Professional Cycling For the Fans - Maybe it was the beer . . .

Now here's a possible scenario I've been mulling over. By now we've all heard about Floyd "Roid" Landis's bar tab after his disastrous stage 16 performance--two beers and fours shots of Jack, according to reports. In light of recent revelations about testosterone patches being used for recovery purposes, let's suppose that Floyd was given a patch and told to keep it on for two hours. But . . . Floyd got tipsy and fell asleep with the patch on. Instead of having the patch on for two hours, it stayed on for six to eight hours. When Floyd woke up, he realized that the patch was still on and removed it, BUT he didn't realize the implications, and he went on with his business. End result--Floyd rides the stage of his life but his testosterone/epitestosterone ratio is astronomical and he's busted. I'm no math genius, but let's assume that a two-hour patch application would put a rider in the still safe 3/1 range. It seems that leaving the patch on for seven hours instead of the relatively safe two hours would put a rider roughly in the 11/1 range.

Of course, we'll never really know unless Floyd or somebody close to Phonak comes clean.

Dr. Bill

How about him purposely saying that he was going to drink beer and alcohol the day before his miracle ride, so that if the tests noted anything strange, it would cast doubt on accusations about him doping? It's possible too. I guess he took too much, and was unable to beat the second test.

how about a guy wanting to imbibe after effectively losing the biggest race on the planet AFTER having it pretty well in hand AND realizing there is a very good chance you will never get to attempt it again.

geez - i thrown back a few for much, much less

Dr. Bill... sounds like a possiblity... I heard one the other day too...

The riders are given the patch each night to keep up levels and help recovery... but the amounts are just under the wire so to speak.

On Stage 16, Flandis bonks, messing up his levels of Testostrone/EP... He puts on the patch as normal, but his EP level is so low that the T level ratio is now messed up.

This is what is detected.

Dr. Bill... sounds like a possiblity... I heard one the other day too...

The riders are given the patch each night to keep up levels and help recovery... but the amounts are just under the wire so to speak.

On Stage 16, Flandis bonks, messing up his levels of Testostrone/EP... He puts on the patch as normal, but his EP level is so low that the T level ratio is now messed up.

This is what is detected.

This is probably the best theory in my opinion - that his bonk/dehydration from stage 16 blew his epiT level.

Other than that you are left with a French conspiracy, which is a very attractive idea, but probably unlikely.

Other than that you have a problem with the test, not one but two tests. Odds are getting pretty long there.

I like either of those scenerios. I've tended to come around to the view that all of the top riders dope and that UCI has given them targets to dope to with the 50% hemoticrit and 4:1 T/E levels. So all of them bloodpack to the high 40%'s and top off with a Testostrone patch to the upper 3:1 levels. They only get caught when someone screws up. Like Tyler got given someone elses blood in error, Floyd either messed up in a drunken stupor or the doctors messed up the blood chemistry after his bonk.

Too bad in Floyd's case cause I really don't think 1 day of elevated testostrone gave him a competitive advantage. The good thing is if he fry's (as he likely will) in the future we may actually get to hear what happened. Tyler will take his secrets (along with Eki's gold medal) to the grave.

Edit: On reflection, to be consistant, Tyler probably didn't get a competitive advantage either as the top 20 or so all probably had 49% hemoticrit levels ... the rest just got their own blood back so they didn't get caught.