Last night was a blast.
Floyd Landis is in the process of touring the country raising money
and support in his effort to fight the doping charges that have
(termporarily...) stripped him of his '06 Tour de France yellow
jersey. Last night, he came to the Phoenix east valley, and I
attended the presentation.
The venue was a fairly small one - only 60-70 people attending, which
I can only attribute to lack of publicity. I spent a several hours
last night sitting about 10 feet (3m) from Floyd and his doctor
(Arnie Baker) and his PR guy Michael Henson.
The presentation has changed a bit from what is on Floyd's "Fairness
Fund" website, and according to Dr. Baker (a very confidence-inspiring
speaker, BTW), they're only presenting "about 10%" of the problems
with the testing that was done, since they've already seen the French
lab trying to cover their tracks by releasing updated "original"
documents that "fix" some of the glaring errors in the "original
originals".
Without going into a litany of details, there are SO many questions
raised by Dr. Baker's examination of the evidence that I have no doubt
at all that Floyd will prevail when the hearing occurs in mid-May.
Essentially, there are clearly-documented problems with chain of
custody, testing blindness, protocol, equipment malfunction, sample
contamination beyond testable standards, standards definition, not to
mention the common sense aspect of the fact that Floyd tested negative
two days prior and two days after (and tested WELL under the limits
for testosterone even after stage 17). Dr. Baker explained the
science of testosterone, and how clinical studies have shown that
there is no measureable performance gain even with 10x the allowed
testosterone level present on that day's effort (that is, it's not a
"one day drug"😉. There's simply no reason anyone would WANT to play
around with epitestosterone on a given stage... nothing to be gained.
Floyd's presentation was alternatively informative, spontaneous, and
humourous. He spent a good bit of the evening "talking racing" and
the personal glimpse into the politics of the peleton was fascinating.
He (and Dr. Baker) pointed out that although Floyd's stage 17
performance was a very, very good one, the real reason he gained so
much time was the infighting among teams in the peleton (each waiting
for the other teams to do the heavy lifting). As amazing as it was,
he really wasn't doing anything superhuman, but clearly something
unexpectedly audacious. His superior descending skills didn't hurt
either.
For those of you in Dallas, Austin or Atlanta - he's coming your way
soon - I suggest you do NOT miss the event. It's the best $35 I've
spent in a long, long time (though I also broke down and bought a $25
Floyd Fairness Fund T-shirt, which he autographed for me). There were
other fund-raising efforts, including auctioning off a replica yellow
jersey autographed by Floyd (which went for $3,300, so don't figure
it's a cheap way to cover a stain on your wall). ;-) Floyd spent
about half an hour signing autographs and was happy to pose for photos
with anyone who wanted one (making forgetting my camera a very dumb
thing to do).
I'd recommend that anyone who's genuinely concerned with the fairness
of the current drug testing processes should read the powerpoint
presentation that Dr. Baker put together - it's a fairly big download,
but fascinating reading (even without the good doctor's running
commentary on the details). It can be found at:
http://www.floydfairnessfund.org/resources/Wiki%20Denfense%20Slide.pdf
There's also a webcast on Floyd's site that I haven't previewed, but
suspect it contains the same information I saw last night.
My prediction is that the WADA (World Anti Doping Agency) and the
French lab that was involved will have to admit that there are FAR too
many problems with the handling of the samples, the testing of the
samples, and the results of the testing for the results to stand. I
appreciate the work Floyd is doing to take on these powerful
organizations (that are, BTW, doing everything in their power to keep
the details from leaking out - funny since they seem to relish the
opporutnity to leak details about certain riders' test results, even
before the UCI officials hear about it). Dr. Baker has also compiled
a number of documents that show the same lab was making errors on
other (non-cycling) athletes at the same time that Floyd's sample was
being tested (where the lab admits getting samples crossed or causing
contamination that resulted in a false positives).
Please support this effort - I think after you read the presentation
you'll begin to understand what a travesty this whole thing has been.
I look forward to the day when Floyd's name appears without an asterix
in the record books.
Go get 'em Floyd!
Mark Hickey
Habanero Cycles
http://www.habcycles.com
Home of the $795 ti frame