[Reuters] Tour de France winner Landis positive in drug test, team says

This is just making the sport have more of a bad rep then baseball as many have said before me. We put so much emphasis on MLB and their rules and what got through. It seems each year around this time when the race is going on there is some type of scandal. I guess since it's not on the level of baseball here in the states it doesn't get hyped up as much as it should. Either way this is just sad, pathetic, and low.

 

Not necessarily. Landis was having a great year and was always considered a serious contender for the TDF, even when Ivan and Jan were still in.

Hopefully this is all a mix up.

 

is it even possible to finish the tour de france without doping, that is a long ride on a bike

 

EPO is much more the weapon of choice for cyclists than test, as it is a sport that rewards extreme endurance over pure strength. Perhaps his results spiked based upon the super-human effort he just put forth in Stage 17. We'll have to see how big a ratio difference it was; athletes often have a higher natural test level (although cycling may impair production?). Maybe the renurishment crash program he went into after he bonked during Stage 16 had an effect, in addition to the fact that he went through about 70 bottles of water during Stage 17. I'd be curious to see the sample B result, and the results after other stages, before drawing conclusions. It takes several days of taking test before it builds up enough for you to even see a benefit. It just surprises me the result was for test, and not one of the traditional cycling drugs - test is for sprinters. I'm sure this is going to be contested by Landis for a long time to come.

 

He was taking cortizone shots for his hip problems, so that could result in a false positive for testosterone....we'll see though. All yellow jersey guys and stage winners are tested every day, so its not like he didn't know he was going to get tested.

 

I hope he's innocent. I'm typing this from my job in Lancaster County Pa (where he is from) --- but the fact that he appears to be hiding (missing events) is suspicious.

 

Did he actually have shots during the tour? I read that he had two shots this year to reduce the inflammation, but not sure if it was during the Tour.

Also, that was his only test because it was the only stage he won, right?

Didn't sound like this was an effective test for testosterone anyway...this guy repeatedly refused pain medication for fear of a positive test.

I highly doubt he doped.

 

Is it possible that Landis won the tour by the length of his head? Maybe that gave it away and they got suspicious...

 

this is not exactly true.

obviously the riders take a mix of different drugs. epo, hgh, testosterone and other stuff. epo was the best as long as they couldn't test for it. today doping with manipulated blood from your own body is a much bigger concern. there are only few riders who are actually as stupid as tyler hamilton who used blood from a different person. doping with your own manipulated blood is very hard to test for.

the use of testosterone in combination with hgh is nothing new. it's an open secret that the riders take that stuff for advanced regeneration. they use it especially after hard stages, so it's obvious why landis used it.


once again this is proof of what i said since last year. all top riders use drugs and lance armstrong was the king of the dopers because he never really got caught (he did, though, but nothing official...).

it's funny to see all of the most important helpers of lance armstrong get caught after they switched teams. first there was tyler hamilton. then there was roberto heras. and now it's floyd landis.

and concerning landis, you knew he was full of drugs when you witnessed his solo ride to win the mountain stage right after he lost the tdf the day before. no one was able to catch up with him and that was just not naturally possible.

 

A biased French newspaper throwing out accusations (later to be proven false) does not equal getting caught for Armstrong.

The French's blood was boiling for years as an American (a Texan, no less...) humiliated their countrymen and their sport by completely dominating them. Throwing out wild accusations is to be expected by them. I loved Lance's comments at the ESPY's about the French. Classic. PWNT

 

There is no question this floyd is creepy.

 

so you're saying that lance armstrong was the dominator without doping while all the other top riders do dope?

that's just ridiculous, isn't it?

especially when he even admitted in front of several people that he used several drugs in his cycling career.

but i guess it's just hard to keep on lying when you are about to fight cancer.

and btw the fact that all of his best helpers got caught with doping doesn't make you wonder?

talk about a homer big time here...

 

All you have is weak circumstantial evidence. A bunch of "one-offs" that simply prove nothing. Your weak pot shot at his battle with cancer shows your desperation and hatred of Lance. That's about as low as you can get.

If it makes you feel any better, I was planning on cheering for Ulle this year (meine Vorfahren waren deutsch)

 

yeah, lance is satan. i knew it and i told you so!

c'mon that's just stupid. what did i say? i said that all top riders are obviously dopers and that lance is their king because he never got officially caught. but it's still pretty obvious that he doped like every other top rider. the cancer thing is nothing to make fun of. but the point is that when lance was diagnosed with cancer his doctors asked him about doping. you can believe what you want but several people confirmed that he admitted taking drugs.

that's good. there's some interesting reading material in german language here: http://cycling4fans.com/index.php?id=248

maybe that opens your eyes a little bit. probably every tdf winner of the last couple of years doped. it's obvious that miguel indurain doped. this was the epo years and look at his body. with all his weight he was still able to be competitive on mountain stages. after indurain it's obvious that bjarne riis doped. he was taking high risks with his epo doping. his hematocrit value was unnaturally high at 60%. right now riders are taken out of the race if their hct is above 50%. there's a fair chance that jan ullrich doped in 1997. it's just unnormal for a young rider to finish 2nd and 1st in his 1st and 2nd tdf. marco pantani was a doper for sure, but he's dead already so let him r.i.p. and then came lance. of course there was nothing different than in the years before...

and now it's floyd landis who obviously had to dope after he lost the tdf in a way that was maybe a little predictable (he always has at least one weak day in the mountains). the fact that he rides for a team that systematically dopes (look at the riders who got caught...) didn't help there. he had to do it it was his last chance.

