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2006 Tour de France - Floyd Landis

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ScriptOhio said:
Dumbfounded Landis denies cheating during Tour

Like everyone in the sports world, Floyd Landis spent Thursday trying to make sense of Thursday's news, that he tested positive for high testosterone during the Tour de France. Maybe it was the medicine he needs for his thyroid disease. Maybe it was the cortisone he took for his chronically injured hip, which is due to be replaced.

http://sports.espn.go.com/oly/cycling/news/story?id=2531960
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How can still I HATE ESPN? This is why. This is just wrong, inaccurate, ficticious, a bold face fucking lie to sell a story.

His testosterone levels were actually very low, the ratio of testosterone to epitestosterone were out of line.

ESPN proves once again why I hate their fucking guts.

FUCK ESPN
 
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Landis' results 'don't add up'
<!--subtitle--><!--top author info--><TABLE width="100%" align=center border=0><TBODY><TR><TD class=articleByline><!-- overline-->By Lindsey Tanner
The Associated Press
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE><TABLE class=articleBody width="100%" align=center border=0><TBODY><TR><TD align=middle colSpan=3></TD></TR><TR><TD class=articleBody align=left colSpan=3>Tour De France champion Floyd Landis' results on a urine test that spots elevated levels of performance-enhancing testosterone are a mystery and ''don't add up,'' a leading doping expert said Thursday.

Landis' team revealed Thursday that his urine sample last week showed ''an unusual level of testosterone/epitestosterone.''

Testosterone creams, pills and injections can build muscle and strength and improve recovery time after exertion when used over a period of several weeks, according to Gary Wadler, a member of the World Anti-Doping Agency and a spokesman for the American College of Sports Medicine.

But if Landis had been a user, earlier urine tests during the Tour would have been affected, too, Wadler said. Landis' first reported abnormal result was last Thursday, after his amazing come-from-behind performance in stage 17 of the race.

One-time use of steroids could result in an abnormal test, but it would have no effect on performance and could not account for Landis' astounding feat Thursday, ''so something's missing here,'' Wadler said. ''It just doesn't add up.''

The test detects testosterone and a related steroid called epitestosterone, which is not performance-enhancing.

Athletes who use performance-enhancing anabolic steroids often also take synthetic epitestosterone to equalize the ratio, said Charles Yesalis, a recently retired Pennsylvania State University professor and doping expert.

There is no medical use for synthetic epitestosterone; it is used ''to cheat drug tests,'' Yesalis said.

Some men have naturally occurring high levels of testosterone and/or epitestosterone, but there is a sophisticated lab test called a carbon isotope ratio test that is often used to detect synthetic forms.

Alcohol can influence testosterone-epitestosterone levels, but more often in women than in men, Wadler said.

Landis said in an interview during the Tour de France that he has had injections of cortisone, a medically used steroid drug to treat pain from a degenerating arthritic hip, but doctors said that would not affect his test results.

The same ''B'' sample is also often subjected to the carbon isotope test, said Don Catlin, director of a World Anti-Doping Association-accredited Olympic lab at UCLA. Landis' Phonak team suspended him pending results of the backup ''B'' sample.
Floyd Landis Doping Scandal

  • The Medical Inspector, a doctor, is responsible for taking samples in a specially equipped caravan near the finish line.
  • A testing session is organized following each stage with samples taken from the stage winner, overall leader and two riders selected at random.
  • Sample containers are flown by private plane to a national drug screening laboratory.
  • With an adverse finding of Sample A, the Anti-doping Commission reviews whether any drug exemption has been granted for therapeutic reasons or whether there are other reasons to undermine the validity of the test.
  • If not, the adverse finding is promptly reported to rider's national federation by registered letter.
  • Within two days, the rider's federation must notify the rider by registered letter.
  • The Rider, his national federation and Anti-Doping Commission can request a Sample B analysis within five working days of receipt of the registered letter.
  • The Laboratory sets a date, in consultation with those concerned, for the Sample B analysis - within 10 working days after the request.
  • If Sample B is negative, the entire test is considered negative.
  • If a banned substance, or prohibited method, is detected in Sample B, the rider, national federation, his national anti-doping organization and WADA are notified.
  • Disciplinary hearings follow.
http://www.sltrib.com/sports/ci_4106555


</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
 
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Nice article Steve. This part is rather odd:

One-time use of steroids could result in an abnormal test, but it would have no effect on performance and could not account for Landis' astounding feat Thursday, ''so something's missing here,'' Wadler said. ''It just doesn't add up.''

