Tour de France scandals.

[Martha]

Floyd Landis apparently had a positive doping test. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060727/...floyd_landis_2
Bummer.

[BunsGettingFirm]

Man, another scandal. I'm heading out for a quick ride around the local park. Where's my EPO? Nay, I'll just have to take only HGH today.

[Dawg52]

I wonder if he was taking something for his bad hip? Maybe Rich can tell us if a pain killer or something for his hip would cause that. I can't imagine why anyone would take a performance enhancing drug because they should know they are going to be tested after a big event like this.*

[BunsGettingFirm]

Quote:

Originally Posted by DOG51 I wonder if he was taking something for his bad hip? Maybe Rich can tell us if a pain killer or something for his hip would cause that. I can't imagine why anyone would take a performance enhancing drug because they should know they are going to be tested after a big event like this.

I don't think there's direct test for EPO. When Marco Pantani got caught a few years at the Giro d'Italia, it was because his hematocrit level was too high.

[Rich_by_the_Bay]

Right - epo is hard, inhalers used for asthma, decongestants (mild stimulant properties allegedly). Unlikely he would be on any of the routine drugs for the reasons mentioned above.

Let's see what they come up with. If true, very disappointing. Join the Barry Bonds Club.

[Alex]

I hear a second test is coming. The jury is still out.

[grumpy]

I heard on the tube that the basis of the failed test was a ratio of testosterone to some other hormone. In Landis' case, his testosterone was abnormally low which caused the ratio to be higher than the threshold for a failed test. Whether that will make a difference in any sanctions applied to him I don't know. I hope he was not using performance enhancing drugs. I am a big fan of the Tour de France. I used to do a lot of bike riding and I am also a testicular cancer survivor like Lance Armstrong. The race has already been tarnished by the banning of several of this years leading contenders.

Grumpy

[Cool Dood]

Maybe bike-riding causes testicular cancer?

grumpy, you should rent FUBAR if you haven't seen it already.

[cute fuzzy bunny]

So serious.

Its riding a bicycle and hitting a ball with a stick!

Maybe if we didnt pay them gazillions to play kids games and with kids toys, they wouldnt mess around with enhancements!

[Texas Proud]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cute Fuzzy Bunny So serious. Its riding a bicycle and hitting a ball with a stick! Maybe if we didnt pay them gazillions to play kids games and with kids toys, they wouldnt mess around with enhancements!

I doubt it... most of these guy are very competative and would like to get any advantage even if playing for a popsicle...

[mickeyd]

Major League Baseball must be loving this doping scandal.

"See! We're not the only guys who need help in keeping ourselves in top shape." MLB

[HFWR]

Don't often pine for "the good old days", but many of today's athletes have no class... Can you imagine, say, Roger Staubach or Johnny Unitas dancing after a touchdown?

Back when, if Barry had stood to watch one of his steroid-assisted homers sail away, a Bob Gibson or a Don Drysdale would've plunked him next time at bat...

Babe and Mick did it with booze and broads!! 8)

[TromboneAl]

Landis, speaking in Madrid on Friday, said his test results had nothing to do with doping, and that the high level of testosterone in his body was the result of his natural physiology.

Testosterone is a naturally occurring male hormone that is banned when it is found in a ratio greater than 4:1 to another hormone, epitestosterone.

Why is it that the news organizations don't quote an expert opinion on whether the doctor's claim is reasonable?* Whether it's possible for someone to have a ratio like that naturally should be known.* If it's not known, then the test isn't a valid one.

“We’ve sent the fax to the UCI this afternoon,” said Jose Maria Buxeda, one of Landis’s two Spanish lawyers, of the Swiss-based International Cycling Union. “Now we’ll have to adjust to their calendar.”

Silly that they have to request it.* And why wouldn't the test be done right away -- it's not like it's so unimportant that they would put it on the back burner.*

[sgeeeee]

Quote:

Originally Posted by TromboneAl . . . Why is it that the news organizations don't quote an expert opinion on whether the doctor's claim is reasonable?* Whether it's possible for someone to have a ratio like that naturally should be known.* If it's not known, then the test isn't a valid one. [. . .

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/01/sp...html?th&emc=th

Quote:

. . . The French national antidoping laboratory in Châtenay-Malabry performed a carbon isotope ratio test on the first of Landis’s two urine samples provided after Stage 17, the person, who is in the cycling union’s antidoping department, said in an interview yesterday. That test, which differentiates between natural and synthetic testosterone, was done after Landis’s ratio of testosterone to epitestosterone was found to be more than twice what is allowed under World Anti-Doping Agency rules, the person said. Regulations limit the ratio to four to one. The range for an average person is between one to one and two to one. Landis’s personal doctor, Dr. Brent Kay of Temecula, Calif., said he hoped that the results of Landis’s carbon isotope ratio test and of the initial T/E test were false positives. He did, however, acknowledge that the initial test found a ratio of 11 to 1 in Landis’s system. He and Landis are seeking an explanation for that high level. “I’ve seen bodybuilders with numbers 100 to 1,” Kay said. “Although Floyd’s was elevated, it’s not off the chart or anything.” Kay said there could be many explanations for Landis’s high ratio, including a naturally high testosterone to epitestosterone level, bacterial contamination, alcohol consumption the night before the test or contamination of the specimen during testing. He could not say why synthetic testosterone might have been in Landis’s system. He said both tests could have been inaccurate. . .

[AltaRed]

It has been reported that Landis' B sample has failed as well.

http://www.canada.com/calgaryherald/...bf8028&k=90944

Appears to be no doubt it is synthetic hormone that can only be present through ingestion. It will be unfortunate if Landis intends to fight sanctions and loss of his win. Prolonging the embarassment will be counterproductive to the US cycling team and his own family in particular.

Have to wonder what was going on in his head to make such a poor decision.

[HFWR]

Quote:

Originally Posted by AltaRed Have to wonder what was going on in his head to make such a poor decision.

Nothing...

[Lazarus]

Perhaps they are used to testing French men for testosterone. Just not used the the high American levels.

[astromeria]

Quote:

Originally Posted by AltaRed Have to wonder what was going on in his head to make such a poor decision.

Winning :

[Nords]

Quote:

Originally Posted by AltaRed Have to wonder what was going on in his head to make such a poor decision.

"Cool, I've gotten away with this for months!!"

[AltaRed]

All good answers but Landis was stupid none the less. You don't win a Tour de France without knowing urine analysis will be taken to the extreme limits of the science.

May well be that the science of analysis has evolved a lot quicker than the minds of professional atheletes who have beaten the system multiple times before.