Landis....

Floyd Landis....

(Photo courtesy of AOL)

In the beginning I didn't want to believe that Floyd did it. Or that he would even consider doing it. Then I said "shame on you Floyd, for doing that". As the farce has played out I have come to the conclusion that whether or not he did it is irrelevant. The charges, the testing, and the media circus that they have caused give the entire situation an aura of extreme negative credibility.

The "B" samples came back today with "traces" of synthetic testosterone in them. The original sample from stage 17, the "A" sample, taken at the exact same time as the "B" sample, had "unnaturally elevated" levels of testosterone in it. Remember, there was no indication of anything out of the ordinary until Landis' stage 17 victory. All 7 "B" samples, taken at various stages of the race, now contain traces.....

Does anyone else find this to be just a little bit incredible? In my humble, uneducated opinion, the lab and the tests have "0" credibility. He was tested frequently throughout the Tour and there was never any indication of any banned substances in his system until after stage 17. Those would be the "A" samples. Now all of the "B" samples have "traces" of a "banned" substance. Somehow I got lost somewhere on this journey. I can't quite grasp this.... All of his tests were negative until after winning stage 17. The "B" samples are taken at the same time as the "A" samples. All of the "A" samples (excluding the stage 17 pee) were negative. All of the "B" samples are positive. Help me out here. I don't understand. How is this even possible? It defies logic. Are we so stupid that we'll believe, without question, anything that we're told?

Furthermore, representatives of the USADA (U.S. Anti Doping Agency. {They have an office right down the hall from the USFBAPTA, the U.S. Flowered Bra and Panty Testing Agency}) failed to show up for the testing which, by agreement, precluded Landis' expert from being able to observe the conducting of the tests. He was there but wasn't allowed to observe. The tests were performed anyway, without the scheduled outside observers.

It is my opinion that this is such an incredible fiasco that the only right thing to do now is to throw all of the testing and samples out the window and forget that any of this ever happened. The tests are, at this point, meaningless, as are the samples. Politics and sports are never, ever a good combination. Never. The lab that tested these samples should never even be allowed to test horse shit for hay.

Do you think this will stop the stupidity in the future? How many other careers have been ruined by this same type of ineptness? How many will be ruined? There is a pall of shame hanging over the governing body and they don't even realize it. Or even worse, they do realize it and don't care. The atheletes are just part of the show. They come and go and no one cares.

Did Floyd take drugs? Did he "dope" to enhance his performance and win the Tour? I don't know. At this point, I don't care. It's not what's important. It's the teams and the UCI that have turned on him and found him guilty prior to trial and in my mind that's shameful. It's unbelievable and sickening. My anger is not directed at Floyd. It's directed at the Ringmasters who are running this circus. The UCI is on a witch hunt. They are looking for examples to punish to make people believe that they are credible. They are not.

I hope that each and every competitor and potential competitor realizes that he could find himself in this same situation at any time.

Rant off.

Ride safe.

Peace out, yo!