Landis agrees not to ride again in France this year

[951-Riverside]

http://www.azcentral.com/sports/azetc/articles/0208landis-ON.html

PARIS - Floyd Landis will skip the Tour de France - and all races in France this year - as part of an agreement with French doping authorities in a case that could strip him of cycling's most prestigious title.

Last year's Tour champion had hip-replacement surgery 4 1/2 months ago and was unlikely to have competed in this year's Tour. He agreed Thursday not to race again in France until 2008, and in return the French anti-doping agency postponed its decision on whether to suspend him from competing in France for a maximum of two years because of a positive doping test.

"Floyd is pleased that the AFLD has agreed with his council's request that they suspend this proceeding," spokesman Michael Henson said.
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Earlier, AFLD president Pierre Bordry said Landis "understood perfectly that if he didn't act today, we would start the procedure immediately."

Landis will go before the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency on May 14 and, following that, the AFLD will deliver its verdict in June.

"We will let Landis defend himself as he wishes," Bordry said.

[Ezlivin]

1. It's a pity that this has overshadowed a great race

I watched every stage and it was a great race without Lance.

And who will ever forget Stage 17 (Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne > Morzine) when Landis surged back after crumbling the day before?

It was a great Tour and I'm sorry that the drug brouhaha has damaged it.

[MousePlayingDaffodil]

2. By "brouhaha" . . .

. . . I take it that you don't believe that Landis was doping?

[GuillermoX71]

3. What I want to know is...

Can one dose of testosterone improve ones performance a day after it is taken?

I'm not convinced either that he took it...seeing that the dope lab has had so much trouble handling evidence, etc.

They tried to bust Lance for years, and never could prove anything.

[MousePlayingDaffodil]

4. Who, exactly . . .

. . . tried to "bust" Armstrong for years?

[GuillermoX71]

7. Considering

Lance is/was the most drug tested athlete in history, and considering TDF authorities implied he was doping without any proof, and considering the company they use to do the testing released unverifiable positive "results" from a sample dating back to 1999...

I would say a lot of people were trying to bust him.

[MousePlayingDaffodil]

8. It seems to me that, if anything . . .

. . . those arguments make it MORE likely that Landis was fairly busted for doping, not less likely. Don't you see why?

[Ezlivin]

5. I'm agnostic on that

I want to believe Landis when he says he wasn't doping. And testosterone would not have allowed him to do what he did on Stage 17.

The War on Drugs has made drug testing very popular, yet many people don't realize how inaccurate those tests can be or how they can be influenced by factors not considered. There were a slew of people with false positives for heroin/opium because they had eaten food products with poppy seeds on them. And some OTC cold medications also created false positives.

The basic science behind drug testing in the Tour is the same, so I would suspect that there could be false positives triggered by factors not considered.

[MousePlayingDaffodil]

6. Well, I think it's arguable, at best, whether doping with testosterone . . .

. . . prior to stage 17 would have been of tremendous benefit to Landis. But that strikes me as generally irrelevant anyhow, insofar as Landis was able to gain back so much time not so much on account of the strength of his performance that day but due to the dreadful tactical decisions made by the teams behind him.

As for Landis's testosterone result being a "false positive," what I've read regarding the matter suggests that this is a situation rather more complicated than the old "it was the poppyseed bagel" defense.

The reality is, professional bike racing has been awash in performance enhancing drugs almost from its exception. Anyone who doesn't understand that either doesn't know much about the sport and/or is living in something of a fantasy world.

[Ezlivin]

9. I'll take "Fantasy World" every time

It's a lot more fun there. No Iraq war. No G.W. Bush.

Just beautiful scenery, lovely men and women and a long stretch of road to ride.

:toast: