Tour de Fraud???

It seems American Tour de France champion Floyd Landis has been suspended following a positive test for excess levels of testosterone.

The positive test came after stage 17 of the Tour, which saw Landis record an epic victory after struggling on the final climb the day before.

Landis has been suspended pending results of his B sample analysis.

The International Cycling Union (UCI) announced on Wednesday that a rider had failed a doping test but would not reveal his name.

Landis is appealing the result, asking for an analysis of his alternate, or "B" sample.

I have 3 questions about this:
1) Who the fuck is dumb enough to juice with straight testosterone during an event like this?  They draw your blood EVERY DAMN DAY.  It's not going to wash out overnight, I assure you.  If this is an accurate result, he had to shoot himself the night before stage 17, which featured his "miraculous comeback"....Idiot.

2) Is the French testing lab clean?  I don't know how long it usually takes to do one of these tests in a clinical lab environment, but it shouldn't take more than 48 hours. Which is about what it takes in the research lab.  Why did it take UCI a WEEK to get the results back?  After the way the French have gone after Lance Armstrong (with no success, I might add), doesn't it seem likely that a a jealous Fwenchy might have spiked Floyd's sample?  My hope is that the B sample testing will be done at an independent lab.

3) Although it's eminently possible Landis was cheating, what precautions are taken to ensure this isn't a physiological change (how high was the T level, for instance)?  If this is a physiological anomaly, the B sample should be equivalently high,  but there would be no foul.  Are other hormone tests run on the sample to correlate levels?

Developing....

Posted by: caltechgirl at 09:42 AM | Comments (6) | Add Comment
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