Not sure that having an effect on performance or not is the issue. If a substance is banned, you don't take it. End of story.
 
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Taosman said:
Does anyone doubt that if a non-American had won we would have heard
not one peep! :(
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I strongly doubt it being an anti-American conspiracy. Considering that the two pre-race favorites, Jan Ullrich and Ivan Basso, were prevented from entering the race just before it started, and they are both European.
 
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tibor75 said:
Nice article Steve. This part is rather odd:

One-time use of steroids could result in an abnormal test, but it would have no effect on performance and could not account for Landis' astounding feat Thursday, ''so something's missing here,'' Wadler said. ''It just doesn't add up.''

Not sure that having an effect on performance or not is the issue. If a substance is banned, you don't take it. End of story.
Click to expand...

I think the point of the guy making that statement was that if Landis were going to take something to recover from him stage 16 bonk overnight, testosterone would not be the substance. It's a noteworthy point, given the amount of poor reporting that is involved with this story.

Another aspect is that almost anybody that wanted to cheat by taking testosterone would also be smart enough to take epi in order to keep the ratio in line.

I would like to see the levels of testosterone and epi for every test that Landis has taken taken over the past couple of months.
 
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It's all Jack's fault!!!

Re: "Or maybe, the Tour de France winning rider speculated, it was the Jack Daniel's he drank the night before his historic Stage 17, though that would seem a more likely excuse from George Jones than a world-class athlete.

This started after his disastrous Stage 16, where he went from controlling the race to a distant 11th. He thought it was all over, so instead of getting a massage and readying himself for the next day, he and some teammates went to a bar down the street. After one beer, they were mobbed, so they returned to a hotel room, where someone produced a bottle of Jack Daniel's, which has made many a good night go bad. "
 
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Not sure that having an effect on performance or not is the issue. If a substance is banned, you don't take it. End of story.
Click to expand...

This is very much the issue. Landis did not show high levels earlier in the tour, so the suggestion is he took it just before stage 17. If it wasn't going to help his performance (and anybody in cycling has to have some idea of what these substances can and cannot do whether they take them or not) why would he take it just prior to a stage he was going to go all out to win - knowing he would be tested if he did?

Further, if he had not been taking any sbustance earlier in the tour (tests seem to confirm this) and did foolishly take it to improve performance either he had it on hand 'just in case' or he got in contact with somebody who could help him at the very last minute. Strange that he would be in position to do either if he were so ignorant of the effect.
 
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I had read that German media had said that the ratio in the first sample was 11:1, which is way high (WADA limit is 4:1). It's difficult to believe that the ratio could get that out of line naturally.
 
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From Souith Africa's Independent Online...

New York - Some of the testosterone found in Tour de France winner Floyd Landis's A sample is from an external source and not his body's, The New York Times said on Tuesday quoting an unidentified International Cycling Union official.

The carbon isotope test on the first of Landis' two urine samples taken after his 17th stage win in July's tour contains synthetic testosterone, said the official with knowledge of the results from France's Chatenay-Malabry antidoping laboratory.

The results, if confirmed by Landis's B sample, which the newspaper said the laboratory has agreed to test Thursday through Saturday, could make Landis the first Tour champion to be stripped of his title.


<script>top.DisplayAds('StorRec',1,185);</script><script language="JavaScript1.1" src="http://adsrv.iol.co.za/adz/getAd.php?ord=613665720&pos=StorRec&site=1&section=185&undefined"><!-- --></script><!-- -->​

The 30-year-old American, who could also be banned from the Tour for two years, has protested his innocence to the UCI. "I'd like to make it absolutely clear that I'm not in any doping process," he said on Friday.

<!--pull quote --><table align="left" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="6" width="130"><tbody><tr><td class="pullquote">'I'm not in any doping process'</td></tr></tbody></table><!--pull quote end -->The UCI official told The New York Times that the carbon isotope ratio test differentiates between natural and synthetic testosterone, which after Landis's surprising 17th stage win was found to be more than twice the four-to-one ratio that is allowed.

