About that shoe…

It just dropped. And it weighs 900 pounds.

Floyd Landis, the American cyclist whose 2006 Tour De France victory was nullified after a positive doping test, has sent a series of emails to cycling officials and sponsors admitting to, and detailing, his systematic use of performance enhancing drugs during his career. The emails also claim that other riders and cycling officials allegedly participated in doping, including seven-time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong.

. . . Mr. Landis said that Mr. Armstrong’s longtime coach, Johan Bruyneel, introduced Mr. Landis to the use of steroid patches, blood doping and human growth hormone in 2002 and 2003, his first two years on the U.S. Postal Service team. He alleged Mr. Armstrong helped him understand the way the drugs worked. “He and I had lengthy discussions about it on our training rides during which time he also explained to me the evolution of EPO testing and how transfusions were now necessary due to the inconvenience of the new test,” Mr. Landis claimed in the email. He claimed he was instructed by Mr. Bruyneel how to use synthetic EPO and steroids and how to carry out blood transfusions that doping officials wouldn’t be able to detect.

online.wsj.com.

I always knew it was all about Bruyneel’s Belgian Bunny Juice.

I. Always. Knew. It.

Levi Leipheimer and Dave Zabriskie are also mentioned/implicated/accused. We’ll see, we’ll see. I would not be surprised to find out Levi has rolled dirty. He came out of nowhere and got third at the Vuelta. He was, by all accounts, a decent domestic professional cyclist up until that point. Then he was a successful professional cyclist on the Continent. It lit off alarms like he was riding for Gewiss-Ballan.

Levi Leipheimer’s breakthrough performance was during his inaugural Grand Tour in 2001 at the Vuelta a España, where he finished in third place overall.

levileipheimer.com/levi.

The joke back then was, “Did you hear about Levi? He accidentally picked up Lance’s suitcase at the airport on his way to Spain.”

Looks like it’s still the joke now.

Yeah. Hilarious, ain’t it? Guys come into contact with Lance Armstrong and Johan Bruyneel and a big, black cloud appears over their heads. And, they also start to race a whole lot better than they did prior to their new “association.”

Awesome.

Zabriskie? I’ve no idea. I’ve heard zilch about that guy for all these years. It’s about to get very interesting. I’m sure we’ll be hearing more about Leipheimer and Zabriskie all summer long.

Nearly four years after he began waging a costly, draining, and ultimately losing battle to discredit his positive test for synthetic testosterone at the 2006 Tour de France, Floyd Landis told ESPN.com Wednesday that he used performance-enhancing drugs for most of his career as a professional road cyclist, including the race whose title he briefly held.

In a lengthy telephone interview from California, Landis detailed extensive, consistent use of the red blood cell booster erythropoietin (commonly known as EPO), testosterone, human growth hormone and frequent blood transfusions, along with female hormones and a one-time experiment with insulin, during the years that he rode for the U.S. Postal Service and Switzerland-based Phonak teams.

sports.espn.go.com.

What I’ve always hated was the deception, the deceit, the falsehoods.

The looking-right-at-me-and-fucking-lying-to-me.

I know my heroes do (have done, will continue to do) drugs. Just don’t fucking lie to me about it.

“I want to clear my conscience,” Landis said. “I don’t want to be part of the problem any more.”

Id.

I applaud this. I support this.

Landis’ doping conviction cost him his Tour title, his career, his life savings and his marriage. He said he knows his credibility is in tatters and that many people will choose not to believe him now.

However, Landis said he finally decided to come forward because he was suffering psychologically and emotionally from years of deceit, and because he has become a cycling pariah with little to no chance of ever riding for an elite team again. Prior to speaking with ESPN.com, he said he made his most difficult phone call — to his mother in Pennsylvania to tell her the truth.

Id.

The call to mom. Jesus Christ… Can you imagine? That was not fun. I wouldn’t wish that on anyone.

Yes, it cost him a lot. It very nearly could not have cost him more.

You know who else lost a lot? Tyler Hamilton.

How long till he starts singing?

