What a shock: an American wins the Tour and he has to have cheated to do it...
The Tour de France is becoming more and more a joke with each passing year. Lance Armstrong, easily the most inspirational single athlete this country has seen since Jim Thorpe and Jesse Owens, won the thing 7 years in a row and every time he did so, the cries of "cheater" and "doper" grew louder and louder.
He has been tested and proved to be clean more times than a floor in a Lysol plant, but he'll never shake the shadow of doubt. Why? Because there are people that are outraged, simply outraged, that an American could best the most grueling physical test this side of swimming the English Channel not once, not twice, but 7 friggin' times. I'll bypass the easy sore loser reference to the French (well, kinda) because it's not even worth the effort to come up with a snappy line that hasn't already been said. Armstrong, as far as the public is concerned, is a Teflon man and damn well should be.
Now Floyd Landis, one of the best stories of the year (and the best story in an otherwise anemic sport like cycling), is in danger of losing his Tour de France winner status because he tested positive for a high level of testosterone after completing Stage 17, a stage in which he jumped 8 spots from 11th to 3rd in the standings en route to his win. His 6:1 ratio of testosterone to epitestosterone is well above the "allowed" 4:1 ratio. He has already been suspended pending the results of the investigation and has requested that his "B" sample be given the same test (though it is not required), but his name is already mud as far as the rest of the world is concerned. Clearly another American, this one with an arthritic hip, couldn't win the Tour de France in such a way without cheating. Please.
Now, I'm not exonerating Landis. If he cheated, he shouldn't be allowed to win. What I take exception to, however, is this: if they KNEW he tested positive after Stage 17, why let him race anymore? I realize the investigation takes time, but to allow him to win the whole damn thing only to pull a Nelson Muntz ("Ha ha!") a week later cheapens not only his win but the event as a whole. Not to mention the fact that testosterone, as a performance enhancer, only really works if it's taken on a cycle (like steroids) continuously. If Landis had been doping, it should have registered a long time ago. There are plenty of "legal" reasons his levels should have been so drastically different (his testosterone level was actually normal; his epitestosterone level was really low) beyond cheating.
It's just really annoying that this is happening again. If they knew he had tested positive, the investigation should have begun then and there with them keeping an eye on his progress. Once it became clear that he was going to win, they should have suspended the investigation until after the victory lap and subsequent celebration, given him a few days to soak it all in, then re-opened it. The first step should have been to notify him and tell him that there would be no official word until the investigation was complete unless he wanted to admit to doping then and there. If he was found to just be abnormal, life goes on. If not, to save face for not only the sport but the momentous event itself, perhaps a deal should have been struck: in exchange for keeping the title (tainted though it may be), Landis would agree to retire from cycling professonally. He had a built-in out already: his hip. This is not to say that cheating should be allowed if it would otherwise interfere with a feel-good story, but rather to avoid another black eye to the sport.
A simple tweak of the rules for future events is all it would take to prevent it from ever happening again, too: if a rider tests positive, under any circumstances, s/he is immediately pulled from the race regardless of position in the standings. Obviously things will happen that could affect levels, for which there could be certain exemptions based on doctors' reports and copies of past bloodwork and urine analyses, but beyond that it should be one and done. If a cyclist knows the tenuousness of the razor's edge upon which s/he walks (or, rather, rides), it then becomes the rider's responsibility to monitor what is allowed into the body by either drink, food, or supplement. It's really just that simple.
It's too late now for Landis: even if he is eventually cleared, he's always going to have his doubters and the cloud of suspicion and conviction in the court of public opinion tainting his victory. If he IS found to have been doping, shame on him and it's too bad such a great story had to come through unnatural means. For what it's worth, I do not believe he will be pronounced innocent; I think he will become a sacrifice for the sport to point to whenever the next round of grumbling arrises about the legality with which certain people attained their stature(s). I don't think we will ever truly know if he was a doper or not and that's the really sad part about the whole thing. He was setup to be a scapegoat by being allowed to continue riding after the positive test to the point of his winning the Tour and getting all the acclaim he so deserved at the time. Now the hammer has fallen and he was caught unawares. I hope he's innocent, but even if he is...he may not be in the end.
To turn a phrase, the sport needs an enema. A proper start would be to suspend the Tour de France for a year or so and restructure the rules on doping and penalties that result from it. It's almost to the point where American riders shouldn't even bother going anymore; if the French and the rest of Europe want it to be their event so bad, I say let them.
