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Post by webm@ster on Jul 21, 2006 10:01:03 GMT -5
ORZINE, France (AP) -- Written off as hopeless just a day earlier, Floyd Landis needed a once-in-a-lifetime ride Thursday to revive his sagging chances of victory in the Tour de France.
Did he ever deliver.
With a sensational display of brio and guts in the style of seven-time Tour champion Lance Armstrong, the American put himself back in the title hunt with a solo win in the last Alpine stage.
The astonishing rebound silenced nay-sayers -- including Landis himself -- who believed his chances to win on Sunday were doomed after he lost more than 8 minutes to the race leader in a punishing stage just 24 hours earlier.
"I was very, very disappointed yesterday for a little while," Landis said. "Today I thought I could show that at least I would keep fighting.
"No matter what -- whether I win or lose -- I wanted to prove to my team that I deserved to be the leader," he said. "I didn't expect it to work quite that well."
Sensing his rivals would be relatively depleted, Landis pedaled like a man possessed -- going all out for his Phonak squad.
In the first climb, Landis brashly spurted ahead of Oscar Pereiro, wearing the yellow jersey, and other key Tour contenders -- catching then overtaking a breakaway group that had gotten ahead earlier.
"I took a long shot," he said, "but after all those hard mountain stages you can usually assume that people are tired and chasing doesn't work so well."
One by one, he left them all behind.
Landis, who rides with an injured hip, pumped his right fist in celebration as he crossed the finish of the 124.3-mile ride -- the last stage in the Alps -- in 5 hours, 23 minutes, 36 seconds.
He began the day in 11th place, trailing Pereiro by 8 minutes, 8 seconds. By the time he finished, he had jumped to third, and had closed the time gap to an incredible 30 seconds.
The 30-year-old from eastern Pennsylvania's Mennonite country slashed the deficit by finishing 7:08 ahead of Pereiro. He also trimmed an extra 30 seconds by earning bonus points for winning the stage and placing well in sprints.
It was a striking, stirring reversal from Wednesday, when Landis withered almost pitifully in an uphill finish to the Tour's hardest Alpine stage and lost the leader's yellow jersey to the Spaniard.
Race director Jean-Marie Leblanc said Landis had given "the best performance in the modern history of the Tour" -- adding that only a day earlier, he was "gone, finished, condemned."
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Post by webm@ster on Jul 22, 2006 12:36:49 GMT -5
 the tour seems in the bag, red white and blue baby  |
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Post by feckarse on Jul 27, 2006 12:05:49 GMT -5
the tour seems in the bag, red white and blue baby Another drug cheat found out..... And I'm not one tiny bit surprised, as I've pointed out before (and this coming from working in the field of drug testing) cycling is the filthiest sport there is (as a direct result of the indurance being so difficult) ----------------------------------- Landis gives positive drugs test[/b] Tour de France winner Floyd Landis has given a positive drugs test, according to his Phonak team. The 30-year-old American, who claimed victory in the Tour de France on Sunday, has tested positive for the male sex hormone testosterone. The positive test came after stage 17 of the Tour, which saw Landis record an epic victory after struggling on the final climb the day before.
(I assume this is referring to the performance in the article above?!? - Feck)Landis has been suspended pending results of his B sample analysis. The International Cycling Union (UCI) announced on Wednesday that a rider had failed a doping test but would not reveal his name. "The Phonak Cycling Team was notified on Wednesday 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," said a team 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 (B sample) to prove either that this result has come from a natural process or that this is the result of a mistake." Phonak have also said that if the second sample confirms the positive test, Landis will be sacked. "In application of the Pro Tour Ethical Code, the rider will not race anymore until this problem is totally clear," the statement added. "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." Landis had already withdrawn from two races in Europe this week, Wednesday's Acht van Chaam street race in the Netherlands and Thursday's Jyske Bank Grand Prix in Denmark. "Today, Phonak confirmed the cancellation. They could not say anything about why Landis has disappeared," said Jyske Bank Grand Prix spokesman Nils Finderup. "We have tried to call him, to call his agent, and to call the head of the Phonak team, but no one has answered." Organisers of the Acht van Chaam event were also angry at Landis' no-show. "We have tried to contact Floyd and his manager but we have not been able to," said race agent John van den Akker. "We are very annoyed. We have invested a lot of money to ensure his appearance and we would have expected some kind of explanation." Landis finished 57 seconds ahead of Spain's Oscar Pereiro in the general classification to claim his first Tour de France title last weekend. |
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Post by webm@ster on Jul 27, 2006 13:01:15 GMT -5
Horrible news if the B test confirms it ...just want to know how team doctors can think that in today's tour you won't be found out ? Landis seems like an intelligent guy....I just don't get it.