Landis, who began his career as a top mountain biker, had kept detailed training journals since he was a teenager. He said he continued the same methodical record-keeping once he started using banned drugs and techniques. Landis said he spent as much as $90,000 a year on performance-enhancing drugs and on consultants to help him build a training regime. Landis said he has kept all of his journals and diaries and has offered to share them with U.S. anti-doping authorities in recent meetings. He added that he has given officials detailed information on how athletes are beating drug testing.

Id.

$90k is some long cash. And he kept records? Written, detailed records? And, remember, J. Vaughters alleged that Landis also has photographs. Yes, this is going to get very interesting.

Update: Velonews just got a piece up announcing 1) they couldn’t get anyone on the phone at this late hour (12:41 am in Arizona as I type this) and 2) expect press conferences tomorrow morning at the Tour of California from Armstrong, Bruyneel and Zabriskie (who currently leads the Tour of California!). I expect the fine folks at Velonews to hit this one hard.

Kaboom.

About big jonny

The man, the legend. The guy who started it all back in the Year of Our Lord Beer, 2000, with a couple of pages worth of idiotic ranting hardcoded on some random porn site that would host anything you uploaded, a book called HTML for Dummies (which was completely appropriate), a bad attitude (which hasn’t much changed), and a Dell desktop running Win95 with 64 mgs of ram and a six gig hard drive. Those were the days. Then he went to law school. Go figure. Flagstaff, Arizona, USA

35 Replies to “About that shoe…”

  1. …quoting my last post…ol’ floyd’s gonna hafta crucify some former teammates to get this to stick…how tough are ya feelin’, floyd ???”

    …obviously pretty fucking tough !!!…

    …well, i always said if they’re doin’ it, bruyneel & the lance-ster were doin’ it better than anyone else…that part might be true but the egg is on my face…first to admit i stood behind that armstrong lad…
    …i just don’t wanna hear lemond gettin’ all self righteous…again…

    …just sayin’…

  2. I’d bet dollars to donuts Lemond will have called 14 press conferences by this time tomorrow.

    When his phone rings, and you know it will, he should just politely decline.

  3. …like to see lemond deal w/ the revelations w/ class, myself…

    …floyd…first to be stripped of a major tour win & now the first “creditable”, (ie:- tour winner) cyclist to break the cycle of omerta by being willing to point the finger at other major players within the hierarchy…

    …this isn’t april 1st is it ???…

  4. Velosnooze won’t be doing shit, soft balls like Larry King….just look at the number of Lance “owned” companies advertising on their site.

  5. Ho. Leee. Shit. If I’m Lance, my chamois is dirty right about now. Good for Floyd.

  6. bring it on Landis. get out the notebooks, put them in public domain. let it all hang out. Wonder how quick Armstrong sues him for defamation or whatever, to gag him.

  7. Fuck Floyd. He lied to you, me, and to the entire universe for years, and now he’s willing to tell the truth? Fuck him. He’s trying to sell books, make money on interviews, and get a hug from Oprah.

    btw Oprah is not recognized by the the spell checker……..

  8. Velonews will barely touch it. They won’t ask riders tough questions and they will most decidedly NOT put two and two together wherever and whenever they can.

    That’s the history of Velonews.

    Because when they try to report it; they get iced out of rider reports and more. Velonews are cowards on expensive wheels.

  9. Speaking of organized doping, it sounds like the old “stomach bug” worked its way through the Astana bus yesterday. Sastre may have just won himself the Giro.

  10. The problem is that Floyd is naming names w/o rock solid proof, only conjecture. LA, Levi and Johan, sure I’ll believe it, but George and DZ? I have a harder time with that one, especially DZ.
    Expect law suits, press conferences, denials, threats, crying, etc.
    As for Lemond, he should probably just stay in his hole.

  11. Bring on the popcorn, sit back and enjoy the show.

    I see it going to ways – snuffed up like a candle in a hurricane or starting a big old forest fire…

    I’d by lying if I said I wasn’t hoping for the latter.

    We’ll see what lance’s lawyers have to say.

    I honestly think Lance now could survive like a nomex lilly through this inferno…

  12. I had a dream last night that Floyd was showing a newcyclist around Lance’s house/lab/vampirecastle in Girona. When they walk up to the fridge they catch Levi with a long straw sucking blood outta one of the blood sacks.

