This thread discusses the content article [url=http://www.thefreekick.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=edit&id=30&Itemid=69&Returnid=69]Landis doth protest too much
New article on main part of the site on Floyd Landis and the doping allegations.
I think its out-landis what Floyd is trying to pull, he’s been caught pure and simple. Read both of Armstrong’s books recently and he swears he’s clean, and reading the books I tend to believe him. Either that or he’s a good story teller. He just trains as hard as possible and is a seriously tough bastard.
Out-landis. First time I’ve ever laughed at an appendage joke.
Landis has been found guilty!
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/other_sports/cycling/6686943.stm
Landis loses appeal against ban
Floyd Landis has lost his appeal against a ban imposed after he failed a drugs test at the 2006 Tour de France.
The American Arbitration Association upheld the two-year suspension which will run to January 2009. Landis also forfeits his Tour title.
He was fighting a US Anti-Doping Agency (Usada) punishment after testing positive for synthetic testosterone.
The American has denied using drugs and alleged incompetence at the French laboratory which tested his sample.
Landis, 31, testified before a three-man panel in May, with his legal team claiming Usada’s case against him was a “disaster”.
He tested positive after his sensational win on the 17th stage of the 2006 Tour.
Landis has one more avenue of appeal open to him - the Court of Arbitration for Sport based in Switzerland - and has a month to decide whether to do that.
“This ruling is a blow to athletes and cyclists everywhere,” Landis said in a statement.
"For the Panel to find in favor of Usada when, with respect to so many issues, Usada did not manage to prove even the most basic parts of their case shows that this system is fundamentally flawed.
“I am innocent, and we proved I am innocent.”
But Usada chief executive Travis Tygart said: “Today’s ruling is a victory for all clean athletes and everyone who values fair and honest competition.”
If Landis does not appeal, he will be the first person in the 105-year history of cycling’s most famous event to lose the title because of a doping offence.
After the AAA’s decision was announced, cycling’s world governing body the UCI confirmed Spain’s Oscar Pereiro, who finished runner-up to Landis, as the 2006 Tour winner.
“You never want to win a competition like that,” said Pereiro. “But after a year and a half of all of this I’m just glad it’s over.”
Pat McQuaid, UCI president, said: "He (Landis) has been found guilty. It proves that the system works no matter who you are.
"We now await and see if he does appeal to CAS. It’s not a great surprise considering how events have evolved.
“He got a highly qualified legal team who tried to baffle everybody with science and public relations, and in the end the facts stood up.” [/quote]
Pleased with that. Landis’ team tried every trick in the book to get him off. He will appeal of course and this will delay everything for another while. Quite astonishingly it has still yet to be confirmed whether Iban Mayo’s B sample corresponds to his A sample after the stage he tested positive to testerone in Le Tour. Results were meant to be out weeks ago. Something appears amiss in that case.