Breaking: Floyd Landis tests positive for Illegal drug

[slowhand520]

Just heard this on the radio. Reuters reporting. No link yet

[Republicain]

If it's true, it's very very sad for the Tour de France. After the 1999 doping scandal, after the 2006 affair with Ulrich and Basso and now Landis, it will be difficult to trust anybody. Maybe the losers... The lower in the CG, the cleaner ?

[llevrok]

MSNBC said he had unusually high levels of testesterone.

Of course he did. He's a red blooded American male! Duh. (-:

[laconic]

Unfortunately, this may show the impact of leaving his Mennonite faith and rural Lancaster County, PA for the bright lights, big cities and lots of money in coastal southern California. I hope the tests are wrong, but if they are correct, he will lose the Tour title and be banned from cycling for four years. I hate to point this out, but Landis was a member of Lance Armstrong's US Postal team in the Tour for five years.

[Vision]

No way

[Vision]

Scary Ping

[llevrok]

Neither of your points seem relevant (leaving the Mennonite faith or riding for US Postal) to me.

BTW - he left Postal bitter and did not speak with Lance for some time. The departure did set his career back a few years by going to a (then) weaker team.

[Ready4Freddy]

American winner of the recently completed Tour de France.

[Cecily]

He will be fired from the team? I would think that the team personnel are probably complicit in any doping going on.

[Former Fetus]

It makes me sick, but the Spanish newspaper El Mundo is already bragging that the Spanish cyclist Pereiro is going to be declared winner. Why, oh why? After Lance showed them what an American can do for so many years, why did this retard have to come along and ruin everything?

[Diddle E. Squat]

This story is Breaking News at the top of Fox News' website:

http://www.foxnews.com/

Same for CNN:

http://www.cnn.com/

And MSNBC:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/

ABC:

http://abcnews.go.com/?lid=ABCCOMMenu&lpos=ABCNews

CBS:

http://www.cbsnews.com/

Drudge:

http://www.drudgereport.com/

BBC:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/

AP:

http://www.ap.org/

Rueters:

http://today.reuters.com/news/home.aspx

Fox News, CNN, and MSNBC have several times interrupted their news with "Breaking News" on this story, but of course here on good ol' Free Republic once again one of the mods has a hardon that anything even halfway tangentially related to sports can't be news and must be banished to chat.

Al Qeada could blow up Yankee Stadium and he/she/it would try to move all threads about that to chat.

But of course a hot dog eating contest can stay in Breaking for days. Nice consistency.

[newgeezer]

Thanks but, I'm not the one who asked.

[cyborg]

I don't think it's a liberal entitlement mentality at all. I think it's a pressure to perform to superhuman standards. I heard a sports commentaor say it's a question of who ISN'T doping in bike racing. People want to be amazed by the guys that are pedaling twenty and thirty miles an hour,etc. It's same with baseball since you bought up little league. People want to be wow'd! by the balls that get hit out of the park. No one wants to be a loser and no one wants to be thought of as a loser esp. after they've trained hard as heck. This is sad though if it's true.

[laconic]

The relevance of both points is as follows: first, if he stayed within the Mennonite faith, he MIGHT have been less likely to use drugs of any type. Second, he was on two teams in the Tour, one of which had a member subsequently dismissed for doping (Tyler Hamilton) and the other which has had a number of people close to a rider allege (yes, not proven) that he took banned peformance enhancers. I don't say that either of these makes Landis guilty; in fact, I would hope the news would have waited until he can get a fair second sample test done in the next couple of days. As with Lance Armstrong, I respect and admire Landis, but I won't if this turns out to be true.

[laconic]

Phonak was also prepared to pay a $2.5 million bonus if the team won the Tour.

[cyborg]

I'd say to them 'oh shaddap... this isn't a football game. Cut the macho crap!' ;-) Seriously, I hope this isn't true.

[cyborg]

Hmmmmm....

[cyborg]

check this out ping and snotty spanish newspaper claiming victory ping

[Eurotwit]

Um, wouldn't it be news if he DIDN'T test positive for testosterone? :^)

Yeah, that would mean he was French :-)

[leilani]

Seriously, the guy on ESPN just said that every time a rider has tested positive for the testosterone/epi ration and challenged it, the athelete has won. So maybe it's not time to abandon hope about Landis?

[fortunecookie]

Yesterday, I heard an 'unidentified' rider tested positive. I thought, 'Oh, no, the frenchies are going after Landis the way they went after Lance.' I hope it's not true. But puh-lease, tested positive for testosterone? Let's hope so, he is a man. Periero is a great rider, but I'm not ruling out Landis yet.