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Post by feckarse on Jul 27, 2006 13:13:54 GMT -5
Horrible news if the B test confirms it ...just want to know how team doctors can think that in today's tour you won't be found out ? Landis seems like an intelligent guy....I just don't get it. Cycling is incredibly high endurance.... Certainly anyone at the top of the field is doping.... Most know how to 'work the game'... Times you dope, knowing when you're likely to be tested...etc. and Landis got sloppy (presumably from the story above because he needed something quickly) Often the testers are fully aware of who's clearly doping, but the tests have to show ridiculously high levels to pre-empt legal challenges, (eg claim could be made that the athletes body naturally produces such levels of testosterone) There's a ratio used of testosterone in the body, the average for a man is around 1:1, for professional athletes this can rise to about 2, or in some cases even up to 3:1 naturally... But the testers won't make a call for it unless the levels show to be about 6:1... That's how sure they are when they make these calls I can think of one story of a very well known athlete at the time who was regularly testing at 4:1 - he was an expert doper... Knew exactly what levels he could get away with (ie if you dope a certain time before a possible test, you know your levels will drop accordingly), and he got away with it for a long time.. However, he was tested more and more frequently as the testers knew well what he was up to... Then he was tested (by a man I know very well) out of competition, out of season, completely unexpected and his results showed almost 7:1 testosterone. He was found guilty, and subsequently banned. ---------- I wasn't having a go with Lance Armstrong before in previous threads, but if you believe he never took anything, you're naive to what's going on. What Lance did is still absolutely incredible though, given his personal situation and the fact that all other top cyclists are at it anyway. If the B-Sample doesn't confirm it for Landis (which would be very unlikely as it comes from the same urine given in the one go), then he will get away with it, but everyone familiar with the industry will know he'll have taken something irrespective.... |
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Post by webm@ster on Jul 27, 2006 15:34:26 GMT -5
I was just wondering because stage winners get tested right after the race. Landis must have given up and not believed in that stage win then if he took shit before the stage....
so the modern day tours are all a farce...do you think Eddie Merx and co. were doping back when they ruled the races ?
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Post by feckarse on Jul 27, 2006 16:09:47 GMT -5
so the modern day tours are all a farce...do you think Eddie Merx and co. were doping back when they ruled the races ? I'm not an expert in the history of doping by any means, and your guess is as good as mine on that one really. Though one would imagine supplements they have access to today would wipe the floor with whatever you could get in the 70s! These cyclists are still unbelievable and I have a lot of respect for them, the times they do over the distances they do in such short periods of time are amazing, assisted or not.... you'd think they'd just officially allow the doping and call a spade a spade! |
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Post by webm@ster on Jul 28, 2006 11:53:59 GMT -5
From CNN
Floyd Landis says he didn't do it -- didn't inject testosterone, didn't apply a testosterone patch to any part of his body. Floyd Landis just returned my call, and I asked him straight up: "Did you do it, bro?"
He said, "No, c'mon man," in what would turn out to be the first of several denials.
I want very badly to believe him.
Landis had been crying. Not for himself -- he'd just gotten off the phone with his mother, Arlene, who has been driven from the family home in Farmersville, Pa., by reporters scavenging for quotes. "I know it's their job," he said, sadly, "but they need to leave her out of this."
The A sample from the urine test to which he submitted after Stage 17 shows "an unusual level of testosterone/epitestosterone." Landis told me he "can't be hopeful" that the B sample will be any different than the A. "I'm a realist," he said.
Landis says that an elevated level of testosterone is different from a positive test. He says this is a fairly common problem among pro cyclists. He's retaining the services of a Spanish doctor named Luis Hernandez, who has helped other riders shown by tests to have elevated levels of testosterone. "In hundreds of cases," Landis told me, "no one's ever lost one."
It's too early to tell if he's going to be on solid footing or if he's clutching at straws. The next step, he says, is to submit to an endocrine test that may help him prove that he just happens to be a guy walking around with an inordinate amount of testosterone in his blood.
