To be surprised that Tour de France winner Floyd Landis failed a drug test means that you’d have to be completely ignorant, completely unaware or completely naïve with regard to the history of cycling.
Forget for a moment that on the eve of this year’s Tour de France, one of the biggest doping scandals in the history of sport took place as nine riders – including several frontrunners – were kicked out of the race because of a Spanish doping investigation. In this investigation 56 cyclists were found to have ties to Dr. Eufemiano Fuentes, a Spaniard who is the target of this investigation.
Doping in sports isn’t an American problem or a French problem or a German or Dutch problem. Doping is a problem that extends to all sports at all levels in all countries. American athletes have only themselves to blame for being discredited. Don’t blame the French or espouse ridiculous conspiracy theories.
You may not be aware of it, but cycling has a long and ignominious history of illegal doping. “Blood doping” – the process that illicitly boosts the amount of an athlete’s red blood cells through a variety of means – was made famous by cyclists even if they didn’t invent the method. Many cyclists have died over the years as a result of this process.
In the case of this year’s scandal that involves Floyd Landis it seems that good, old fashioned, unusually high levels of testosterone are the problem. You see, Floyd had a testosterone to epitestosterone level above the allowed 4:1 T/E ratio.
Here’s a brief review of what these substances are and what this ratio means.
Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - DrPat
So if any athlete is careful to keep his blood ratio at less than 4:1 by adding "epitest" while doping with "test", he can evade detection, right?
So how would any athlete get caught?
2 - sal m
it's not as simple as just adding a dose of epi...especially where the athlete can't constantly test to ensure that he's in compliance...balco was constantly testing their clients to make sure they were responding properly to the doses that they were getting and that their levels were proper....
the reason people get caught is that this process isn't like making a sports drink where you add 1 part powder to 5 parts water and you get the same results all the time...there are a ton of variables in the procedure.
and there's never just one thing a cheater does to try to keep from getting caught.
3 - Parabellum
Just how stupid (and dishonest) do you think Landis is, Sal?
Prepare to eat your hat. He's innocent.
4 - sal m
you forgot, "inept."
5 - DrPat
Realistically, is there anything that would elevate this ratio naturally, particularly for someone on pain meds or coping (legally) with a diseased hip joint?
6 - sal m
at the levels that these guys are at, and with the access that they have to the latest medical techniques and treatments, nothing surprises me.
however, if he was taking something that would have had this affect on his test levels, it really doesn't matter since an elevated T/E ratio is a failed test regardless. it would still be the fault of the athlete and his medical team if this was the case.
7 - nonbeliever
How would taking test for one day effect him at all? Doesn't the drug need to be taken over time? His actual test level was way below normal and not high as news report indicate. He took the test last Thursday, why did they let him finish the race and accept the rewards? They know these results pretty fast. Guy on ESPN said most athletes in this scinario get reinstated...Tyler Hamilton at Olympics, before he got in trouble again. Also said expert mention the famous Beer could have had an effect allong with the meds he was taking for the hip in combination with the very hard ride he put in that day. Not so cut in dry as your little rant.
8 - Matthew T. Sussman
I heard that the French lab technician was quick to notice the high level of testosterone because the French have never had such a thing.
Hi-oh!Haw haw haw!9 - sal m
suss...great line...kind of like the one about when war breaks out the italians want to know who to surrender to...but seriously...
nonbeliver...rant = To speak or write in an angry or violent manner; rave.
did you read the piece or don't you know the meaning of the word?
what i wrote was hardly a rant.
tyler hamilton caught a break because the lab screwed up and there was no second sample to test.
if landis was taking meds to raise his levels he still failed the test. if his second test comes back dirty he failed the test. the only distinction to make will be if he's a cheat or if he's incompetent.
and if the lab screwed up the pursuit of cheaters will be set back 20 years.
10 - Bliffle
Bicycling is the most intensely drug-monitored sport there is. Imagine if other sports required comprehensive daily checks.