The newspaper said that Landis's personal doctor Brent Kay acknowledged that his intial test showed a ratio of 11-to-one, but cautioned that it was "not off the chart" and could be due to natural causes, bacterial contamination, alcohol consumption before the test or contamination of the specimen during testing.

Landis has said that he expects the second sample to return a similar result to the first but insists that he is innocent.

"I ask not to be judged and much less to be sentenced by anyone," Landis said on Friday.

"I will proceed to undergo all of these tests" to show the levels "are absolutely natural and produced by my own organism", he promised on Friday.

The American added that he wished to state "categorically that my Tour win was exclusively due to many years of training and dedication" to his sport.

"I declare convincingly and categorically that my winning the Tour de France has been exclusively due to many years of training and my complete devotion to cycling.

"I was the strongest guy. I deserved to win, and I'm proud of it."

If Landis was stripped of his title he would be the first ever champion to suffer that fate.

http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=6&click_id=185&art_id=qw1154414522720S163
 
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Landis reportedly had synthetic testosterone in system
ESPN.com news services

NEW YORK -- Tests show that some of the testosterone in Floyd Landis' system at the Tour de France was synthetic and not naturally produced by his body as he claimed, according to a newspaper report.

The French antidoping lab testing the American cyclist's samples determined that some of the hormone came from an external source, The New York Times reported on its Web site Monday night, citing a person at the International Cycling Union with knowledge of the result.

A confirmation of the result would undermine the defense that Landis has stood behind since he tested positive for an abnormally high ratio of testosterone to epitestosterone in one sample taken following the 17th stage of the Tour de France, where he staged a stirring comeback in the Alps to make up for a poor performance the day before.

The analysis of Landis' "B" sample is expected to take place Thursday through Saturday at the Chatenay-Malabry anti-doping lab outside Paris, International Cycling Union spokesman Enrico Carpani said Tuesday.

UCI president Pat McQuaid said Tuesday he had not seen the lab findings and could not confirm the Times report, but the cycling body had asked the French lab to speed up its analysis.

McQuaid said the uncertainty was not good for the sport.

"The longer it goes until the 'B' sample is tested, the more speculation, and the more denial and the more of everything that goes on," he told The Associated Press during a telephone interview.

Analysis of the B sample takes 2½ days, he said, and the lab closes this weekend for August vacation.

Landis' lawyers in Spain filed an official request for the "B" test late Monday. But Carpani said the UCI had already filed its own request earlier Monday because of concerns about the case dragging on.

Landis' Swiss-based team, Phonak, wants the results as quickly as possible.

"The sooner that's done, the better it will be for the team," Phonak team manager John Lelangue said. He declined to answer any other questions.

Looking and sounding defiant, Landis said Friday that his body's natural metabolism -- not doping of any kind -- caused the result and that he would undergo tests to prove it.

"We will explain to the world why this is not a doping case but a natural occurrence," Landis said at a news conference in Madrid, Spain.

But after determining that Landis' ratio of testosterone to epitestosterone was more than twice the limit of 4:1, the lab performed a carbon isotope ratio test on the first of Landis' two urine samples to determine whether it was natural or synthetic, the person, who The Times said works in the cycling union's antidoping department, told the newspaper.

If the "B" test is negative, Landis would be cleared. If it's positive, which Landis' lawyers say they expect, he could be stripped of his Tour victory and banned for two years. At that point, Landis could still choose to appeal the results.

Landis has been suspended by his team, Phonak, pending the result of his "B" sample.

But the result showing synthetic testosterone does not need to be confirmed with a second test, said Dr. Gary Wadler, a member of the World Anti-Doping Agency and a spokesman for the American College of Sports Medicine.

"The rules say that it is a violation, but if you can show that the athlete had no fault or no significant fault, there could be a mitigation of the sanction," Wadler told the Times. "No matter how it got there, the athlete has to show how it got into his or her body. It could have been sabotage or contaminated dietary supplements or something else, but they have to prove how the testosterone got there."

The Times said Landis was in New York on Monday night and could not be reached for comment.

Oscar Pereiro of Spain, who finished second overall in the Tour de France, would be declared the winner if Landis loses the Tour de France title. It would be the first time in the history of the Tour of France that the winner has been disqualified for doping.

http://sports.espn.go.com/oly/cycling/news/story?id=2535787&campaign=rss&source=ESPNHeadlines
 
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