Sink Floyd
Floyd Landis has officially lost his title as the winner of the 2006 Tour de France, according to the three man arbitration panel who found against him in a 2-1 ruling. Currently Landis has one appeal available to him before everything is final - however, it is unlikely that the next panel will rule in his favor.
Now that the ruling has come down, the World Anti-Doping Agency is tooting its own horn and calling this a great victory.
While it is a defeat for Landis, it's no victory for WADA. They were one vote away from a Landis win and were severely chastised and warned should another case like this present itself before the arbitrators, then the ruling would likely go against them.
The panel cited what can pretty much be called the general incompetence and inability of the labs to follow WADA standards and procedures in their warning.
Interesting to note that the panel found that the labs in question were unable to perform the testosterone to epi-testosterone tests in a competent manner, but found that the lab was reliable on the more difficult carbon test. It makes one wonder how clean the arbitrators were.
Stumble It!
3 comments:
There is something about that whole case that doesn't seem right. If i remember even the experts for the other side agreed that if Landis had taken the 'roids the same day (which is what they allege) in no way could they enhance his performance. Therefore, he actually did win fairly. Also, you would think that he would know this were he going to dope. Something just doesn't seem right.
The whole smacks of "We couldn't nail Armstrong so we'll get this guy instead." It's been dicey from the start.
Interesting to note that one of the two that ruled against Landis has a definitively French name.
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