Poor Floyd Landis. Without his title. Without a team. About to undergo hip replacement surgery. And now he’s starting to sound paranoid. Saying in his own way that, “They’re all out to get me.”
Landis says that there is no chance that he was slipped a testosterone mickey by a member of his Phonak team. But when it comes to the World Anti-Doping Agency and the Union Cycliste Internationale, Landis told USA Today, “There’s some kind of agenda there. I just don’t know what it is.”
He’s also complained about the manner in which his case has been handled by the authorities, which isn’t being paranoid; it’s just being a whiny baby.
Landis has been repeating the same old line about how many times he was tested on the Tour where there wasn’t a problem, and how it would be stupid to take testosterone one time for a one-day boost.
Here’s what Landis has been saying: “Nobody in their right mind would take testosterone just once; it doesn’t work that way.”
Dr. Gary Wadler – one of the leading doping experts in the world – has weighed in on the matter. "Things don't add up," he said. "Most of us (experts) have a hard time fully understanding that sudden and dramatic effect. ... I can't quite put it all together."
Dr. Wadler went on to say that a person can take a substance called a luteinizing hormone (LH) – which is also banned – to raise their natural testosterone levels. This LH stimulates the production and secretion of natural testosterone.
So here’s a scenario for your consideration.
Cyclists know that the limit on their testosterone-epitestosterone ratio is 4:1 – which is four times the normal ratio – and supplement so that their ratio stays in line. By the way, the existence of this 4:1 ratio is a de facto acceptance by the cycling authorities that a certain level of doping is permitted. People can argue the point that this ratio is an acceptance of a certain level of doping, but looking at the data indicates that ratios higher than 1:1 are extremely rare and usually caused by disease or doping.
In cases where a person wants to control how much test gets into their system, testosterone can be effectively delivered via a transdermal patch that is usually affixed to the scrotum or abdominal region, or by rubbing a testosterone gel directly into the abdominal region. This way the user gets a slow, controlled dose of test.
There is evidence that the normal dosage provided by the testosterone patch – under certain conditions – can raise the free-testosterone levels of the user by four times. From this you could conclude that using testosterone patches in a manner to deliver more than the usual dose could result in raising a person’s test levels a lot more than four times the norm.
Article comments
1 - lori
I wonder if it hurts to take the patch of the 'nads. Or maybe cyclist's balls are so numb by the time their done for the day that they don't even notice.
2 - Matthew T. Sussman
Does WADA test for tinfoil?
3 - Mike
According to Landis' comments on TV - he said his testosterone level tested NORMAL while his epitestosterone tested LOW. He DIDN'T have a RAISED testosterone level, just his RATIO of T/E was high. The LOW result on the epitestosterone CAUSED the ratio to be out of range - NOT that he took additional testosterone!!
I wish the media would get this FACT straight and stop saying Landis TOOK testosterone..... it is not a correct statement!
4 - Jerome Lacoste
- Why aren't athletes tested all over the year ?
- Why aren't all samples tested for syntehtic ? Just because of costs ? If more tests were done, cost would go down, right ?
- Why aren't all samples kept for future tests (let's say 2-3 years, when the testing technology catches up with the cheating one) ?
- Why aren't managers/directors never affected by these failed tests ?
I often doubt that everything is really put in place to detect the cheaters.
5 - Pierre-Selim Huard
Jerome I think that some samples are kept for the futur and that's how Lance Amstrong got tested positive. But I'm not sure this results can be used against him.
6 - sal m
guys i think that certain loopholes,like the ones jerome has pointed out, exist simply because the authorites are willing to tolerate a certain amount of doping.
everyone bandies about the 4:1 ratio issue without really thinking about the reality that it represents. a 4:1 - hell even a 3:1 - ratio happens because of disease or doping. a person's test levels are steady and can be charted over a period of time, so any normal spikes can be accounted for.
a 4:1 ratio is due to manipulation.
7 - RJ Elliott
Drew Sharp weighs in...
8 - sal m
the espn reporter who broke the bomar story said that bomar didn't tell the program what he was doing, and that the kid would go to the dealership before practice, check in and go to practice, then go back and check out.
these kids have to fill out paperwork that goes through the school's compliance director for approval. so the school will definitely have some cover, whether or not it's enough to avoid sanctions we'll see...
for what it's worth, this isn't as bad as the bush and leinhart issues, or the jarrett issue.
9 - PatsFAn
Your argument works, except for one very vital mistake: Floyd's T wasn't high; his E was exceptionally low, skewing the ratio. He says it on his own Web site, as do a few other URLs which actually have the information *correct*.
10 - sal m
that's what he says, however, his test was 11 times higher than normal and he had synthetic test in his system as well.
landis' site - where he stopped people from leaving comments - is hardly a source for accurate information, as his defense is laughably pathetic.
11 - Justin
godd!!! Floyd is innocent ppls