The Blog of A Young Man on the Edge of Losing Control

I would first off like to apologise for my absence if you have missed my posts in recent weeks. I have been going through some things, some of which you might be familiar with, and, I hate to say, have been feeling rather negative about them. So, rather than spew hate and vitriol at the world over the internet, I felt I should simply abstain for a while and come back to the normal posts when I am feeling more myself. Sooner rather than later I hope.

What I want to talk about tonight though is a news item that has been around for a few years, that of the cyclist Floyd Landis.

For those who don’t know the back story, Landis was the favourite of the Tour de France in 2006 after the field had been eviscerated by the Operacion Puerto doping investigation, and the retirement of on L Armstrong.

Landis had ridden an impressive race that year, up to stage 16. He was on the money in the prologue, stayed firmly in the peloton in the frenetic early stages of the race, and limited his losses in the first time trial. He even managed to prevent eventual winner Oscar Perreiro’s breakaway from gaining more than two minutes on him in GC when his team got lazy on stage 13. It was all going well.

However, on Stage 16, Landis had a bad day. For whatever reason, on the final ascent of the day, the climb to the finish in La Toussuire, Landis lost all composure. Whether it was a hunger flat, or a problem with his performance enhancing drugs, we’ll never really know.

He simply bonked, and on that climb, went from being in the Maillot Jaune, the leader’s jersey of the Tour de France, to being 11 minutes on General Classification behind Perreiro.

Now at this point most pundits had written Landis off. It would simply be unheard of for a rider to retake that time on the final mountain stage and 50km final time trial.

Yet, as history says, that’s what happened. Landis went on the attack on the demonic stage 17 to Morzine. The stage contained two Hors Category (Without Category, the most difficult) climbs, but Landis went for it, motoring past the early breakaway, with a sole companion in Patrick Sinkewitz.

Eventually, Landis dropped Sinkewitz, by simply going too fast for him up the monstrous mountains of the French Alps. By the finish, he had not won by mere seconds, but over five and a half minutes. Oscar Perreiro trailed in some time after second placed man Carlos Sastre, and Landis had, amazingly, retaken nine minutes of his eleven minute deficit.

Such was the nature of Landis’ ride, most pundits now expected the final obstacle, the stage 19 time trial, to be a formality. And it was. Landis stormed along the hot French tarmac to eventually put himself 57 seconds ahead of Perreiro for the formality of the finish on the Champs Elysees.

And so it appeared that Floyd Landis had won his first Tour de France. It looked as if America’s dominance of the Tour was set to continue, following Lance Armstrong’s retirement. And it didn’t look like it would abate any time soon, with Landis’ team manager John Lelangue trumpeting a new sponsor for the team to take it forth, and bring on the victories.

However, all too soon, the celebrations began to fade.

A couple of days after Landis’ celebrations in Paris, the media reported that a rider had tested positive for a banned substance. This is not unusual in big cycling race, in fact, almost every major tour, it is almost expect, as disappointing as that is to admit.

But this Tour had been largely free of doping expulsions, save for the business of the Puerto investigation.

But then, the mightiest rider in the race was named. Floyd Landis had tested positive to a banned substance. Which stage you ask? Have a guess.

Stage 17, Landis’ phenomenal ride back into contention, was now an infamous display of the superhuman powers granted to cheats.

Interestingly however, Landis tested positive not for Erythropoietin (EPO) the wondrous red-blood cell booster and dopage de guerre of most endurance sports. He also hadn’t tested positive for a blood transfusion, the other type of doping most common in cycling.

He had tested positive, instead, for having an increased ratio of testosterone to epitestosterone. If my memory serves (and everything I have written so far is from merely my memory) the natural ratio was deemed to be 3:1. Landis’ result returned 17:1.

Of course, from here, Landis immediately declared his innocence and demanded his right; to have his B sample, that is, the second sample taken at that particular doping test, to be tested. It was duly returned to also be positive.

Now, interestingly, most cyclists, when they reach the point of having such evidence stacked against them, caved in. The current suspension, which applied in 2006, was a two year ban from competition, which, in the scheme of things, is a rather minor blow to ones career. Most banned riders would elect to take the ban, and would either return to competition, to be jeered and never again fully trusted, of figuratively, ride off into the sunset of retirement.

Landis did neither. Instead, he decided to fight his conviction.

Without boring you with legal details, Landis had his case heard in at least three separate courts. The first was in the United States Supreme court I believe, and was nothing short of disturbing and bizarre. Landis would not own up to anything, and conducted something of a media blitz in the lead up, and even had the audacity to create a fund where sympathetic members of the public, of which there actually were a few, to contribute to his legal bills, called the Floyd Fairness Fund.

