It seems I have been taking a bit of heat over my last show and the apparent lack of outrage over the Floyd Landis doping scandal. Several messages have been posted here on the site and on the forum, and I have received a couple of e-mails with the same sentiments.
I welcome the criticisms as much as I welcome the praise. It only serves to make the show better. Some people have actually thanked me for not censoring their negative comments. For the record: I would never delete comments just because they weren’t complimentary. The only comment I ever deleted from the site (aside from blog spam) is the one that did not contain the poster’s true information so that I could contact them and have a dialogue.
When I recorded the last show, the allegations against Floyd were just a few days old. The “A” sample had been tested, and he hadn’t even had time to request the “B” sample test. There was enough for him to be rightfully suspended by his Phonak team, but not enough for him to be subject to disciplinary action by the UCI. I commented on the show about all of the reasons why the tests could have been wrong, and I also commented that if the “B” sample came back positive, then Floyd should be rightfully shunned.
As far as I was concerned, my comments were measured. Not muted or biased as other have suggested, but merely carefully worded until the “B” sample results were in.
So let me be entirely clear . . . The results of Floyd’s “B” sample are now in and the results are conclusive. Floyd has been shown to have failed two drug tests, with a testosterone:epitestosterone ratio that is nearly 3x the legal limit. There are even reports in the press that the carbon isotope tests have shown that he had synthetic testosterone in his blood. According to the rules of cycling, it has been proven that he is a doper. Unless he can prove otherwise (and he still has the opportunity to do so), then he is and ever-shall-be a doper. I stand by what I said on last week’s show: he should be stripped of the Tour de France title, he should be fired by his team, and he should be subjected to a severe sanction by the UCI.
My feelings on doping and dopers are well-known; I’ve ranted on the subject plenty of times on the show. Dopers cheat. They lie. They are unethical and are unsportsmanlike. They sully the reputations of the rest of the peloton through guilt by association, and give the sport a bad name. They should not be a part of professional cycling or any sport for that matter.
Until and unless he can prove otherwise, this includes Floyd Landis.
I will be repeating all of this on the show I will be recording tonight, but I wanted to set the record straight as soon as possible.
