Blah…Blah…Shut this guy up!

Let’s see, a rider tested positive for testosterone (the same thing Floyd Landis tested positive for).  We already know the name and the B sample hasn’t been tested yet.  Imagine that!  There was a leak from LNDD.  How could that be?  They have such scruples and ethics in that lab.

I hope Le Tour is as quick to kick the French-based Cofidis team out of the tour as it was Astana.

The doping by the riders makes me sick.  The actions of LNDD and the UCI in these matters is also deplorable.  Let’s see if Le Tour really practices what it preaches when it comes to a local team.

This is out:

“By Philippe LE GARS et Damien RESSIOT

News to l’Equipe: Alexander Vinokourov, 33, leader of team Astana, tested positive for a homologous transfusion Saturday 21 July at the end of the individual Tour de France time trial whch he won at Albi. After analysis by the laboratory at Châtenay-Malabry, the blood taken at the finish showed the presence of two distinct populations of red cells in the A sample. In plain speech, this means that Vinokourov made use of a homologous transfusion shortly before the stage, utilizing blood from a compatible donor.

The Astana rider (about whom the Internation Cycling Union, in statements by its president, Pat McQuaid, had manifested its displeasure after he had admitted working with the sinister Dr. Michele Ferrari) underwent a new blood test in the late afternoon the day before yesterday, Monday, after his second victory in the 15th stage at Loudenvielle-LeLouron. This new sample is currently under analysis at Châtenay-Malabry, and could confirm the first positive result as early as tomorrow, since the two populations of red cells would still be observable.

Homologous transfusions, as distinct from autologous ones (in which the athlete’s own blood is transfused) have been detectable since the Athens Olympic Games in 2004, by means of a method developed by the laboratory at Lausanne (LAD). American Tyler Hamilton was the first cyclist to test positive in this way, during the 2004 Vuelta.

PS. Following this revelation, team Astana, of which he was the leader, has decided to leave the Tour.”

Now don’t get me wrong, I am not going to defend Vino. Most likely the B sample will come up positive. Most likely his A and B sample from his mountain stage victory will confirm his cheating. I hope it doesn’t, but deep down, those of us following cycling and doping know it will.

With that said, how is it the test results were leaked yet again? Did they come from LNDD? Did they come from UCI? I am sure when the police show up to a hotel to execute a search warrant, you know something is up, but the information came from somewhere and I am guessing the authorities didn’t leak it. So, these continued breaches of the WADA code are disturbing. More disturbing is doping in cycling.

As a person that has acquired a love for cycling since taking up triathlon in 2001, I stand at a crossroads.  Today and tomorrow, Tour de France Champion Floyd Landis will be in my area.  I am torn.  In the last six years, I have grown to like the less traditional American sports.  Although I still enjoy basketball, baseball and football, the lemmings that follow those sports pale in comparison the Americans that follow European sports.  The shrug off a Shawn Mariman (sp) suspension in the NFL and put the guy on the Pro Bowl Team.  Bonds is both vilified and celebrated.  Meanwhile, cycling still takes a hit on the drug front.

Here is the dilemma, I probably won’t have another opportunity in my lifetime to take my sons to see and maybe be photographed with a Tour  Champion.  Landis will be in Wheaton, IL tonight.  One of my favorite suburbs.  I spent many high school and law school days riding my bike in Wheaton on the Illinois Prairie Path.  Yet, I think taking them to see Floyd Landis would be a bit hypocritical.  After all, any day we will get a decision on the Landis hearing.  He could be declared a doper.  What would that be teaching my sons?  Does it teach them to have faith in humanity?  Innocent until proven guilty?  Or does it perpetuate the idea that cheaters that win are still worth seeing?  After all, he has tested positive.  I wouldn’t give this type of slack to a football player or baseball player that had tested positive.  I would have written them off.  No way would I take my sons to see somebody in those sports in the same situation as Floyd.  So, why am I even considering giving Landis a pass?

Is it because he is rumored to ride with Robbie Ventura up on the same roads I ride each weekend?  Is it because he is an American in a mainly European sport?  Is it because I just like to stick it to the French press and the Tour whenever possible?  Most likely, it is because I am naive and want to believe he is innocent just like the rest of them on Trust but Verify (who have missed my last two blogs even though I refer to the Tour and doping in each).

The easy answer is to go and if he is found guilty, to just ignore the fact I took them.  After all, they are three and one and would never remember anyway.  That is the cowards way though.  As a father, I need to lead my sons.  Part of that is teaching them to not support the athletes that break the rules.  Part of that is to teach them the values of “innocent until proven guilty.”

If we do go and they get an autograph and a picture, what will they say in 15 years if they are themselves cyclists?  “Dad why did you waste your time taking us to see that doper?”  Or will it be something like, “Thanks for teaching us that people can be innocent even when accused.”  Either way, the clock is ticking and I need to make a decision.    No matter what I choose and what the outcome is of the hearing I will not regret my actions.  After all, in the long run, Floyd is just an athlete in a sport.  The outcome of his hearing and whether my sons see him, really means nothing in the scheme of our life and family.

What more could the Brits ask for in a single weekend? They had two of the greatest sporting events to start a weekend. First, they had the Wimbledon finals for both the ladies and the gentleman. Then they had the Prologue and Stage 1 of the Tour de France. Could it get any better? If I were there, assuming I had Wimbledon tickets, I would have been hard pressed to choose one (actually it would be easy… Prologue Saturday, Gentleman’s finals at Wimbledon on Sunday).

