What is with this sport?
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Landis tests positive
Tour winner called out for doping during race
Posted: Thursday July 27, 2006 10:16AM; Updated: Thursday July 27, 2006 10:16AM
LONDON (Reuters) -- Tour de France winner Floyd Landis has given a positive drugs test for the male sex hormone testosterone, his Phonak team said on Thursday.
"The Phonak Cycling Team was notified yesterday by the UCI of an unusual level of testosterone/epitestosterone ratio in the test made on Floyd Landis after stage 17 of the Tour de France," Phonak said in a team statement.
Copyright 2006 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
One thing it goes to show - they test rigorously for these things, and I think this goes to exonerate Lance Armstrong. If they tested and tested and tested him and never found anything, but they test Landis and he's busted, the tests must be accurate. No positive results for Lance tells me something.
Team says Landis tested positive during Tour de France Team says Landis tested positive during Tour de France
By STEPHEN WILSON, AP Sports Writer July 27, 2006
AP - Jul 27, 11:26 am EDT More Photos
LONDON (AP) -- Tour de France champion Floyd Landis tested positive for high levels of testosterone during the race, his Phonak team said Thursday on its Web site, raising questions about his victory.
The team suspended Landis, pending results of the backup "B" sample of his drug test, just four days after Landis stood on the victory podium on the Champs-Elysees, succeeding seven-time winner Lance Armstrong as an American winner in Paris.
The Swiss-based Phonak team said it was notified by the UCI on Wednesday that Landis' sample showed "an unusual level of testosterone/epitestosterone" when he was tested after stage 17 of the race last Thursday.
"The team management and the rider were both totally surprised of this physiological result," the Phonak statement said.
Landis made a remarkable comeback in that Alpine stage, racing far ahead of the field for a solo win that moved him from 11th to third in the overall standings. He regained the leader's yellow jersey two days later.
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Landis rode the Tour with a degenerative hip condition that he has said will require surgery in the coming weeks or months.
Arlene Landis, his mother, said Thursday that she wouldn't blame her son if he was taking medication to treat the pain in his injured hip, but "if it's something worse than that, then he doesn't deserve to win."
"I didn't talk to him since that hit the fan, but I'm keeping things even keel until I know what the facts are," she told The Associated Press in a phone interview from her home in Farmersville, Pennsylvania. "I know that this is a temptation to every rider but I'm not going to jump to conclusions ... It disappoints me."
The Phonak statement came a day after the UCI, cycling's world governing body, said an unidentified rider had failed a drug test during the Tour.
Phonak said Landis would ask for an analysis of his backup sample "to prove either that this result is coming from a natural process or that this is resulting from a mistake."
Landis has been suspended by his team pending the results. If the second sample confirms the initial finding, he will be fired, Phonak said.
USA Cycling spokesman Andy Lee said that organization could not comment on Landis.
"Because it's an anti-doping matter, it's USA Cycling's policy not to comment on that subject out of respect for the process and Floyd's rights," Lee said. "Right now, we have to let the process proceed and we can't comment on it."
Carla O'Connell, publications and communications director for the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, said: "I'll make this very brief: No comment."
AP - Jul 27, 11:22 am EDT More Photos
Under World Anti-Doping Agency regulations, a ratio of testosterone to epitestosterone greater than 4:1 is considered a positive result and subject to investigation. The threshold was recently lowered from 6:1. The most likely natural ratio of testosterone to epitestosterone in humans is 1:1.
Testosterone is included as an anabolic steroid on WADA's list of banned substances, and its use can be punished by a two-year ban.
Landis wrapped up his Tour de France win on Sunday, keeping the title in U.S. hands for the eighth straight year. Armstrong, long dogged by doping whispers and allegations, won the previous seven. Armstrong never has tested positive for drugs and vehemently has denied doping.
Speculation that Landis had tested positive spread earlier Thursday after he failed to show up for a one-day race in Denmark on Thursday. A day earlier, he missed a scheduled event in the Netherlands.
On the eve of the Tour's start, nine riders -- including pre-race favorites Jan Ullrich and Ivan Basso -- were ousted, implicated in a Spanish doping investigation.
The names of Ullrich and Basso turned up on a list of 56 cyclists who allegedly had contact with Spanish doctor Eufemiano Fuentes, who's at the center of the Spanish doping probe.
Associated Press writer Michael Rubinkam in Allentown, Pa., and AP Sports Writer Arnie Stapleton in Denver contributed to this report.
That's pretty much the same article I posted earlier. Until the "B" test comes back positive it's still possible it's an errant test, but these guys are so good at testing now that the "B" sample test is really just a formality. He probably did it and he's going down.
Of course, the conspiracy theorist in me says it's highly possible that the WADA, which has a history of let's just say "questionable" practices in relation to Lance Armstrong, may have added just a smidge of testosterone to the sample in an effort to smear another American.
With cycling a predominantly European sport it provides no end of consternation to the cycling world that an American has won 11 of the last 21 Tours, cycling’s most prestigious event. I can easily see the potential for a “mistake” in the testing process that would cast aspersions on the American who won AGAIN. Believe me, they hate that over there.
It’s just a theory, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it were true.
Flux wrote:And to think we almost had a winner with no question marks surrounding him....should have known better
Lol, you think Lance hasn't been questioned the last 7-8 years?
Anyway, I was not in the least bit surprised.....Landis was dead in the water and absolutely drained after stage 16, and then proceeds to come out the next day and pull off one of the most impressive days in cycling history making up like 6 or 7 minutes on the leader....
Too bad though, he was a feel good story....But there is more doping in cycling than baseball ever thought about....
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by Twisted Sister » Thu Jul 27, 2006 9:29 am 