Supposedly, all the drug concern started with the death of Tom Simpson at the top of a col some 50 years ago, attributed to drugs, but more recent study indicates otherwise.
11 - Mim
I just remember the interview after Landis won Stage 17. He said "I came here to win". He didn't voice the words "by hook or by crook", but the expression on his face and the tone of his voice said it just the same.
So I cannot say I'm surprised by all this, but think it's a shame.
12 - Sharon
Perhaps I am naive, or perhaps I like to cut people a break and not be so eager to condemn and be judge and jury. Of course Floyd was there to win! and win he did. It does not mean that he took testosterone; his body may produce naturally higher levels. There are people who have naturally lower levels. The endocrine system is very complex and throw the thyroid issue in there, and who knows what the reaction will be. I highly doubt, given what happened on the eve of the Tour with Ivan, Jan, et all, that Floyd, even if he were so inclined, would take that kind of a risk. Give the guy the benefit of your doubt! and a chance to clear himself.
13 - sal m
landis said today:
"I declare convincingly and categorically that my winning the Tour de France has been exclusively due to many years of training and my complete devotion to cycling. I was the strongest guy. I deserved to win, and I'm proud of it."
he also said:
"I would like to make absolutely clear that I am not in any doping process. "I ask not to be judged by anyone, much less sentenced by anyone."
and he said:
"I will procede to under go all these tests ... to accredit that the levels that I've had during the Tour and all my career are natural and produced by my own organism,"
what he DIDN'T say:
"I did not, nor have I ever used any banned performance enhancing drug or supplement."
14 - John Spivey
Sal-
I don't understand why you can't just suspend judgement. It seems like you are trying real hard to convince us that you are the expert here.
15 - sal m
john-
how does one suspend judgement in a situation where a person fails a drug test in this day in age in a sport that is rife with doping? i'm not trying to convince anyone that i'm an expert, but just making observations based on the realities of doping.
address the simple matter that landis cannot utter the phrase, "I did not, nor have I ever used any banned peformance enhancing drug or supplement."
16 - DrPat
Floyd Landis did NOT fail a drug test, Sal. He tested positive for levels of testosterone outside the norm, prompting investigation.
I hear a desire to find that Landis has feet of clay in your over-statement of the issue, and your insistence that Landis must use your words to deny that he is guilty of doping.
He DID say, "the levels that I’ve had during the Tour and all my career are natural and produced by my own organism." He DID say, "I am not in any doping process."
He also said, and sadly it is true, that he expected to clear his name but never his reputation.
17 - sal m
you can argue a defense based on semantics all that you like, but a failed test is a failed test.
and how is it an overstatement of the issue when he is the only competitor in this year's tour to fail such a test, and this failed test came right after one of the more amazing single day feats that the tour has ever seen?
what he said was lawyerly claptrap...testosterone is a natural substance, so he can use the term natural all he wants, but it doesn't mean that he's didn't take, or do, something that is not permitted.
and what he said in no way can be construed in the same light as the simple denial that lance armstrong has used time and time again.
18 - Sharon
Floyd also did say "...my winning the Tour de France has been exclusively due to many years of training and my complete devotion to cycling." The key phrase being "EXCLUSIVELY DUE TO MANY YEARS OF TRAINING AND COMPLETE DEVOTION". I am in the medical field. Tests can be "false negative" or false positive". Sure, there are parameters in lab tests that are considered the "norm" falling somewhere in between a set of numbers. There is high normal, and low normal. and what would end up in disasterous results in one person, could possibly be another person's "norm" albeit out of the parameters, but normal for that individual. The endocrine system is a very, very complex system. Let's not be so quick to judge until all the results are in - and I mean results above and beyond the backup test. I have empathy for Floyd - he's being skewered and assumed guilty, his honour and integrity stomped on, his family badgered. Honestly, hardened felons are given more consideration, and are innocent until proven otherwise. Doesn't Floyd at least deserve that?!