The trial also saw Landis’ legal team stoop to the unbelievable level of intimidation tactics by phoning up US three-time Tour de France Champion Greg LeMond and pretend to be his sexual-abusive uncle, in order to get him to drop his testimony, which was unfavourable of Landis. This relevation was previously completely unknown to anybody other than Landis and a few of LeMond’s family, so the magnitude of the breach of trust, and the disgracefulness of the actions, is staggering.

After the ban was upheld, the 2006 Tour de France was finally stripped from Landis’ drug-tainted shoulders and awarded to Perreiro.

However Landis would not quit, and tried to have the decision and his ban overturned in at least two more separate court of appeal. It would eventually cost him something in the order of US$2 Million, and the suicide of his father-in-law, who was deeply depressed and traumatized by the affair. It also prevented Landis from making a comeback to competitive cycling, something which was within his right to do, until 2009, rather than 2008, and it was only to a US National team rather than one of the glorious European teams which is where every cyclist truly wishes to end up.

Now, you would think after all this that enough would be enough, and Landis would be ready to resume his life as a professional athlete, even if it meant he would have to work to regain the trust and abilities that he possessed. And don’t get me wrong, he had ability. Every cyclist who chooses to dope does. Doping doesn’t transform an awful rider into a superstar. It rather transforms a star into a superstar.

It is disgraceful for the need to do so, but there it is.

However, Landis has recently decided he isn’t done with slaughtering his public image for his conscience.

Fast forward to April 2010. In a series of emails and telephone calls, Landis reported to the USA Cycling Federation and the world body, the UCI, the intimate details of his doping activities.

Fair enough, this is a mea culpa if there ever was one, and is laudable. However, Landis went further by choosing to name the people who introduced him to doping. None other than the aforementioned Lance Armstrong and his team manager, Johan Bruyneel.

Now, if I need to describe Armstrong to you, I would also like to inform you that you have failed because you have absolutely no grasp of current events. But I’ll do it anyway.

Lance Armstrong is cycling’s Michael Schumacher, Valentino Rossi, Ricky Ponting, Kelly Slater, Andrew Johns, Zinadine Zidane, Tiger Woods and Roger Federer.

He is simply one of the best there is. Now, because of the diverse nature of cycling’s races, it is difficult to state whether Lance was the best ever, and he probably wasn’t. That title must go to Eddy Mercx, who was as adept at winning Grand Tours as he was Spring Classics. He was also a dope cheat.

Lance however is cycling’s modern megastar. But it isn’t just because of his seven wins in a row at the Tour de France from 1999 to 2005, but also because of his much publicized battle with cancer. In the prime of his astonishing career (before the TdF victories!!!!) Armstrong was diagnosed with testicular cancer which had spread to his lung and brain.

Most medical practitioners had written him off, saying he simply had no chance to live. But as Lance was Lance, he stated his intentions to live, and fought hard, physically, to overcome the pain of cancer and the horrendous treatments required, and mentally, not to give up, to eventually be cured.

But Lance then stated his intention, and was successful in, returning to cycling and dominating the race of races in a fashion never seen before.

This battle with cancer and transcendence of adversity saw Lance write books on the subject, and was so successful that he created a global cancer fighting fund known as LiveStrong, and is also responsible for those yellow armbands, which were at one point fashionable, and still are, to many cyclists.

What I so far haven’t mentioned was that Lance had at no point tested positive for performance enhancing drugs during his career, before or after his cancer battle.

But dig a little deeper and this is where things get murky.

In 1999, it is alleged, and I stress that, Lance tested positive for the dopage de guerre, EPO, at the Tour. However somehow, this result was not made official due to a technical problem with the test and was confined. The blood is still lying in state in a French anti-doping laboratory, and could be retested, and has been.

It is, however, Lance’s call whether or not the results go public. He has so far declined. Now of course, anybody could suggest that if Lance is clean, as he repeatedly states he is, then he should prove it once and for all by releasing these results. But Lance isn’t one to give into the doubters. This is also not to mention the fact that in his comeback tour in 2009, ten years after this first victory, Lance was subjected to the most advanced tests, which are highly accurate in detecting EPO and its new, even more difficult-to-detect illegitimate son, CERA (Continuous Erythropoiesis Receptor Activator, does the same thing, just does more with less drugs is the easiest explanation). He came up trumps, and also finished third, a ripped muscle man, beaten only by two mountain goats, Alberto Contador and Andy Schleck.

But I digress. Landis was Lance’s protégé in his formative years at US Postal. He was a gifted climber, and one of the integral members of Lance’s 2004 Tour de France team, which was possibly Lance’s most outwardly dominant Tour victory ever. Neither rider (if I need to say so) tested positive for anything during that race.

But Landis has since named Lance as the person who introduced him to doping, via Johan Bruyneel. He described meeting Lance in his home, and was given his first Eprex-brand EPO syringes by Armstrong, apparently in plain view of Lance’s wife. He also admits to doing this systematically, as was the method of other teams, such as Deutsch-Telekom/Telekom/T-Mobile and Festina. He even describes how Lance and Johan bribed the UCI to cover up a positive test result, something I consider to be completely ridiculous.

