Kleeman's Last Word

Landis' Doping Allegations: Nothing Has Been Proven Yet

I'll cop to being one of the millions of bandwagon cycling fans who was enchanted by the Lance Armstrong cancer survival story. I'm guilty. Accost me if you wish.
But then again don't.

I was watching Armstrong compete the first year he won the Tour de France, not the fourth or fifth. One come from behind victory by the Texan was all it took to convince me that cycling is an intense, enthralling and seldom predictable endurance sport.

When I'm dedicated to my weight loss regimen, which albeit is hardly ever, I enjoy riding six miles on my bike in the morning. It hardly compares to what cyclist turned OLN commentator Al Trautwig accomplished with his pedals. But going up to 25 miles an hour around my neighborhood, you have to admit that it is a start.

I only present my shoddy and disgraceful qualifications to discuss cycling so as to separate myself from the herd of uninformed journalists milking the Floyd Landis scandal for all it's worth.
When the word scandal comes into play, the cows in question usually grow more flexible breasts. This helps so-called journalists "dig up" half-truths or embellish on a singular fact that we've heard millions of times already.
And if the American media wasn't so viscious when it comes to the scandal, that 'millions' number might be hyperbole.

Recall the Lewinsky scandal and tell me I'm being melodramatic.

As I have hopefully explained below, I despise the use of performance-enhancing drugs by athletes. Those who stoop low enough to cheat deserve tarnished careers, shame and high public scrutiny.
If Floyd Landis is indeed proven a cheater and his second 'B' urine sample shows the same or similar results in testosterone levels, I will rectract most of this post and admit that I was wrong.

I will also condemn Landis and his stupefying judgement.

Unfortunately for the French who hate to see Americans win their cycling event, I don't think I'll be making that retraction. Mostly for the same reason I wouldn't have had to do it for Armstong but also for other reasons.
It's been tough luck for french riders even garnering a podium spot after the Prologue, so to have a testicular cancer survivor take the Tour seven times in a row and then have another American needing an immediate hip replacement win is reason enough for resentment on the part of French doctors and coaches who are rapidly firing these doping charges.

The doping allegations have swatted Armstrong more times than Naomi Campbell has hit her nanny and that's saying a lot.
The difference is Armstrong never tested positive and Landis has. After winning a stage in the Tour, the rider has 30 minutes to give a urine sample. This is part of cycling's crackdown on juicing.
Landis won Stage 17 of the Tour by an astonishing 6 minutes after falling 10 minutes behind the leader Oscar Pereiro in the previous day's grueling mountain climbing. He broke into shards and then miraculously dusted off the new breed of fighter inside him. Like a raging drunk in a barfight, he pedaled ferociously all the way to the podium in Paris.
It took the Star Spangled Banner blaring over the loud speakers for Landis to recapture his calm.

High anxiety and anguish are proven tell-tale signs of high testoterone levels. Landis maintains that the levels in his body that day were not abnormal. He blames his Adrenal Gland among other body parts.

And though his careful explanation could be an honest truth, the answer may lie in simpler analysis.

Last August, after a routine physical, my general practitioner noted in my blood work that I had alarmingly high liver enzymes. These are the kind of test results a person should freak out over.
I had more extensive testing done to see if my doctor's worries had merit. The follow-up tests showed my liver enzymes were normal.

I don't spill out this anecdote to champion my personal health problems, but merely to remind savvy readers that one test result doesn't always tell the right story. The probability of a false positive test in any medical condition is large enough that a second test is always given.
HIV, pregnancy, illegal drug testing, alcohol levels, Herpes. You know the drill.

We know what Landis's first test shows, but we have no idea about that all-important second result.
If the 'B' sample shows testoterone levels were not pushed to a level only attainable through drug use, then it's safe to say the American is home free.
If however there is a second positive reading, then the champion bike rider might want to start crafting a confession and an apology.

I'm not steroid expert, but I've done a fair amount of reading on their uses, availability of different grades and how they work inside the human body.
It took Barry Bonds an entire baseball offseason to build his linebacker-esque body.

If the Game of Shadows book has the Bonds situation pinned entirely accurately then the star slugger had to undertake months of intense weight training and injections before the results were apparent.
Bonds hasn't been using the baby stuff. He's been juicing some of the nastiest shit you can find on the black market. Some of the drugs claimed to have been found in his body would make the Andro discovered in Mark McGwire's locker appear like an ordinary Vitamin C pill.
I realize that a professional cyclist and a professional baseball player have different goals when it comes to utilizing body parts, but all steroids aim to do the same thing. Even the testoterone Landis is accussed of using.

Using performance-enhancing dope reconstructs a human's natural endurance. If Landis were doping that would be his goal as it has been for Barry Bonds.

I find it hard to believe that Landis could have taken an enhancement drug the night before his dramatic stage win and seen immediate results. Steroids work like any other medicine. Your immune system has to build a tolerance before the drug really starts working.

There's a reason a doctor gives you 10 doses of antibiotics when you have the flu. It takes that many doses for the stuff to run its course and perform its job. Same with any run-of-the-mill steroid.

Earlier blood and urine tests showed Landis had no elevated testosterone levels, so why then would he binge dope?
He certainly wasn't doping on or before Stage 16 when he gloriously collapsed under the pressure of no teamates and a steadfast pelloton.

I reiterate that I will retract the above statements if Landis is proven a cheater. I want the real truth here even if it means disowning a respectable and usually kind-hearted athlete.

One 'B' test separates two clashing sides from being able to declare who gets to yell, "I told you so."

posted by Robert Kleeman @ 9:58 PM