 

I have to say his amazing comeback was suspicious no doubt, but elevated testosterone levels? Pffft, he probably just celebrated at a strip club.

I think jealous euros are just out to get the Americans again.

In other news 7 time champion Lance Armstrong = Clean

Suck it.

 

Has Lance Armstrong ever tested positive in a drug test?

 

I smell a rat and it's not Landis...
____________

Q: For a cyclist, what's the benefit of elevated levels of testosterone? Why would a cyclist use it?

A: It's certainly not one of the first-line drugs one thinks of for racing. Steroids can increase strength and improve recovery time and prevent the breakdown of muscle, maybe make him more assertive and aggressive. All of those could have some positive attribute. But most steroids are given in cycles [6-12 weeks] and in context of working out in a gym with weights. It makes no sense to me why an athlete would take testosterone the day of a race when it doesn't work that way. It doesn't make sense in terms of the pharmacology of the drug, and it really doesn't have the attributes that would be attractive to a cyclist -- particularly one running the risk of violating anti-doping regulations.

link

 

these guys need to get better at cheating. their inability to not get caught is making their sport look bad.

 

Did anyone see that one analyst on ESPN talk about this? According to him, the testosterone levels found weren't high but the epitestosterone levels were really low, which threw off the ratio that they test for. The analyst acted like the cortisone shots or use of alcohol might have led to this imbalance. I'm not an expert on this stuff, so does anyone else know more about this and what it means? I looked up epitestosterone on Wikipedia and only found this:

That seems like stuff that just recently got posted.

Would there be any benefit to having normal testosterone levels but lower epitestosterone levels? As I said, I don't really follow this stuff much and was just curious since it sounds kind of interesting.

 

http://sports.espn.go.com/oly/cycling/news/story?id=2532029

Doping expert thinks Landis result 'doesn't add up'

Associated Press

Tour de France champion Floyd Landis' results on a urine test that spots elevated levels of performance-enhancing testosterone are a mystery and "don't add up," a leading doping expert said Thursday.

Landis' team revealed Thursday that his urine sample last week showed "an unusual level of testosterone/epitestosterone."

Testosterone creams, pills and injections can build muscle and strength and improve recovery time after exertion when used over a period of several weeks, according to Dr. Gary Wadler, a member of the World Anti-Doping Agency and a spokesman for the American College of Sports Medicine.

But if Landis had been a user, earlier urine tests during the Tour would have been affected, too, Wadler said. Landis' first reported abnormal result was last Thursday, after his amazing come-from-behind performance in stage 17 of the race.

One-time use of steroids could result in an abnormal test, but it would have no effect on performance and could not account for Landis' astounding feat Thursday, "so something's missing here," Wadler said. "It just doesn't add up."

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.

The usual ratio for both substances is about 1:1 or 2:1, Wadler said.

Suspicions for improper steroid use arise when the ratio climbs above 4 parts testosterone over 1 part epitestosterone, Wadler said. Officials have not said what ratio Landis' test showed.

Athletes who use performance-enhancing anabolic steroids often also take synthetic epitestosterone to equalize the ratio, said Charles Yesalis, a recently retired Pennsylvania State University professor and doping expert.

There is no medical use for synthetic epitestosterone; it is used "to cheat drug tests," Yesalis said.

Some men have naturally occurring high levels of testosterone and/or epitestosterone, but there is a sophisticated lab test called a carbon isotope ratio test that is often used to detect synthetic forms.

Alcohol can influence testosterone-epitestosterone levels, but more often in women than in men and it would be unlikely to have a huge effect, Wadler said.

Landis said in an interview during the Tour de France that he has had injections of cortisone, a medically used steroid drug to treat pain from a degenerating arthritic hip, but doctors said that would not affect his test results.

Corticosteroids "have zero impact" on the testosterone-epitestosterone test, Wadler said.

The typical procedure for urine-testing of athletes involves taking two samples at the same time and bottling them separately. The "A" sample is tested first, and if it is normal the "B" sample is discarded. If the "A" sample shows elevated testosterone levels, the "B" sample is tested, and its results are used to confirm use of a banned substance, Wadler said.

The same "B" sample is also often subjected to the carbon isotope test, said Dr. Don Catlin, director of a World Anti-Doping Association-accredited Olympic lab at UCLA.

Landis' Phonak team suspended him pending results of the backup "B" sample.