Floyd Landis

The admission of doping by Floyd Landis and his allegations on Wednesday through Thursday are having some major repercussions in the cycling community and in particular in the US. These serious and significant allegations are coming at the time that two big multistage races are going on. Landis will face discreditation since he is breaking the code of silence related to Lance Armstrong and the US Postal Service team of the late 90's and early 2000's. Floyd Landis knew this information when he was caught in a drug test at the Tour de France in 2006 and should have revealed it then rather than fighting the charges. The problem is that if you just won the biggest race in the sport you must attempt to protect your financial interests rather than admitting to the offenses committed. If the recent news was released then Landis' credibility would not be under attack like it is today.
It is absolutely necessary that the U S Anti-Doping Authority and World Anti-Doping Authority thoroughly investigate the allegations. This includes interviewing all parties and even trying to get as paperwork to clarify what is happening. For one thing we need to clear up what was happening. This was in the period of cycling where the fight against doping was at its crucial moment. More importantly if the allegations of blood doping by Lance Armstrong are true then we will be understand why it seems to be so ubiquitous in the most recent doping cases.
These allegations put the most scrutiny on Lance Armstrong and his seven Tour de France victories. There have been allegations previously about Lance Armstrong that have never gone very far. In addition many of his former teamates have been caught in drug tests. These include Floyd Landis, Tyler Hamilton, and Roberto Heras. In my opinion the record books will contain an asterisk just like Barry Bonds because the feat was amazing but the performance enhancing drugs use raises some doubts.

No video of a rainy stage of the Tour of California

I was extremely disappointed with the Versus coverage of yesterday's tour of California stage. They had no footage of the stage because the helicopter could not take off. It was raining yesterday which obviously makes the helicopter pilots job much more difficult, but I can't remember a stage of the Tour de France without any television coverage. They still manage to get the video feed, even if it is broken up temporarily every once in a while. I am not a helicopter pilot, but I can't think of a reason why they could not fly. I will differ the judgement on safety to the Versus team as they probably know better than I why they couldn't fly.

Performance Enhancing Drugs Again

With the news that Brian Cushing failed a performance enhancing drug test last year in the NFL the question has once again become when will American Professional Sports finally be free of these drugs. The real answer is never, but it can be much better. First we the viewing public and the members of congress with oversight have got to make the conscience decision to care about the use of performance enhancing drugs. Then the professional sports will respond and improve their steroid policies.
The most troubling aspects of the recent positive findings in North American Sports Leagues is that the banned substances have been products that are related to medical issues and not a classical steroid or other performance enhancing drug. Manny Ramirez tested positive for a fertility drug that was prescribed to him. The same is true for Edison Volquez on whom I blogged about earlier. From the reports I have read apparently Brian Cushing failed the test since HCG, a female fertility drug, was in his system. I won't speculate on why he had such a drug in his system, but once again the test did not catch him with testosterone or other steroids. The first two incidents can be simplified to the lack of use of the therapeutic use exception. If a doctor with a valid license prescribes a medication to treat a legitimate medical condition then this should not affect the athletes doping controls. The bigger problem that is flying under the radar but has cropped up several times is unintenional ingestion of banned substances in over the counter medicine and nutritional supplements. The nutritional supplements concern me the most since they are absolutely unregulated in the US. A simple solution would be to ban any nutritional supplement that does contain a substance as part of its formula that is on the banned lists of products.
The other thing that really irks me is that Brian Cushing was able to continue to play even though the league knew of his positive test. I understand and fully support the ability of athletes to contest an initial positive test and to even have a hearing to ensure due process to the accusation. In cycling if an athlete is has a positive test for performance enhancing drugs they are immediately suspended by their team. This suspension remains in effect until the second sample is tested and a negative result is returned. This type of suspension ought to be in place in the NFL and other North American professional sports leagues, i.e. MLB, NBA, NHL, and MLS. I should point out that cycling has its own performance enhancing drug scandals that after four years are still not resolved. Maybe my next blog post should be about that.

Monday Morning Report

We are at the nexus of the athletic calendar with the winter sports selecting their champions in the playoffs and the spring sports getting into the meat of their schedule. It is important to remember that we are only weeks away from the start of the World Cup in South Africa.
The way that LeBron James played in game 3 and the Cavaliers sounding defeat of the Celtics told everyone that the elbow may hurt but it won't slow him down. This series will probably still go to seven games as the teams are so well matched. Among the other winners this weekend are the Suns who finally got the monkey off their back in beating San Antonio. I love their style of play, but I have a hard time seeing them winning a championship due to their lack of size.
I want to congratulate Bradley Wiggins and Tyler Farrar for winning stages in the Giro d'Italia. I must also point out that stage two was filled with the most crashes I can remember for a grand tour stage. I just hope that this has not affected the final standing with two weeks of racing left. I want to congratulate the Dutch cycling fans for showing up on the sides of the roads in numbers far greater than most flat stages.
The worst news of the weekend is that Tiger Woods hurt his back. I can only assume that at best he will be back in a few weeks after some rest. If he has surgery I doubt he will be seen on a golf course till the end of the summer. This would be really bad for golf since television ratings double when he plays and sponsorships are hard to get and keep in this post recessionary period. The quality of the competition will only be slightly weaker without him since there are still many great golfers on tour.