At Wimbledon, Venus became the lowest seeded women’s player to win at a seeding of 23. Really, it is kind of a joke. Kind of like Agassi becoming the second unseeded man to win Wimbledon (at least I believe Becker was unseeded in when he won his first). Both were top players in a difficult time and everyone knew they were better than their rankings. I am happy for Venus. I have always thought she would be better off removing herself from her sister and her father when it comes to tennis. Although, I still laugh at her youthful arrogance when she once said she would be No. 1 in the world and her sister No. 2 and they would have every record in the book. I don’t think that combined her and her sister have as many titles as Steffi Graf nor will either of them ever win a “Golden Slam” as Graf did.

On the men’s side, Nadal pushed Federer into a fifth set. It was an incredible match and Nadal could easily have unseated the now 5-time Wimbledon Champion. Federer has tied Borg’s record for consecutive Wimbledon titles, but to be the “King” of Wimbledon, he will still have to win at least two more and tie Pete Sampras. Federer now has 11 grandslam titles along with Borg and Laver. He need s three more to catch Sampras. What is amazing is that Federer has won 11 grandslams in 19 grandslam tournaments. That is just unreal. Talk moves to whether he is the greatest player ever. Well, that is a tough one. I am going to state this, out of 13 matches, on a variety of surfaces, Federer beats any other player in history at least 9 times. He has a complete game. He may never beat Nadal on clay, but that doesn’t even matter. However, as far as the most dominant player of his era, I still give the nod to the man from down under. Rod Laver. After all, the guy won a grand slam when only amatuers were allowed to play. He then goes pro. Doesn’t get to play in a grand slam event for 8 years, until pros are allowed to play and then wins another grandslam. How can you top that? Think about if he had played in grandslams those 7-8 years. He would have like 25 total titles instead of 11.

Onto the Tour de France which started with the Prologue in London. How cool is that? Despite the coverage being dampened by the drug scandals in cycling how can you not be excited to see Fabian Canellara just destroy the field in the 8k TT. Meanwhile, Andreas Kloden establishes himself as a Tour favorite with an awesome Prologue. Meanwhile, in stage 2, the finish comes down to the sprint and a master, Robbie McEwen, emerges from nowhere to out-sprint everyone. I mean in the television coverage the guy isn’t even on the screen with 1 KM to go. How did he do that? The Tour is already shaping up to be exciting.

My fan loyalty at the Tour is torn. I would like to root for an American and an American team in Discovery and Levi Lempheimer. I will be very happy if he wins. I am even pulling for George Hincapie to somehow come up and end up being the number one guy for Discovery; however, I cannot overlook the management of the team being more of the problem than the cure for doping in cycling. They blindly defended a rider which has pled guilty and accepted a suspension. They did everything they could to spin it, but what it comes down to is they wanted a rider that was a favorite at the Tour and they didn’t care about the doping implications surrounding Basso. As a fan, I cannot accept that attitude from a team. So, I have to say I am cheering for a team at the Tour. It just isn’t the team I thought it would be. I am cheering for T-Mobile. They are the only team that seems truly dedicated to cleaning up cycling. So, even though they may not have someone on the front at any time, I will cheer for them and they are now my team. I just wish you could buy their gear in the USA. What is up with that Stapleton?

Here we are. A couple of days a way from the Tour de France. The grand daddy of cycling events (meanwhile the grand daddy of tennis events is going on as I write). We don’t even know who last year’s winner is. According to Trust but Verify we may have an arbitration decision by tomorrow. Thank God! I am tired of hearing about Floyd. Whether it be the people supporting him stating the French Lab was mishandling, USADA is out to get him, ect. or the other side not even looking at the facts, at least there will be a resolution. Yes, I know there will be yet another appeal; however, this one is a biggie. This is the one people are going to remember. After this, people will either deem him as guilty or not. I hope he wins, but I would bet against him at this point. It will be interesting if he loses to see if he shows up for his book signing in Chicago on July 10th.

Once again, the Tour bring out other fireworks too. An author, who I will not name just as to not promote his book, released yet another book slamming Lance. Lance came out swinging. I love his response. It is aggressive, just like he was in cycling. I am going to pull just one quote, but you can see the entire response here.

“Here is the simple truth – while others may have cheated to try to beat me, I didn’t cheat to win. Beating a cheater doesn’t make you a cheater. I won using hard work, single minded devotion to a goal, dedication, exhaustive preparation and training, physiological and mental advantages, pain and suffering, innovative technology, teamwork and sacrifices that came with a price in my professional and personal life. None of that came in a pill or a bottle. All of that is why I could beat others, even when they weren’t racing clean. If I beat people that were cheating, it was because I worked harder and got more from my abilities, not because I cheated. “– Lance Armstrong, June 29, 2007

I believe that Lance did not dope post-cancer. I will believe that until there is actual proof otherwise. I will not let people try to profit off of bringing him down. As you notice, I say post-cancer. This doesn’t mean I think he did pre-cancer, but it is hard to imagine anybody not doping in cycling in that era. At this point though, it doesn’t matter. I believe he was a clean champion.

Finally, it isn’t just cycling that has doping woes. Barry Bonds is just 4 shy of tying the greatest record in all of sports. There is turmoil and controversy on how to treat it. The truth is, I am actually pulling for Barry to break it. If he doped, oh well. The sports writers aggravate me more than the players at this point. These writers now want to denounce Barry for being on steroids and the steroid era in baseball. What a crock!!!! If these sports reporters had been doing their jobs in the last 20 years, instead of just wanting to be on the “inside”, they would have broke this story 15 years ago by doing some investigative reporting. Instead, they just wanted to not rock the boat and cover teams and not make waves. Can you tell me they didn’t hear rumors? See things? Of course they did, but they figured it was fine and let it go. Now, these same reporters want to hang the players out to dry. I think the reporters are even more at fault than the players. These reporters are supposedly there to report and protect the game. Instead, they just wanted to watch baseball and get a paycheck and not make waves.