TdF: Drugs

[Ogedei]

http://za.today.reuters.com/news/New...S-20060727.XML

Comments, thoughts? Curses?

[Mountain_marc]

The French are it again! Always have to prove that someone beating them is on something.

[Mark57]

I saw that earlier, really sucks. I wonder if it could be natural?

This report has a few more details, not much but a little. Landis is, of course, denying any knowledge. I think after a bad day, a couple beers and a hummer from the wife would boost my testosterone/epitestosterone ratio too.

[BeachHead]

Jeez....I am losing all hope for sports.

[ODB]

I'm tired of this stuff. I'm really tired of preliminary reports being released before they have solid proof of wrong doing. Maybe the US should just boycott the Tour next year. We can take our OLN and go home. Freakin' French media!

[Mark57]

Yeah, that's the only thing that pisses me off. They still need to test the B sample and the rider is entitled to a counter analysis. No one will ever remember if the B is clean or if the counter clears him, "Landis tests positive" is all that matters now. This is absolute bullshit. If he doped then he needs to be sanctioned, but releasing it to the press at this point should be criminal.

[Brady]

Originally Posted by Mark57

Yeah, that's the only thing that pisses me off. They still need to test the B sample and the rider is entitled to a counter analysis. No one will ever remember if the B is clean or if the counter clears him, "Landis tests positive" is all that matters now. This is absolute bullshit. If he doped then he needs to be sanctioned, but releasing it to the press at this point should be criminal.

Unless, I have read incorrectly his team made the announcement not the Tour or the testing agency

[Kaiser]

Yep. His team suspended him and the UCI was doing the testing. The French may have leaked the story, but they didn't create it (this time). I hope the second sample comes out clean because this would be very bad for the sport.

------------------------------------------------
Steroid Speculation Swirls Around Landis
High Levels of Testosterone Found in Tour Champ
By STEPHEN WILSON
AP Sports
LONDON (July 27) - Floyd Landis' stunning Tour de France victory just four days earlier was thrown into question Thursday when his team, Phonak, said he tested positive for high levels of testosterone during the race.

Landis Awaits the Next Test Result

The team suspended Landis, pending results of the backup ''B'' sample of his drug test.

The Swiss-based Phonak team said it was notified by the UCI on Wednesday that Landis' sample showed ''an unusual level of testosterone/epitestosterone'' when he was tested after stage 17 of the race last Thursday.

''The team management and the rider were both totally surprised of this physiological result,'' the Phonak statement said.

Efforts to reach Landis were not immediately successful.

Landis made a remarkable comeback in that Alpine stage, racing far ahead of the field for a solo win that moved him from 11th to third in the overall standings. He regained the leader's yellow jersey two days later.

Landis rode the Tour with a degenerative hip condition that he has said will require surgery in the coming weeks or months.

Arlene Landis, his mother, said Thursday that she wouldn't blame her son if he was taking medication to treat the pain in his injured hip, but ''if it's something worse than that, then he doesn't deserve to win.''

''I didn't talk to him since that hit the fan, but I'm keeping things even keel until I know what the facts are,'' she told The Associated Press in a phone interview from her home in Farmersville, Pennsylvania. ''I know that this is a temptation to every rider but I'm not going to jump to conclusions ... It disappoints me.''

The Phonak statement came a day after the UCI, cycling's world governing body, said an unidentified rider had failed a drug test during the Tour.

Phonak said Landis would ask for an analysis of his backup sample ''to prove either that this result is coming from a natural process or that this is resulting from a mistake.''

Landis has been suspended by his team pending the results. If the second sample confirms the initial finding, he will be fired, Phonak said.

USA Cycling spokesman Andy Lee said that organization could not comment on Landis.

''Because it's an anti-doping matter, it's USA Cycling's policy not to comment on that subject out of respect for the process and Floyd's rights,'' Lee said. ''Right now, we have to let the process proceed and we can't comment on it.''

Carla O'Connell, publications and communications director for the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, said: ''I'll make this very brief: No comment.''

Under World Anti-Doping Agency regulations, a ratio of testosterone to epitestosterone greater than 4:1 is considered a positive result and subject to investigation. The threshold was recently lowered from 6:1. The most likely natural ratio of testosterone to epitestosterone in humans is 1:1.

Testosterone is included as an anabolic steroid on WADA's list of banned substances, and its use can be punished by a two-year ban.

Landis wrapped up his Tour de France win on Sunday, keeping the title in U.S. hands for the eighth straight year. Lance Armstrong, long dogged by doping whispers and allegations, won the previous seven. Armstrong never has tested positive for drugs and vehemently has denied doping.

Speculation that Landis had tested positive spread earlier Thursday after he failed to show up for a one-day race in Denmark on Thursday. A day earlier, he missed a scheduled event in the Netherlands.

On the eve of the Tour's start, nine riders - including pre-race favorites Jan Ullrich and Ivan Basso - were ousted, implicated in a Spanish doping investigation.

The names of Ullrich and Basso turned up on a list of 56 cyclists who allegedly had contact with Spanish doctor Eufemiano Fuentes, who's at the center of the Spanish doping probe.