He raised the possibility that the cortisone shots he's been taking for his ravaged right hip -- the hip he'll soon have replaced -- may have had some effect on the test. Then he revealed this: "I've had a thyroid condition for the last year or so and have been taking small amounts of thyroid hormone. It's an oral dose, once a day."
He raised the possibility that that medication may have skewed the test that appears to damn him.
He knows how bad this looks, and told me, "I wouldn't hold it against somebody if they don't believe me."
I don't know what to believe. I was surprised he returned my call.
"You were there when nobody else was," he told me, "so I thought I'd better call you back."
He was talking about a visit I paid to the team bus a week ago today. The day before -- in what had been his lowest moment in many weeks -- Landis appeared to have ridden himself off the podium and out of the top 10. As the Tour had unfolded, as he'd taken the lead and then relinquished it, then cracked spectacularly, he had not seemed like a rider under the influence of performance-enhancing drugs. In fact, the French were down on him for racing too conservatively, for not attacking or going for stage wins.
The next morning I went by the Phonak team bus (as I wrote in my Tour dispatch a week ago). It was eerily deserted, Landis having already been dubbed irrelevant. He sat on the steps of the bus and we chatted. After his incredible ride that day, I was a little embarrassed by what I'd said: I told him I respected that he'd finished the stage, no matter how long it took. I told him I looked forward to seeing what he did in the final time trial -- something about silver linings.
He smiled, and told me, basically, that he expected to make up some of that time that afternoon. He told me he was feeling better.
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Post by giggergrl on Jul 29, 2006 20:15:58 GMT -5
 highly likely this is just a load of cobblers.. I read feck's post with averages and all. but how can they determine exactly how much testosterone should be in a man ? unless you have a baseline ? I was told it varies from individual to individual and from month to month... same applies to progesterone and estrogen in woman. you can have too little or too much . I did not think this was an exact science ?
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Post by webm@ster on Jul 31, 2006 10:04:49 GMT -5
highly likely this is just a load of cobblers.. I read feck's post with averages and all. but how can they determine exactly how much testosterone should be in a man ? unless you have a baseline ? I was told it varies from individual to individual and from month to month... same applies to progesterone and estrogen in woman. you can have too little or too much . I did not think this was an exact science ? athletes can have a 4 : 1 ratio This A test indicates levels much higher |
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Post by giggergrl on Aug 1, 2006 12:30:46 GMT -5
highly likely this is just a load of cobblers.. I read feck's post with averages and all. but how can they determine exactly how much testosterone should be in a man ? unless you have a baseline ? I was told it varies from individual to individual and from month to month... same applies to progesterone and estrogen in woman. you can have too little or too much . I did not think this was an exact science ? athletes can have a 4 : 1 ratio This A test indicates levels much higher Ok maybe I am in denial then ? BUT what if someone tampered with the samples to "F" him... who knows ? and was he on medication for a thyroid condition ? not sure how that wld factor into the equation  like you said, it just seems so unwise to risk it all, KNOWING they test ? that part DOES NOT add up.. hmmmmmm.... |
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Post by feckarse on Aug 1, 2006 12:52:57 GMT -5
Ok maybe I am in denial then ? BUT what if someone tampered with the samples to "F" him... who knows ? and was he on medication for a thyroid condition ? not sure how that wld factor into the equation If webby still has my PM, ask him to forward it on to you... It outlines how its virtually impossible for tests to be tampered with |
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Post by feckarse on Aug 2, 2006 10:12:29 GMT -5
Landis' testosterone to epitestosterone ratio was 11:1 (at 4:1 they can make a call with.... this level used to be 6:1, but at 4:1 it is still beyond any reasonable doubt.... The average man is 1:1)
In other words, there really can be no argument questioning his guilt
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Post by giggergrl on Aug 2, 2006 18:11:16 GMT -5
Landis' testosterone to epitestosterone ratio was 11:1 (at 4:1 they can make a call with.... this level used to be 6:1, but at 4:1 it is still beyond any reasonable doubt.... The average man is 1:1) In other words, there really can be no argument questioning his guilt holy smokes... |
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highly likely this is just a load of cobblers.. I read feck's post with averages and all. 
Nov 4, 2024 5:04:30 GMT -5