19 - sal m
if both samples test the same, then what do you propose be done to allow landis to prove that he is innocent?
this is the same defense that has been used countless times in the past, along with the tainted supplement and the i didn't know what i was taking defense. it's all nonsense.
i've known people that have used PEDs and ALL of them could have used the phrase, "EXCLUSIVELY DUE TO MANY YEARS OF TRAINING AND COMPLETE DEVOTION" when talking about their preparation for competition and not be lying. "complete devotion" covers a lot of ground. think about all the things that people have done due to being completely devoted to something.
he didn't flat out say, he didn't take - or has never taken - illegal or banned substances. perhaps because he can't make that claim.
20 - Bliffle
"if both samples test the same, then what do you propose be done to allow landis to prove that he is innocent? "
In an NPR interview Landis said he expected the second sample to test the same. There is a molecular test to separate natural testoserone from pharmacological T and he wants to have that test done on the samples.
Landis says he had some drinks on the evening in question, and alcohol can affect the tests. It can also, in a seeming paradox, improve performance the next day thru a guilt reaction that causes the miserable sinner to exceed his normal ability in a bid to expiate his guilt by burning it out. Ask this old Team Time Trialer how he knows.
21 - Highrpm
What I understand is that Floyd tested positive from a result < 4:1 T/E. What I also understand and that is REALLY key is that they can specicaly test for a synthetic testosterone Isotope called an carbon isotope ratio mass spectrometry test. They are not saying they found a synthetic testosterone which, they are capable of finding. They (UCI) are only saying a unusual T/E ratio, which WADA in their techincle books agrees the test is flawed. That is why WADA states that if an athletes test show more than a 4:1 then more investigation is needed, including but not limited to medical exams. WADA as you know is the toughest group out there for anti-doping and one of the chief Doctors says it "does not add up". IMO WADA would be the first to cry foul and they are not. He should not only have the "B" sample tested and if it comes back the same as the "A", then he should get to go through the medical exams and further testing, of which 22 out of 24 have won their case.
22 - Highrpm
Looks like a denial to me:
Larry King live:
KING: We have some e-mails from our Web site at cnn.com/larryking. Let's get to a few and then more in a couple minutes.
Guy in San Luis Obispo, California. He says, "Floyd, is it correct to say that since you have been riding bicycles professionally, you have never used a banned substance?"
LANDIS: Absolutely. That is correct.
23 - sal m
chalk one up for floyd...he should have said this from the second the news was released...
for what it's worth, i don't believe it, but i hope i'm wrong, the lab screwed up and he gets his apology.
however, history indicates that this probably isn't going to happen.
24 - Highrpm
I am changing what I said previous. It looks bad for Mr. Landis. It appears the French lab did the carbon Isotope test and it was positive. His only hope to not get in trouble appears to be if the lab tech with the "B" sample in hand, on the way to the carbon Isotope machine drops the sample and it spills all over the ground. Also a German Newspaper reported sources close to Lands report an 11:1 ratio of T/E.
I found several sources. This is from the San Diego Tribune.
"But there were reports in France that the Paris lab had indeed conducted a CIR and that it was positive, and Catlin said he'd be surprised if the lab didn't perform one.
“They are a WADA-accredited lab and they follow WADA protocol,” Catlin said. “I think it's a very safe assumption " very safe. Why would they risk not doing that? I mean, good grief, you'd think they are going to have all their ducks in order for a case like this.”
And if those three elements all point to illicit use of testosterone?
“You are not going to lose the (doping) case, period,” Catlin said."
25 - sal m
high rpm:
you get a gold star!
i was wondering how - given the sensational nature of this case - the lab could release this "failed" test result without having performed all of the possible tests on landis' "a" sample.
if what is now being reported is true, landis' will have a lot more explaining to do.