Tough luck, Floyd. Sorry it had to be you.
He has been tested and proved to be clean more times than a floor in a Lysol plant, but he'll never shake the shadow of doubt. Why? Because there are people that are outraged, simply outraged, that an American could best the most grueling physical test this side of swimming the English Channel not once, not twice, but 7 friggin' times. I'll bypass the easy sore loser reference to the French (well, kinda) because it's not even worth the effort to come up with a snappy line that hasn't already been said. Armstrong, as far as the public is concerned, is a Teflon man and damn well should be.
Now Floyd Landis, one of the best stories of the year (and the best story in an otherwise anemic sport like cycling), is in danger of losing his Tour de France winner status because he tested positive for a high level of testosterone after completing Stage 17, a stage in which he jumped 8 spots from 11th to 3rd in the standings en route to his win. His 6:1 ratio of testosterone to epitestosterone is well above the "allowed" 4:1 ratio. He has already been suspended pending the results of the investigation and has requested that his "B" sample be given the same test (though it is not required), but his name is already mud as far as the rest of the world is concerned. Clearly another American, this one with an arthritic hip, couldn't win the Tour de France in such a way without cheating. Please.
Now, I'm not exonerating Landis. If he cheated, he shouldn't be allowed to win. What I take exception to, however, is this: if they KNEW he tested positive after Stage 17, why let him race anymore? I realize the investigation takes time, but to allow him to win the whole damn thing only to pull a Nelson Muntz ("Ha ha!") a week later cheapens not only his win but the event as a whole. Not to mention the fact that testosterone, as a performance enhancer, only really works if it's taken on a cycle (like steroids) continuously. If Landis had been doping, it should have registered a long time ago. There are plenty of "legal" reasons his levels should have been so drastically different (his testosterone level was actually normal; his epitestosterone level was really low) beyond cheating.
It's just really annoying that this is happening again. If they knew he had tested positive, the investigation should have begun then and there with them keeping an eye on his progress. Once it became clear that he was going to win, they should have suspended the investigation until after the victory lap and subsequent celebration, given him a few days to soak it all in, then re-opened it. The first step should have been to notify him and tell him that there would be no official word until the investigation was complete unless he wanted to admit to doping then and there. If he was found to just be abnormal, life goes on. If not, to save face for not only the sport but the momentous event itself, perhaps a deal should have been struck: in exchange for keeping the title (tainted though it may be), Landis would agree to retire from cycling professonally. He had a built-in out already: his hip. This is not to say that cheating should be allowed if it would otherwise interfere with a feel-good story, but rather to avoid another black eye to the sport.
A simple tweak of the rules for future events is all it would take to prevent it from ever happening again, too: if a rider tests positive, under any circumstances, s/he is immediately pulled from the race regardless of position in the standings. Obviously things will happen that could affect levels, for which there could be certain exemptions based on doctors' reports and copies of past bloodwork and urine analyses, but beyond that it should be one and done. If a cyclist knows the tenuousness of the razor's edge upon which s/he walks (or, rather, rides), it then becomes the rider's responsibility to monitor what is allowed into the body by either drink, food, or supplement. It's really just that simple.
It's too late now for Landis: even if he is eventually cleared, he's always going to have his doubters and the cloud of suspicion and conviction in the court of public opinion tainting his victory. If he IS found to have been doping, shame on him and it's too bad such a great story had to come through unnatural means. For what it's worth, I do not believe he will be pronounced innocent; I think he will become a sacrifice for the sport to point to whenever the next round of grumbling arrises about the legality with which certain people attained their stature(s). I don't think we will ever truly know if he was a doper or not and that's the really sad part about the whole thing. He was setup to be a scapegoat by being allowed to continue riding after the positive test to the point of his winning the Tour and getting all the acclaim he so deserved at the time. Now the hammer has fallen and he was caught unawares. I hope he's innocent, but even if he is...he may not be in the end.
To turn a phrase, the sport needs an enema. A proper start would be to suspend the Tour de France for a year or so and restructure the rules on doping and penalties that result from it. It's almost to the point where American riders shouldn't even bother going anymore; if the French and the rest of Europe want it to be their event so bad, I say let them.
Tough luck, Floyd. Sorry it had to be you.