    Floyd says, “Levi, how many times do I have to tell you. Stay the f@*k outta Lance’s blood. His blood is no better than yours.”

    Levi- “But Tyler showed me how to do it. He said LA’s bloodsack has got the MOJO.”

    Floyd- “get ouutta here you little weasel. I never liked you.”

    Levi- “but I just wanna ride. Let Levi ride.”

  13. This time Lance is going down – what with all the other allegations going around, ie Tiger et al, the PR move is going to be to tearfully confess to all, say how it destroyed your marriages and play the wounded hero for the public. The only thing more pathetic is Pat McQuaid the apologist.

  14. The bad thing is that Lance has WAY too much to lose to not sue this away. The good thing is with every person that comes forward, Lance loses more of his grip on the facade. Met Floyd through a mutual friend in Austin that used to race with him when they were junior MTB’ers, have known each other for years. Ironically, met him at the first Postal “camp” at Barton Creek Resort when Clinger and Chann McRae joined. Don’t know him like my buddy, but from what he tells me, he is different in that he will not back down unless made to. His menonite roots will come to the forefront eventually. “No matter where you go, there you are. ”
    If you don’t believe Levi, Hincapie and DZ doped in the past, look at who they rode with and when. Levi was checked into the same hotel that Ferrari was on Tenarife a few years back, at the same time. Coincidence? If you still don’t think Lance did, look at all the former teammates that have either admitted or tested positive for drugs. Look at all the athletes that Lance thumped who have been caught or admitted to doping.
    Now is the time to clean up our sport. It will take balls and facts and someone will have to go down hard. I hope Landis is the guy to do it. If LANCE is the one to make that happen, then SO FCUKING BE IT!

  15. my ‘livewrong’ band is lookin’ pretty fresh these days..

    This is going to be really really interesting, and I’ll reserve opinion besides support for Floyd. Better late than never, and I hope it helps him to restore and re-balance his sense of self that must have taken a pounding from the years of deceit.

  16. So, who’s offering odds on what will happen to Landis now?
    10:1 on having his brake cables cut just before a big descent, 5:1 on a hit-and-run on a training ride?

    Not Dave Zabriskie though, No, no, no! I liked him with his hilarious interviews during the TDF a few years ago (wot game play?) and his DZNuts product line. He seemed like one of the good guys, someone who saw how ridiculous the whole circus was and was just having a good time with it.

  17. “Don’t lie to me.”
    If you don’t want to be lied to then quit asking the questions. Tomke is dirty, Spartacus is dirty, Lance is/was dirty, Landis is/was dirty, Jens is dirty, Jan was dirty, Schlecks are dirty…. WTF…. let them fucking race and get off their back.

    Pushing a “Ride Clean” program to pro cycling is like pushing a abstinence program to high school kids. It’s detached from reality.

  18. @7 – mountain, i am with you. he’s lied all these years and now all of the sudden he wants to come clean because he’s suffering psychologically from being a POS cheater??? why believe him now?

  19. I hate to say it , but some of our heros have some explaining to do .

    Lets start with the uniballer . His mistake was greed and anger . More more more , and fuck you too ! ( wouldn’t it be great if Simeoni turns out to be credible! ) You cant tell me that UB has slept good over the last few years knowing what a loose cannon Landis is . Thus the occasional I’m with Floyd , I feel that something is shaky with the lab type comments . Money , that could be the motive behind this whole deal . Saying nothing about the truth is worse than
    lying about the truth . Off with his remaining testicle !

    I believe its time to go to ask SJ what the fucks going on . Its the higher ups that never have to explain anything ! Are you telling me SJ was not aware of the practices of the US teams that operate under his leadership !He had to know . If he is questioned , he will back pedal . Off with his head !

    Boss , he is addicted to success and will succeed at ANY cost . you look at his former list of racers over the past 10 years and we have some questions !
    He is the teflon don of cycling .Two wheeled Mafia . Mastermind . I’m all ears hog . EPO king pin . Crucify !

    Down goes RS ,Trek ,honeystinger ,Nike ,LS ,Nissan ,Oakley ,sram ,Micalobe,LV100,CTS, !

