Tour de France - Landis positive drug test

[LotusGT1]

Tour de France winner Floyd Landis has given a positive drugs test, according to his Phonak team.

The American, who claimed victory in the Tour de France on Sunday, has tested positive for the male sex hormone testosterone.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/other_sports/cycling/5221122.stm

:roll:

[Mattk]

Landis later denied cheating and said he had high levels of testosterone occuring naturally in his body.

Yeah, like they're gonna believe that.

[LotusGT1]

B-sample positive as well.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/other_sports/cycling/5233476.stm


Floyd Landis
Landis faces an uncertain future
Floyd Landis is set to lose his Tour de France title and faces a two-year ban after returning a positive B sample for excessive levels of testosterone.

The American's Phonak team dismissed Landis on Saturday when it was confirmed he produced levels more than twice the legal limit after stage 17.
Landis, 30, has said the high levels detected were a "natural occurrence".

Spaniard Oscar Pereiro will be declared the winner of the Tour de France if Landis is stripped of the title.

Pereiro was second overall behind Landis in the race, which finished in Paris on 23 July, and would become the first Spaniard to win the Tour since Miguel Indurain in 1995.

[Z3uS]

He shoud be banned from the next TDF!

Victory will go to Pereiro Sio.

[davide]

why cheat? You can't be happy with a win that you cheated your way too...

[evoWalo]

Tour de France winner Floyd Landis has given a positive drugs test, according to his Phonak team.

The American, who claimed victory in the Tour de France on Sunday, has tested positive for the male sex hormone testosterone.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/other_sports/cycling/5221122.stm

:roll:Just me but he shouldnt stuck to the old fashion way of generating testosterone.

[nthfinity]

soooooo

how could you determine if he actually does produce more testosterone then 99.99% of people?

innocent til proven guilty here; but companies aren't the government; and his team have the right to dismiss him.

still; how would you feel having too much testosterone, while the previous super-champ has no balls? ( or just one) :P

[sentra_dude]

soooooo

how could you determine if he actually does produce more testosterone then 99.99% of people?

innocent til proven guilty here; but companies aren't the government; and his team have the right to dismiss him.

still; how would you feel having too much testosterone, while the previous super-champ has no balls? ( or just one) :P

I believe synthetic testosterone has been found on this test, which is pretty hard to explain away.

As much as I was rooting for Floyd, and as glad as I was that he won, this really sucks. I was holding out hope the first test had screwed up, but now we have this second one, I think he's pretty much cooked. It really pisses me off that these guys cheat, and gives cycling a lot of bad publicity it doesn't need.

Well maybe something will show up after this test to refute the first two (I still hope), but it doesn't look likely...:roll:

[LotusGT1]

soooooo

how could you determine if he actually does produce more testosterone then 99.99% of people?

innocent til proven guilty here; but companies aren't the government; and his team have the right to dismiss him.

still; how would you feel having too much testosterone, while the previous super-champ has no balls? ( or just one) :P

His testosterone levels were t0o high to be natural, and the level wasn't close to constant. He cheated, obviously.

[Mattk]

Cheater! Ban him! Make him an example to all who desire to cheat in future.

[LotusGT1]

Fucked up.

[LotusGT1]

I think suicide is cowardice though.

[ae86_16v]

http://www.bicycling.com/article/0,6610,s1-3-9-15069-1,00.html


COLORADO SPRINGS, Colorado:

Tour de France winner Floyd Landis asked the US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) Monday to throw out the positive doping test that has tainted his cycling triumph two months ago.

The motion, filed by Landis' attorney Howard Jacobs challenging the validity of the tests, cites blunders by the French lab performing the tests. The alleged blunders include a sample number that was not that of Landis on a confirming "B" sample positive.

"The analysis in this case is replete with fundamental, gross errors," Jacobs said.

The appeal came three days after hundreds of pages of details about the doping test procedures were received by the American's legal team. The motion for dismissal from USADA's independent review board claims that tests conducted by a French laboratory on Landis' urine sample after stage 17 of the race don't meet World Anti-Doping Agency criteria for a doping positive.

"I did not take testosterone or any other performance enhancing substance and I'm very happy that the science is confirming my innocence," Landis said Monday in a statement posted on his website. "I was relieved, but not surprised, when I learned that scientific experts found problems with the test.

"I look forward to restoring my good name so that I can focus on my hip replacement and begin training for next season when I want to return to France to defend my title."

The appeal attacks the carbon-isotope-ratio (CIR) test performed on the urine sample by the LNDD lab at Chatenay-Malabry, a test International Cycling Union (ICU) and anti-doping officials have declared foolproof.

After seeing testing data, Landis claims that:

- Three of four testosterone metabolite differentials tested in his sample were negative considering the margin of error. WADA protocol requires all such differentials show clear evidence of testosterone to have a positive.

- the lone testosterone metabolite that could be seen as a positive resulted from an unknown laboratory error and is not the result of testosterone usage.

- the metabolite that WADA-accredited labs declare is the best, longest-term indicator of improper testosterone usage was negative in Landis urine samples.

Jacobs also argues the analysis in Landis' case is filled with errors, including inconsistent testosterone and epitestosterone levels from testing on the "A" sample as well as multiple mismatched sample code numbers that do not belong to Landis.

Jacobs said the confirming "B" sample positive assigned to Landis was in fact from a sample number that was not assigned to Landis, pointing to chain of custody issues that could invalidate the entire testing procedure.

