Has anyone contacted the Kazakh association? Maybe Vino showed up as a spectator and gave a urine sample just for gits and shiggles.

Whoops, missed that one by a couple minutes, didn't I?

If the B sample is positive, that really took balls to get jacked up before the stage he knew he was going to try and win. He knew he would be tested as a stage winner if all went according to plan. Goes to show you how much faith these guys have in the testing if he felt it was worth the risk on the biggest stage in the world. He knew the test was beatable, he just slipped up somewhere.

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