Now, this scandal is in itself, nothing new, and in my opinion, not the most major doping case to hit cycling in recent years. The Operacion Puerto investigation netted some huge scalps, such as Ivan Basso, Jan Ullrich, and looks to claim Alejandro Valverde, who mysteriously was not named in the initial investigation documents, and is still racing. His climbing ability has change markedly however, he has regressed from being astonishing to simply being very, very good.

There was also the Saunier Duval affair in the 2008 Tour, and now an investigation of riders in Italy, which has seen former World Champion cobbles specialist Alessandro Ballan suspended by his team, even though he has not been named or charged by investigative body.

The gravity of this affair, as doping scandals tend to be named, surrounds Lance.

As far as scalps in cycling go, they simply do not come bigger. But not just for the colossus of his results, but for his credibility.

Lance’s cancer charity, LiveStrong, is such a success because of the air of invincibility Lance exudes. On the surface, there is nothing wrong with this, as what could be a better mindset for somebody who is trying to fight for their life with cancer than to think they can overcome it.

Lance’s air of invincibility does come somewhat simply from the fact he could actually get back on the bike, some doctors predicted him having to be retaught how to walk. But for a man to go and win the hardest race in the world, seven times in a row, was something completely and utterly unheard of.

Of course, Lance has offered his explanation for the rash of wins. His unbending self-confidence, killer instinct, competitiveness bordering on combative and an team of superb cyclists protecting him till he launched the most aggressive and devastating attacks. He also named the expert care he received; in his first book It’s Not About The Bike. He says that the doctors were able to sculpt his muscle mass into that of a bike rider, rather than the triathlete brute that he was.

So you can see that if this amazing, uplifting achievement were simply the result of being able to hide his EPO traces better than anybody else, it would make people feel less of your achievements no?

Not to mention the image of dishonesty and perpetual mistrust it would create.

Because we can assume that Lance (probably) isn’t doping any longer, as it would be completely stupid to do so now, with the nature of the tests, if he has in the past, he will be doing his utmost to protect his image. Fair enough.

Ultimately, unless a federal investigation is launched, which has been mentioned, the only way Lance can be found out is if he implicates himself. Which I doubt he will ever do (although stranger things have happened.)

What bothers me is the need that Floyd Landis has felt to come out and mention Lance directly.

He claims it is a matter of clearing his conscience, even though he has not come out and apologized for the farce he caused while trying to have himself exonerated for the 2006 scandal. He has instead admitted to new doping, which he could have kept his mouth shut about.

But naming Lance puts a whole new spin on things. It threatens the empire and legacy of a man, which, rightly or wrongly, has been set up to do good in peoples lives. Even if it was created on the basis of a false image seems almost superfluous to the fact that this organisation contributes huge amounts of money to fighting one of the most insidious of diseases.

I see this act as a wholly selfish and ill-considered thing to do.

Cycling has a very harsh view of dope cheats. The vitriol directed at these people is stunning in it’s harshness, similar sometimes to that which would be directed at a rapist or a murderer. And while the sentiment and anger are very real, and while human’s respond very strongly to cheating, I feel it is necessary to point out, first and foremost, that cycling is a sport.

But for Landis to accuse somebody who helped him make lots of money doing what he loved, of doing such a vile act, with so little provocation, smacks of envy. Landis could simply be jealous that his doping netted him a three year suspension and mockery of the global community, rather than his own race team, cancer charity, and the boundless other business interests Lance Armstrong has.

I do not wish to give the view that I endorse cheating, and if Lance Armstrong has cheated, then I will be a little more unenamoured by him than I am now. But for what it is worth, Landis’ words are surely about as worthless as mine are, in labeling Lance a dope cheat.

Floyd has gone and committed career suicide on a grand scale to ‘clear his conscience.’ It could even be career homicide if Lance’s career ends in tatters if their revelations are proven true, and it will be a huge disappointment to millions of people if this is so, because of the lie of the legend of LiveStrong.

But sometimes, the truth is the harder thing to live with than the lie, and, frankly, this time, I’d rather believe the lie.

Life is full of doom and gloom. More people saying no we can’t, no enough saying yes we can. Lance has created a belief in many people that they can overcome a premature death, something which most people with cancer would surely love to believe. If this believe is put at stake because, while Lance did overcome cancer, his return to cycling just descended back into a murky world of drugs and lies, then I think I almost prefer the lie.

The Landis Affair is a great moral conundrum, but if I can briefly sum myself up, in some of that vitriol I mentioned at the start. Floyd, you’re a bloody idiot, pull your head in you jealous bastard and go back under that rock you came from and tell the worms who probably care more you fucking idiot.