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Landis says yes. I’m not as convinced. Maybe he is. Maybe he isn’t. We’ll see.
Landis said he is admitting his own drug use and implicating other cyclists to “clear my conscience.” If his allegations are true, they are some of the most damning in the history of cycling. And the information contained in various e mails of Landis’s that have surfaced may not be all that he has told Novitzky. Recently Landis sent a text message to a friend with this prediction about Armstrong: “Big Tex is going to jail.” sportsillustrated.cnn.com.
As a side note, to be clear on this for now and forever, there is one “Big Tex” in my world. And he lives in Tucson. Different guy entirely. I call Armstrong, Armstrong. My man Big Tex is the true holder of the Texas Package. Those who know, know. Those who dream, well, they’re all women.
[Floyd] Landis is cooperating with a federal probe led by Jeff Novitzky, the chief investigator in the Bay Area Laboratory Cooperative (BALCO) case and now a special agent for the criminal division of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Two independent sources close to the investigation told SI that Armstrong is part of the focus of Novitzky’s probe. The sources say the investigator is particularly interested in whether Armstrong and some of his teammates were involved in illicit drug activity while they were sponsored by the U.S. Postal Service, which helped fund the team from 1996 (Armstrong joined in ’98) through June 2004. Id.
Feds on it. Razor sharp shark teeth. Blood in the water. Sit back and watch the action. Ships will sink, dynasties will fall, Rome will burn.
Besides Novitzky’s FDA investigation, Landis’s allegations have sparked probes by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) and the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). But the most far-reaching investigation figures to be the FDA’s, given the government’s subpoena powers and the track record of Novitzky, whose A-list targets have included Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens and Marion Jones.
In the past, Novitzky’s investigations of alleged PED use have resulted in criminal charges: bank fraud in the case of Jones, steroid distribution in the BALCO scandal. SI’s sources say that the feds hope Landis and other witnesses can help them answer the following questions:
First, was any federal money used to obtain controlled substances such as steroids and HGH?
. . . Second, who supplied the USPS team with doping supplies and illicit drugs, and how were those items transported and distributed?
. . . As the boss Armstrong might also be vulnerable to prosecution if the feds find that he pressured any other USPS rider to use controlled substances. Id.
This is getting juicy.
The nature — and even existence — of the reported federal investigation into Floyd Landis’ claims against Lance Armstrong and others is unknown. But a San Francisco lawyer who specializes in bringing fraud suits against government contractors says Landis could be acting as a whistleblower for a False Claims Act suit.
. . . A False Claims Act prosecution would have to establish that the team’s management was aware that some athletes on the team doped while sponsored by the U.S. Postal Service. Attorney Paul D. Scott said that could be tantamount to defrauding the federal government.
“Presumably the purpose of sponsorship is for the athletes to reflect well on the sponsor. If it turns out there was illegal drug use and that was known to the company at the time, and the company represented that its athletes were clean, that would be fraud against the government,” said Scott, a former U.S. Department of Justice attorney. velonews.competitor.com.
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we’ll see. nothing has stuck to LA yet, and it hasn’t been for lack of trying or evidence. my guess is that this will go nowhere.
still kinda hard to believe Floyd would throw 2 of his good, close friends (albeit former friends) under the bus. and one of them didn’t even do what he claims.
Armstrong is the teflon don of the pelicon
Alright then.Let me say I am disgusted with the name “Big Tex”
I happen to live there (Austin)and knowing Dope Strong lives here make me feel even worse about it , all of it !
The political parasites are legion here ( boy lover karl rove is baaaack is just ONE example )so it only makes sense the Live-a-lie Foundation set up shop here. This town feels like L.A. circa 1994.
Wish I had stayed in Flagstaff many years ago,is that chill vibe still around?
Money buys justice and Feds or no Feds the outcome is still about that.
Check out the 4 most recent posts on ‘The Science of Sport’ blog. This is the lastest one – http://tinyurl.com/37y9gum
Landis is growing more deluded by the day…
No evidence = no jail for anyone
Floyd is already turning into Lemond…
Amen MM.
I’d say his accounts are accurate. We all know the pro pelicon is rife with systematic PED use. We all know Armstrong understands what it really takes to win. Landis dipped his balls into the same system, and he, like Hamilton and others who were associated with Armstrong’s armada during the 7 year reign, got rolled and busted.
Rather than deluded, I think he has become – or is simply maintaining – a poorly executed effort at vindication. Call it delusional perhaps, but his account comes very near the point at which a statute of limitations would have prevented him any chance to try and clear his name (read up on it here). And indeed, his goals are lofty both wanting to tear apart the entire system that provided him no support during his moment of failure, and Armstrong as well. He is indeed full of rage, and has motivation to do as much as he can to this end. His life has been ruined because of it.
Thus, I support his effort as absurd as its premise is. I don’t believe anyone benefits from fraudulence such as the pelicon emits.
well it looks like he even managed to mess up his own domestic team as well http://velonews.competitor.com/2010/05/news/bahati-riders-told-they-can-look-for-new-teams-as-landis-fallout-stymies-fund-raising_118883
I can’t say I’m surprised by any of his statements. It’s not like this is the first time anyone has said anything like this. My guess is most of it is true.
