Four days after the tour ends, it seems like 2006 champion Floyd Landis has failed a doping test. I’ll be considerably less impressed with his riding if this turns out to be true.
Tour de France champion Floyd Landis tested positive for high levels of testosterone during the race, his Phonak team said Thursday on its Web site.
The statement came a day after the UCI, cycling’s world governing body, said an unidentified rider had failed a drug test during the Tour.
So, we’ll see, I guess. I honestly hope that this turns out to be much to do about nothing. Otherwise it’ll be right back to that damn headbutt.
5 responses to “Bloody hell”
Yeah, what’s worse is the failed test hapenned on the same leg where he advanced from 11th place to 3rd.
But evidently it was only ellevated levels of testosterone. I’ve read that this can happen in numerous ways that don’t include doping…
Some of the speculation I’ve heard suggest that it was (somehow) medication for his arthritic hip. Further, all of the field experts I’ve heard interviewed have said that testosterone doesn’t help endurance and isn’t a particularly popular and/or useful performance enhancer for cyclists. So, we’ll see.
Wikipedia as always has a good summary of what’s going on. One of the other things to note is that he suffers from hyperthyroidism, which can result in severe fluctuations in testosterone level.
In general, taking anabolic steroids would make a lot more sense during training than during a race.
Take your seats ladies in gentleman, this may end up being the weirdest doping scandal to twist and turn through the media since Ross Rebagliati.
ROTFL. What are the odds? It looks like Ross Rebagliati is back in the news again: http://jam.canoe.ca/Television/2006/08/02/1715524-cp.html
Rebagliati sounds paranoid. Hmm, I wonder why….