Nearly a full year after this controversy first broke, we may be getting closer to final resolution in the Floyd Landis doping case. The problem is, everyone either doesn’t care anymore, or have forgotten about the story. Despite this, there should be closure to this issue within the next week or two as Landis’ “B” sample has been sent to be tested.
This sample will be analyzed by the same laboratory that took care of his testing last time. This is a minor problem because of the rumors of the lab being out to get Landis. I would have found a third party, but I guess that’s why I’m not in charge of the Tour De France. Landis stands by his innocence and points to his previous negative test results before the failed one as proof. I have to admit, he has a pretty solid case right there. How, out of all of his samples, did only this one end up coming back as positive? I’m not an expert on steroids or blood doping, but I’m going to side with Floyd on this one. We’ll just have to wait for the results of his “B” sample to come back to settle on a final decision.
One thing that worries me, what have they been doing with the urine sample this entire time? I mean, they’ve had it for quite some time now, why couldn’t they have tested it before? And why does the test take ten days to conduct? I’m confused by the ways of the French. But everything hangs in the balance for Landis, a positive test result could lead to a two year suspension and stripping of his Tour De France victory, and no one wants that.
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Up to date information about the case is collected at http://trustbut.blogspot.com
They are not testing the sample related directly to the charge. They are testing backup samples of tests from the tour that had previously tested negative (not-doping). This is being done so that if any of them are positive, it will support the finding that the charged test is positive if Landis successfully raises objections about its correctness. It is also being done to cost him a bunch of money, because he has to provide his own expert to watch them do it. It takes a long time because there are 7 samples to test, and each one takes quite a while to prepare and then run through the machinery.
In a fascinating exercise of rule-making logic, positives from these tests may be used against him, while negatives cannot be used in his defense.
TBV
This post contains a crazy amount of erroneous information. How can you post stuff like this? Why don’t you do a little research before you just throw stuff on the web?
Brian
http://www.theroadbike.com