July 29, 2006
PARIS (AP) -- Three-time Tour de France champion Greg LeMond says the doping charges against fellow American Floyd Landis could be "what cycling has needed for many years" in order to discourage cheating.
"If he is confirmed positive, I hope he has the courage to tell the truth," LeMond said in an interview with French weekly Le Journal du Dimanche released on Saturday. "He alone can change the face of the sport today. His example could be a symbol of change."
...more...
He makes me puke.
Landis Is On Message, but Points Are Disputed by Juliet Macur & Gina Kolata (NYT Sat 07.29.06)
(snip)...some of the information Landis provided about the doping test runs counter to an explanation of the situation by the chief medical officer of the International Cycling Union, the sport’s governing body...Landis was guarded in teleconferences Thursday and yesterday and said he did not know what his ratio was, but Mario Zorzoli, the cycling union’s medical officer, said the union always provided a complete report on the test — including the testosterone ratio — to the rider and the team.
“The athlete receives the report that we receive,” Zorzoli said in a telephone interview from Brazil. “Of course the rider gets that information.”...Landis has said that he has naturally high levels of testosterone and did not take the hormone. He was subjected to eight doping tests during the Tour, and he said it was possible that he did not get a positive result in the other tests because those other samples might not have been tested for testosterone. But Zorzoli said every sample provided by cyclists was tested for the hormone in the routine test conducted by all laboratories. “Every sample is tested for the complete menu — the usual menu,” Zorzoli said
(snip)...If Landis had a naturally high ratio of testosterone, it should have showed up in the drug tests he has taken throughout his career. Since his tests were never questioned until now...William Bremner, an endocrinologist and chairman of the department of medicine at the University of Washington, said some men had naturally high ratios of testosterone. “There are a few men who have ratios as high as 8 to 1 or 10 to 1,” he said. ...Bremner said it was possible that alcohol would temporarily elevate the testosterone-to-epitestosterone ratio. Scandinavian studies showed such an effect, Bremner said, adding that the researchers also noted that they could test for alcohol in the same urine samples. So, perhaps Landis’s claims that he was drinking could be confirmed by testing his samples...
(snip)...cyclists have tested positive for testosterone in the past — as recently as 2002, when Stefan Rütimann of Switzerland failed a test. (snip)An athlete might take an amount of testosterone that he believes will not produce an excessively high ratio.
What if Landis took testosterone in desperation after Stage 16, thinking it would help him the next day? If an athlete rubbed on a testosterone gel or applied a patch that released the hormone, his level would rise for only a day or two, Bremner said. Other tests, before and after that day, would probably be normal.
The key is to look at the pattern of Landis’s tests and see if his testosterone-to-epitestosterone ratio is consistent or whether it varied, said John McKinlay, the senior vice president and chief scientist at the New England Research Institutes.
“You don’t get variations in human beings,” he said. “If there is a spike that coincides with that day when he did fantastically well, that answers the question.”
Unless, of course, alcohol raised his testosterone level. Or unless the test was in error. Or unless the B sample shows a normal ratio, in which case he would be cleared. In the meantime, Landis is being tried in the court of public opinion.
“The notion that you are innocent until proven guilty might be a uniquely American ideal,” said Doriane Lambelet Coleman, a Duke University law professor. “It certainly is not the ideal in cycling.”
I still have not yet been able to find any clarification on the claim by LAT & SJ Merc News that L'Equipe has allegedly claimed a source saying that the carb isotope spectrometry was already done on the "A" & detected synthetic test. Still nothing on the lequipe site, free articles at least. Has anybody else heard anything more about this? Aargh! Sports journalists never seem to ask the truly relevant questions or address the most pertinent issues. Drives me nuts.