Seems ol' Oscar Pereiro isn't quite as pristine as he wants to make himself out to be. The guy who wants Landis convicted by the kangaroo court of anti-doping so he can be crowned winner of the '06 TdF, tested positive twice for salbutimol during the tour. In a big old F*** you to the UCI, the TdF organization says it doesn't care that Pereiro had a "medical exemption" to used the banned substance. I sure am glad all of the bureaucrats are having a successful go at destroying professional cycling.
I've shared my opinion on this mess with a few of you, but I want it down for the record now. Let me start by saying that if Landis doped, he should face all of the sanctions that that would warrant. However, the anti-doping efforts being made by the UCI and WADA should be above reproach. I am not of the opinion that Floyd "must be guilty". It all would be so much more credible if the anti-doping protocols and procedures were followed to the letter. But look at all of the leaks, errors and missteps. Would you trust the Keystone Kops with the future of your career? I think not.
It all goes to the "unbelievable" performance that Landis had during Stage 17. Nobody really analyzes the actual performance, they just point to the incredible end result: Floyd taking back some 11 minutes in one mountain stage. They view the end result as proof of wrongdoing. Let's analyze the ride shall we?
Floyd took off EARLY on the stage. Something like 100 miles and 5 climbs left. The big boys reacted. Riders not on the podium, but solidly in the top 10 (Cadel Evans to name one), went with him. Thanks to modern technology, they got an earful as their Directeurs Sportif screamed at them through their earpieces, asking them why they were going early with a guy 11 minutes down, who was clearly embarking on some Sisyphian effort that would result in a detonation akin to Hiroshima. Thanks to sponsor money, present day road racing rewards overall performance and provides a massive disincentive to actually putting everything on the line to win. So all of these guys in the top ten did the math and figured that a top ten finish in the tour would guarantee a contract for next year, and you shouldn't gamble that away.
So, they let Floyd go. The minutes built up, and everybody in the yellow jersey group just knew that they would close back down on him once he flamed out. Thing is, he rode within his limits. Granted, he was pegged right on the line, but Landis's powertap data shows him riding at a power output that he had performed at multiple times before. It wasn't a matter of Floyd riding away from evrybody in some superhuman effort, it was that the lead group let him go not expecting him to ride like a man of the past. Back in the day, racers rode with heart and guts, they took foolhardy risks and chances. Sometimes it paid off, most times it didn't. Notably though, those riders rode to win, not to do just well enough to keep their job...
The whole thing is such a muddle that it will never be settled. People will live and die by their opinion of the whole matter, no matter how ill informed they are. It's awful to hear people rail and rant against Landis for daring to defend himself. "How dare he defend himself when he's guilty!" But what if the guy isn't guilty? Should he just go quietly into that good night? And then you have Pat McQuaid, head of WADA, spouting off like an idiot and conducting himself with much less decorum than I think is reasonable to expect from a person in his position. The process should be pristine, then it would be so much more believable.
Links:
FloydLandis.com
NPR Landis story
With all that being said, I would like to share a video with my all-time cycling hero, Andy Hampsten. The guy was humble and classy. He won the Giro d'Italia by taking a ton of time during the worst mountain stage in modern racing history, the infamous Gavia Pass. Read the story and see what you think about the "good old days" of bike racing!
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