Associated Press writer Michael Rubinkam in Allentown, Pa., and AP Sports Writer Arnie Stapleton in Denver contributed to this report.

[UpNorth]

Any conspiracy theorists out there? Could it be that Phonak is pushing this story public so they can resign his contract at a cheaper rate? He is (or will be soon) as free agent.

[emartin10]

Well, his testosterone levels were actually low, it was the ratio of testosterone/epitestosterone that were a bit off. I've read a few places (John Eustice's column) that says he thinks it's a false positive. And Phonak suspended him because he's under investigation, just like Basso and Ullrich were suspended before there was any solid proof.

I have faith, but it's starting to wear thin...

E

[Mountain_marc]

emarti: Do you have a link to that column?

[Ogedei]

I don't know enough about doping to really render an opinion. Obviously it would be better if he didn't.

On that stage he overcame a lot and pushed through and overcame, if he is clean it is possible that the mere fact he was able to do it, to put out that much effort, could have possibly thrown his body out of wack.

Stranger things have happened.

Og.

[Mountain_marc]

Like Mark57 said: even a hummer from your wife could alter your testosterone count. I'm positive this will all get cleared up.

[emartin10]

Here is the release from Phonak's website:

English

The Phonak Cycling Team was notified yesterday by the UCI of an unusual level of Testosteron/Epitestosteron ratio in the test made on Floyd Landis after stage 17 of the Tour de France.
The Team Management and the rider were both totally surprised of this physiological result. The rider will ask in the upcoming days for the counter analysis to prove either that this result is coming from a natural process or that this is resulting from a mistake in the confirmation. In application of the Pro Tour Ethical Code, the rider will not race anymore until this problem is totally clear. If the result of the B sample analysis confirms the result of the A sample the rider will be dismissed and will then pass the corresponding endocrinological examinations.

Please understand that we cannot at this time give you more detailed comments.

E

[Mark57]

The douchbag sports anchor on the local news last night said that Landis had tested positive for "extremely high levels of testosterone". Nothing like reporting the facts I guess.

I'm still giving Landis the benefit of the doubt until the B sample test, and even then I'll wait to see if a counter analysis can determine if the test was natural or artificial.

Not only do I not suspect Landis of doping, but I just don't think he'd be that stupid. The stage winner is ALWAYS taken to a testing tent for a sample immediately after they get off the bike. So if you were doping, would you think it was a good plan to ride away from everyone on a hard mountain stage?

[Mark57]

This is why the premature release of the initial test results is so wrong:

http://www.velonews.com/news/fea/10600.0.html

Testosterone 101
By The Associated Press
This report filed July 28, 2006

Questions of possible use of a banned steroid by Tour de France champion Floyd Landis were raised because of a urine test that spots elevated levels of performance-enhancing testosterone.

The test detects both testosterone and a related steroid called epitestosterone, which is not performance-enhancing. Both are produced by the body and are also made in synthetic form.

Landis's Phonak team said his urine sample showed "an unusual level of testosterone/epitestosterone" when he was tested after his amazing come-from-behind performance in the 17th stage of the race on July 20. The usual ratio of testosterone to epitestosterone is about 1 to 1 or 2 to 1, said Gary Wadler, a physician and member of the World Anti-Doping Agency.

Suspicions of improper steroid use arise when the ratio climbs above four parts testosterone over one part epitestosterone, Wadler said. Officials have not said what ratio Landis's test showed.

Andrew Pipe, a physician and medical and scientific adviser to the Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sports in Ottawa, says that synthetic testosterone is normally injected, but taking it in the middle of an athletic competition would have little effect in boosting performance.

"Anabolic steroids, of which testosterone is the granddaddy, can have a central nervous system effect," he said. "But anabolic steroids largely work by increasing the capacity for training and increasing the bulk and tolerance of muscles. That isn't going to happen in a few hours.

"The effect of the testosterone is not going to be experienced unless there's a very significant training endeavor associated with it as well."
Pipe cautioned that the initial uproar over the high levels of testosterone detected in Landis's system may prove to be premature, depending on the outcome of additional testing that will have to be carried out before a definitive judgment is made. Taken by itself, he said, an elevated testosterone finding in the rider's A urine sample is enough to raise suspicions, but it does not automatically implicate the athlete as a doping cheat.

"I think it's very important that people take a deep breath and understand the implications and significance of what's being reported," Pipe said last night. He said that some men have naturally high levels of testosterone. For this reason, Pipe said it is imperative that the levels found in Landis during the Tour de France be compared with testosterone levels that have been detected in drug tests that have likely been carried out in the past on all the riders, not just Landis.

If no such comparable data is available, Pipe said, the rider will have to be tested again in the future. For this reason, Pipe said he was surprised that the findings from Landis's A sample have been made public. "The last thing I would want is for the suspected athlete to know that we're on to the fact that he or she may have an unusually high TE ratio and that we may have to administer further tests."

[ODB]

Thanks for the info Mark. Our local paper, which buried coverage of the TdF throughout the race on the back pages of the sports section, ran this story big and proud above the fold of the sports section this morning.

Landis, cycling await results of 2nd test

http://www.arkansasonline.com/ShowSt...tion=PrintText

Assholes!