Floyd Landis sample might not be his

March 15, 2007 2:59 PM

A wee bit of a problem More mistakes come to light in the French lab that screwed Floyd out of his Tour win
posted by cccorlew (23 comments total)

I could use more context. I don't know anything about this beyond what I saw in the headlines -- and I don't know much more about it now.
posted by The corpse in the library at 3:01 PM on March 15, 2007

Basically the lab totally dropped the ball, the urine sample was labeled to be from a different. His proofs (found from Floyd's site, mind you) can be found here. Normally I dislike sore losers, but if the proof he provides is real, the guy definitely got screwed. Whether intentionally or accidentally remains to be seen, but this lab has some 'splainin to do.
posted by Mach5 at 3:17 PM on March 15, 2007

a different cyclist, rather.
posted by Mach5 at 3:19 PM on March 15, 2007

On the other hand, it is commonly accepted that you can't win the Tour de France without being doped anymore. So the mere fact that we was the fastest cyclist on the tour alone proves that he was doped.
posted by sour cream at 3:31 PM on March 15, 2007

I always assumed that they're all on drugs, so...the fact that one gets caught doing them is kinda like getting caught eating or caught having legs.
posted by jimmythefish at 3:37 PM on March 15, 2007

sour cream: That's quite a blanket statement, care to back it up with anything?

At any rate, I'm excited for the day where have a league for only dopers, so these crazy people can pop horse steroids, become freakishly strong, destroy all the world records, and finally watch their heart try to make a break for it.
posted by Mach5 at 3:38 PM on March 15, 2007

I so called this back in July.
posted by niles at 3:46 PM on March 15, 2007

Mach5, agreed. There should be a class in sports for the doped athletes. Think of how entertaining it could be to watch a bunch of steroid enhanced ladies running track. Or gross.

We let chicks with boob jobs do porn. Why not let enhanced athletes shine in their own way too?
posted by Sukiari at 3:52 PM on March 15, 2007

I don't exactly think that it's a good idea to have a league for people who take whatever drugs they like as I'm sure the casualty rate would be rather high. On the other hand, I think it would be a good idea to allow treatments which are mostly safe. I mean banning Human Growth Hormone?

Some things are not going to come from training alone, so why should people with certan genetic gifts be the ones who get all the glory? I thought it was supposed to be about who "wants" it more.

On the other hand, I never got sports fandom.
posted by delmoi at 4:03 PM on March 15, 2007

I'm totally for a whole "dope 'em up" category of sports. Insted of Quaker Oats sponsoring a cyclist, it'll be Monsanto, and when a guy spontaneously combusts fifty yards short of the finish line, and the guy claiming the medal suddenly mutates and sprouts cheetah patterns in the fur he's been growing the whole race, it'll only make it that more exciting.

I'm on board with the fatality aspect. That'll make it far more exciting, as even the training regimens could be lethal. So what if one of the body-builders' veins begin popping out like the final scene in Scanners? We'll have commentators talking about some kind of vicious feedback loop between the human growth hormone injections and a gland that pumps out a hmyostatin blocker. Twenty-five years from then, strange fights will break out between team members; only later will we discover that some had antelope genes inserted for speed, while others had subtle infuctions of genetic material from savannah predators with a lot of fast-twitch muscles for a stategic final burst of speed. Football players will have the shoulders of gorillas and the knee joints of elephants, and will have been bred for it from the get-go. Bring it on, baby!
posted by adipocere at 4:41 PM on March 15, 2007 [1 favorite]

I'm reminded of SNL's (link to video) All Drug Olympics
posted by theothermatt at 5:24 PM on March 15, 2007

I've always wanted to see something like mutant league in real life. Maybe an all-steroids league could be a step towards that?
posted by puke & cry at 5:44 PM on March 15, 2007

I've not doubted the veracity of Landis' claim on a gut feeling level, but I've been reserving my own final judgment until all the evidence is in. There's just too much strangeness about the whole thing. While I'm not the most knowledgeable about doping, testosterone is not something I associated with athletes using to help in recovery. The other odd thing which I didn't know until today was the lack of cortisone in his sample for which he was approved to use because of his hip. I don't think it was a set-up, but I do believe it was completely bungled and unprofessionally handled which is sad for such an important world class event.

And yeah, this post could have used some more fleshing out...
posted by Eekacat at 6:06 PM on March 15, 2007

I would also add that even if he wins his case, his victory will always remain under a cloud. Which is sad considering what he did in the tour.
posted by Eekacat at 6:09 PM on March 15, 2007

Ladies and gentlemen, something very strange has just occurred in this basketball match between space clowns and atomic monsters.
posted by furiousxgeorge at 6:14 PM on March 15, 2007 [1 favorite]

testosterone is not something I associated with athletes using to help in recovery.

Read John's comment from the original Landis thread: Tour winner disgraced?

Dr Moosburger explained how it was done. "You put a standard testosterone patch that is used for male hormone replacement therapy on your scrotum and leave it there for about six hours. The small dose is not sufficient to produce a positive urine result in the doping test, but the body actually recovers faster."

There was also an AskMe about Landis: Is Landis a dope?
posted by Chuckles at 7:15 PM on March 15, 2007

That's quite a blanket statement

Well, last year I made a chart:

Year              place
        1     2     3     4     5
2005   LA     X     X     X     X
2004   LA    AK     X     X    JA
2003   LA     X     X     X    HZ
2002   LA     X    RR    SB     X
2001   LA     X     X    AK     X
2000   LA     X     X    CM     X
1999   LA    AZ    FE    LD     X

With a correction:

For the record, my chart has Vinokourov's two top five finishes marked with an X. At this point it looks like he is not implicated.

And is looks like Vino is still "clean".
posted by Chuckles at 7:22 PM on March 15, 2007

Pink Floyd?
posted by Balisong at 8:18 PM on March 15, 2007

So a slide in a presentation given by Landis' "friend and staunch defender" is evidence now?
posted by markr at 11:00 PM on March 15, 2007

I have this image of a peloton of lawyers drafting each other.
posted by srboisvert at 1:20 AM on March 16, 2007

Somehow I doubt the original post would have been framed in this way had Floyd Landis been Danish.
posted by salmacis at 2:12 AM on March 16, 2007

The Wiki defense!
posted by fixedgear at 3:34 AM on March 16, 2007

Ladies and gentlemen, something very strange has just occurred in this basketball match between space clowns and atomic monsters.

You just hate to see that sort of thing at this level of play.
posted by eriko at 4:35 AM on March 16, 2007