Floyd Landis

[tres-b]

I have been a cycling fan since I was 12. Yesterday, Floyd Landis had the best individual day I have ever seen on a stage of the Tour de France. The pack could not bring him back. He gained 30 seconds on the final descent. That is an insane number!!!

Unreal effort by a great cyclist. Landis is the best time trial rider of the top three. Barring a wreck or something freakish happening, he will take back the yellow jersey tomorrow and ride to his first win at the tour on Sunday.

Americans own the roads of France for the 8th consecutive year 8)

[dahzel]

it's crazy how much less press the Tour is getting w/ out Lance. congrats to an american taking the yellow jersey back to the US ;D

[JMT]

[JMT]

Phonak: Landis had positive test after Stage 17

Associated Press

LONDON -- 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.

Phonak said Landis would ask for an analysis of his backup "B" sample "to prove either that this result is coming from a natural process or that this is resulting from a mistake."

The statement came a day after the UCI, cycling's world governing body, said an unidentified rider had failed a drug test during the Tour.

And the statement came 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.

Landis has been suspended by his team pending the results. If the second sample confirms the initial finding, he will be fired from the team, Phonak 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.

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 said in a phone interview from her home in Farmersville, Pa. "I know that this is a temptation to every rider but I'm not going to jump to conclusions ... It disappoints me."

Phonak said Landis would ask for an analysis of his backup "B" sample "to prove either that this result is coming from a natural process or that this is resulting from a mistake."

"The team management and the rider were both totally surprised of this physiological result," the Phonak statement said.

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.

Landis plans to have hip replacement surgery this fall to ease pain in the arthritic joint still aching from a 2003 crash during a training ride.

http://sports.espn.go.com/oly/tdf200...ory?id=2531225

[sross]

Sadly, professional cycling is a bit of a joke :-\

[tres-b]

If this turns out to be true, it is a disgrace.

These guys know they are going get tested. DONT CHEAT!!!!

This is further evidence that Lance was clean. The most tested athlete in sports never tested positive. Lance is the man!

[JMT]

Originally Posted by tres-b

This is further evidence that Lance was clean. The most tested athlete in sports never tested positive. Lance is the man!

no doubt. those frogs did everything short of taking the pepsi challenge with lance's pee and found nothing. all they can do is save a sample and pathetically retest it in a decade hoping for a miracle to disgrace him.

[sross]

Originally Posted by tres-b

This is further evidence that Lance was clean. The most tested athlete in sports never tested positive. Lance is the man!

Either he didn't take drugs or the drugs he took couldn't be detected. I like to think the former but his fellow professionals cast a shadow of doubt over all supposedly clean cyclists.

[swirlundergrounder]

Originally Posted by sross

[quote author=tres-b link=board=6;threadid=30249;start=0#msg350929 date=1154025660]


This is further evidence that Lance was clean. The most tested athlete in sports never tested positive. Lance is the man!

Either he didn't take drugs or the drugs he took couldn't be detected. I like to think the former but his fellow professionals cast a shadow of doubt over all supposedly clean cyclists.
[/quote]I thought that the fact that Lance Armstrongs heart was bigger than normal is what helped him win since he can pump more blood and oxygen through his body faster than a normal person can..

JMT clarified this last year....I forgot the exact details of Lance's genetic advantage..

[sross]

Originally Posted by I

[quote author=sross link=board=6;threadid=30249;start=0#msg350978 date=1154029383]
[quote author=tres-b link=board=6;threadid=30249;start=0#msg350929 date=1154025660]


This is further evidence that Lance was clean. The most tested athlete in sports never tested positive. Lance is the man!

Either he didn't take drugs or the drugs he took couldn't be detected. I like to think the former but his fellow professionals cast a shadow of doubt over all supposedly clean cyclists.
[/quote]I thought that the fact that Lance Armstrongs heart was bigger than normal is what helped him win since he can pump more blood and oxygen through his body faster than a normal person can..

JMT clarified this last year....I forgot the exact details of Lance's genetic advantage..
[/quote]

Could be. Miguel Indurain's lungs were 30% larger than average.

(Miguel Indurain won the Tour 5 times in a row from 1991-95 for those you that thought Lance Armstrong invented cycling :P )