Synthetic Testosterone Reported for Landis
Hard not to like reports that Floyd Landis didn’t just test positive for an elevated ratio of testosterone to epitestosterone, but that some of the hormone was synthetic, from an external source - immediately ruining Landis’ plan to prove his elevated ratio was naturally produced.
Irish journalist, former cyclist Paul Kimmage, wrote an excellent book on the world of professional cycling and the extent of doping involved - and of course he was villified for it. And even though he only ever spoke very highly of fellow Irish cyclist, Stephen Roche - winner of the Tour de France, the Giro d’Italia, and the World Championship in the one year - 1987 - Roche wasn’t happy with the book. In going ahead and publishing it, was Kimmage being anti-Irish?
See Cycling Across America: Day 1
Landis, in an interview I read with him at the start of the Tour, was evasive and ambivalent on the subject of performance enhancing drugs and the expulsions of Ullrich, Basso and Mancebo.
Irish swimmer Michelle Smith had a history of squirmy talk and non-cooperation with drug testers. When American swimmer Janet Evans said out loud what the world of swimming was saying quietly about somebody producing performances you’d expect of a swimmer ten years younger, was she being anti-Irish?
Greg Lemond was excellent the other day when he said he wanted Landis to come completely clean and not “deny, deny, deny, like another American“. Now whoever could he mean? And was he being anti-American?
Why are the French labelled anti-American when their drug labs catch Americans, Italians, British, Spanish, Russian, and French cheating? In 1999, the French Cycling Federation said half of the 134 pro riders active in France showed in their urine signs of one kind of doping or another. Was that anti-American?
I used to watch cycling. I’ve travelled around Ireland following the Rás, and the Tour of Ulster, and the short-lived Nissan Classic. But mostly I would go with friends to Meath, Westmeath and North County Dublin, to watch single day races, time-trials on a midweek evening, amateur cyclists doing their best.
And I’ve cycled alone over the Alps, going right past the amazing L’Alpe d’Huez as I climbed uphill for 90 kilometres on a 128 Km day from Grenoble to Briancon, over the Col du Lautaret. Passing cars cheered me upwards - especially when I was struggling near the top. They were French people who slowed down to encourage me from their cars. I don’t believe they’re anti-American. I believe they love cycling.
It’s harder to love it these days.
See Also:
• Cycling Across America
• Meeting Maradona
• Irish Lose: O Dear, O-dear O-dear O-dear
• Munster Reigns
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