  20. W/O hard evidence, it’s called libel and defamation. Show me pictures, spreadsheets, blood bags, receipts…
    Until then, I don’t care!

  21. The athletic achievements of our “heroes” has become a sacred cow that the public in general really do not want to be spoiled. Shit, we all knew Lance doped his way to all those tour titles just like we knew McGuire and Bonds juiced their way to 70 home runs.

    It seems that our society on a whole has become callused to the hypocrisy and have maybe even come to expect it and in the end just want to ignore it. Good example is the most sacred cow of all in the US, the National Football League. It’s amazing to me that cyclists get titles stripped from them, baseball players get called to testify before Congress but nobody raises and eybrow at the 300 lb. freaks of nature flying around our football fields on Sunday afternoons.

    I guess it’s really not that amazing after all. Daddy don’t wanna hear about that shit man, daddy just want to sit in his easy chair and watch some chemically imbalanced manchilds live out his fantasies for him on the TV. Don’t want to hear about the dirty stuff unless it involves sex.

    Good on Landis for coming clean, but you can bet the publicity machines of Lance and co. are going to go into overdrive to discredit him and will be striking down on Floyd with great vengeance and furious anger. Yeah, pass the popcorn, this should be a helluva show.

  22. He’s admittedly been consistently lying for 4 years and now we’re all of a sudden supposed to believe him?

    On the other hand, we always knew he was lying, so what he says now is believable. At this point, he’s a credible liar.

  23. I don’t think Landis cares about becoming the official nice guy. He is just tired of taking all the flak when the majority of the other pro cyclists are doing the same thing that cost him his TDF title.

  24. I think Landis is dialing for dollars here. Hush money, interview money, book money. Also, throwing everyone else under the bus might make you feel better, but it’s not worth a cement pair of sidis.

  25. @24…I was watching playoff hockey the other day…you never hear about much in the way of doping over there either…same thing with the NBA. The amount of beatings those guys take every day, and the lengths of their seasons…and the need to come back DAY after DAY and perform at extreme levels…plus the amount of $$$$$$$ involved…all signs point to “YES”.

    Just being good enough is no longer good enough. Anywhere in sport. Corruption of the almighty dollar.

  26. Rope a Dope! yes yes yes, this is the kind of soap opera I set the Tivo for. Bomb diggidy away! You just caint stop that Mennonite work ethic!

  27. ^ bravo senor square!

    300lb dudes running the 40yd dash in sub 5…. yeah right?!

  28. Hmmm, speaking of statute of limitations…anyone know what’s the penalty for perjury under oath in a court of law in the state of california?

  29. I, for one, feel vindicated on this one, especially on this website where I’ve written about these doping fiends before, only to be called out on it by some other readers/commenters. How dare I question Floyd, Tyler, Lance, and so on and so forth?

    HAHAHAHAHAHA! Floyd you fucking liar asshole. Should have come clean 4 years ago, and you’d be riding for a good team, making good money, instead, you’re just a shitbag that some of us knew you to be.

  30. “I know my heroes do (have done, will continue to do) drugs. Just don’t fucking lie to me about it.”
    Fuckin’ A right.

  31. I’m a doper. You’re a doper. We’re all dopers. Coffee? Doper. Cyto? Doper. Hammer? Doper. MegaMan Vits? Doper. Come on, it is all semantics. Everyone can just step off the platform unless the’re drinking the pure H2O and plucking it from the ground. It is just sports for fucks sake. The biggest liars are us if we were/are foolish enough to believe they were/are doing it clean. If they are it just hasn’t made the list yet. Going riding y’all.

  32. Loren Says:
    “dialing for dollars”

    best assessment yet.

    Landis showed his level of integrity when he had his buddy call lemond and ridicule him over being molested as a child.

    MM Says:
    “W/O hard evidence, it’s called libel and defamation. Show me pictures, spreadsheets, blood bags, receipts…Until then, I don’t care!”

    Exactly. Operation puerto worked because they had bags of blood with names that proved a DNA match. Landis’ journals are heresay, nothing more, and we know he’s lied for 4 years about it at this point.

    I like this guys take best:

    http://theperfectdraft.blogspot.com/2010/05/flandis-and-bike-to-work.html