"Clinical laboratories making these types of gross errors could easily find themselves answering to a wrongful death lawsuit, and often do," Jacobs said in the statement. "At a minimum, those laboratory errors must go to the defense of the athlete and must result in a finding that the T/E results are wholly unreliable."

The review panel is expected to make recommendations to USADA within a week. But Landis already has plans if that appeal is rejected, based upon his comments at a cycling race Sunday in Doylestown, Pennsylvania.

In a story posted on the website of the Intelligencer newspaper of suburban Philadelphia, Landis emphasized the discrepancies between "A" and "B" samples.

"Based on the 'A' and the 'B' sample, there are too many contradictions for the two to be the same sample," Landis said.

If the review board rejects the case, Landis plans to seek arbitration with USADA, which has not yet formally made a doping charge against Landis.

"Assuming they disagree with that, then we will go to arbitration with the US Anti-Doping Agency," he said. "If it does (go to a hearing), they'll decide on a date then and I assume it will be December or January."

Seven-time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong fought similar charges of taking banned substances from the same lab that tested Landis's samples, the US cyclist told the newspaper.

"It's the same lab that we're dealing with here," Landis said. "I said from the beginning there was some kind of agenda or problem with the tests, and it's clear now the lab is the source of the problem."

Armstrong, who retired last year after seven tour titles in a row, has been a constant source of support, Landis said.

"I speak to him maybe once a week," Landis said. "It's obviously not fun. Nobody would choose to go through this. But the good thing is he is the one guy who understands the whole situation."

[gigdy]

Why the french gotta bust balls?

[nthfinity]

go Landis!

great finding this that might otherwise be overlooked

[gucom]

i hope he's right, i really hope he didnt use the drugs... if the lab screwed up, they REALLY need to change some things over there... if they did it on purpose, wow that'd disappoint me... anyway lets wait what happens now...

[nthfinity]

i hope he's right, i really hope he didnt use the drugs... if the lab screwed up, they REALLY need to change some things over there... if they did it on purpose, wow that'd disappoint me... anyway lets wait what happens now...

hmm... reminds me of sudden rule changes, and "suspicious activity" at Le Mans year after year to "favor" french OEM's in the race

[TopGearNL]

We'll see if he's guilty, we have our thoughts in Holland just like Armstrong but we'll see :wink:

[nthfinity]

We'll see if he's guilty, we have our thoughts in Holland just like Armstrong but we'll see :wink:

wow, that is presumtions of innocence... and what exactly is that supposed to mean?

tired of americans winning european sports? :P

[TopGearNL]

We'll see if he's guilty, we have our thoughts in Holland just like Armstrong but we'll see :wink:

wow, that is presumtions of innocence... and what exactly is that supposed to mean?

tired of americans winning european sports? :P

Well im not saying he is guilty, we''ll see the outcome and no its not because he's american we have the same thoughts about some spanish/italian and other riders, and they all used drugs :roll:

[Mattk]

So why has it taken them so long to figure out the possible blunders? Or publicise them?

[TopGearNL]

So why has it taken them so long to figure out the possible blunders? Or publicise them?

Yeah, why suddenly?

[Mattk]

I reckon it's because Landis went "I'm fucked, but I'm still going to hire a lawyer to try and get out of this", but I believe in innocence until proven guilty, so we should just wait and see what transpires.

[ae86_16v]

http://sports.yahoo.com/sc/news?slug=afp-cyclingusabellandis&prov=afp&type=lgns

BRUSSELS (AFP) - American Floyd Landis, who is expected to be stripped of the Tour de France yellow jersey for testing positive after this year's race, said his cycling career may be practically over.

Landis won the race in spectacular fashion this year to succeed his now-retired compatriot Lance Armstrong, the iconic seven-time winner of the world's biggest bike race.

However days after his triumph it emerged that Landis had tested positive for the banned male sex hormone testosterone after his spectacular victory on stage 17, which resurrected his bid for the yellow jersey.


Landis, who grew up in a strict Mennonite Christian community in Pennsylvania, has always protested his innocence.

And while weighing up his future, he told the Belgian press that even if he is cleared by an American arbitration body early in the new year, he will likely miss the coming season.

"There's a minute chance of me racing again in 2007," the 31-year-old is reported as saying in Belgian dailies Het Laatste Nieuws and Het Gazet van Antwerpen.

"Even if I'm not suspended, who will want to sign me?"

Landis's positive test prompted his former team, Phonak, to pull out of cycling. Their place in cycling's Pro Tour series was on Friday awarded to Swedish-Belgian outfit Unibet.

Landis added: "And if they suspend me for two or four years - a humiliation which I hope doesn't happen - it's over for me.

"As things stand now, I don't see myself as a bike racer."

Landis has claimed that inconsistencies by the French laboratory which analysed his samples led to his positive result.

And he claims he is now fighting for his personal reputation, and not just his career.

"I've never taken testosterone, I would have been stupid to because you just can't get away with it (in doping tests).

"What it comes down to is that I'm being accused of stupidity more than doping."

If found guilty, Landis would be the first rider in the modern era to be stripped of the Tour de France's yellow jersey. In the event, it will be handed to his former teammate Oscar Pereiro of Spain.

Landis lamented: "Even if I'm proved innocent, my reputation is ruined."

Ahead of the festive season, Landis - whose father-in-law committed suicide, in still unclear circumstances, not long after the news of his positive test became public - said he wants a simple wish for Christmas.

"To have a day without any worries," he said.

"This whole affair has ruined my life.

"My father-in-law committed suicide. There must be a link to what happened. He was my best friend and my biggest supporter."

[Mattk]

Ah, the plot thickens. Sort of.