LA is the teflon don but remember that the real teflon don did end up in jail. If the FDA does get involved and people have to start lying to federal employees under oath then maybe this one will stick. He may not go to jail but this one might leave a mark.
I still say good on Floyd, burn it all down.
I’m not saying Floyd was lying about everything. In fact, a lot/most of what he says is probably true in the generalities. But on that count he doesn’t add to the general knowledge of doping in the sport – we all know it persists, despite protestations that the “sport is a lot cleaner now then it was.” is it better? probably. is it enough? who knows.
I just find it hard to believe someone who had FOUR years to come clean but lied his way through it. I’m supposed to believe him NOW? Me verite, indeed.
Floyd is bitter. He lost his TdF, others are still racing. Spent all his (and others’) money on bad lawyering. His wife gone. Blew his chance to redeem himself professionally with OUCH by drinking away his season. Has ZERO career options.
If only … he had come clean in ’06, he could have blown the lid off the sport, be riding with Garmin side by side with David Millar. Making good money, racing again in Europe as he wants to, and, most importantly, at peace.
oh man, this is the best sports entertainment to come along in a while. the possibility armstrong will be exposed as the fraud he is makes me giddy, like a little girl, with anticipation. can’t wait to see him nailed!
and floyd is absolutely my hero for coming out like this.
a functional MRI image of my brain would show nucleus accumbens and ventral tegmental area glowing bright yellow right now. my reward system is loving this.
http://dictionary.reference.com/wordoftheday/archive/2000/05/10.html
Dolak FTW!
…gnomer sez “Thus, I support his effort as absurd as its premise is. I don’t believe anyone benefits from fraudulence such as the pelicon emits.”…
…i say yep…
…dolak sez “and floyd is absolutely my hero for coming out like this.”…
…i say yep again…
…& i don’t wanna see one guy in the form of lance armstrong brought down, i wanna see “the system” exposed so inroads to actually cleaning it up can be made…
…the lance-ster is one of many…he’s just generally done a more forceful job of it…
…i like the idea of novitsky being involved because he’s brash & egotistical enough to maybe cut through the shit but “jail time” ???…
…nah, i don’t think we need it or else it should include a lotta behind the scene folks as well as riders…
Floyds accusations weigh heavily upon others to join up and roll on Armstrong . He is hedgeing on that . It will be enteresting if they grant immunity on Garmin and others if they roll ! In that case , roll then ride !
It would be nice to see a tour sans fraudulent dopers . Just think of all the young riders in the past years who saw what was going on , then participated only to be pawns later on to distract the attention from Armstrong et all . You know what a quota is . It is then sad to see a poor struggler with dreams take the rap for the big fish ,know what I’m sayin !
I feel for them ………
…stm sez “sad to see a poor struggler (sic) with dreams take the rap for the big fish ,know what I’m sayin !”…
…no, i don’t…
…bottom line – if you dope, you dope…
…if you wanna point fingers, point fingers at the system…don’t try & justify who’s “more guilty”…
…you do it or you don’t…armstrong & landis, et al, happen to be extremely talented cyclist’s & that’s why their names are attached firmly to this but a “doper is a doper” & there are plenty of ’em…
Well, I align with STM in regard to the idea that those who were attempting to gain an independent advantage, albeit independent of any doping-safe-haven such as USPS might have provided. Thus, I can understand the logic of why they might choose to dope. Just look at how many have fallen out of the pelicon based on some version of said logic; it was the way the sport has been defined, so it’s either that, or nothing at that point. And how many years have they suffered to get there? Undoubtedly many. It’s time to put all the cards on the table at that point, I think. Had my cycling “career” achieved entry into the pro pelicon, I too probably would have become delusional with the idea that doping must be considered.
On a side note, I think it’s interesting that Hincapie remains golden even though he had such close association to the issue. The ideal lieutenant, perhaps? I tend to think he has always chosen to be clean. A lofty faith perhaps, but that guy just seems to be a pillar of natural consistency. Chechu as well. I bet, in hindsight, had George doped in a well timed manner, he might have been awarded that illusive cobble stone. Just maybe. Would that have been so wrong considering what he was up against?
BGW , you know what I’m sayin . Or how bout the poor bloke who never doped but he never won and knew he could if he did . somewhere in there , there is tragedy whether it’s the young neo pro or an espoirant on a lesser funded program thats what I’m sayin ……
IMHO,
Hincapie is a doper from way, way, way back. IMHO he doped to win US National Championships and more. Hincapie is a great rider but he is nowhere near the level of other great riders. I’ve never thought of Big George as clean. For the races he was suited to win he always rose up, a typical doping behavior. George offers pap in his interviews and never says anything truly interesting or anything that smacks of truth.
IMHO the whole Postal team of the Golden Age were the biggest dopers of the bunch. I am think that Zabriskie was sucked in to doping and it ate him up emotionally and it’s why he was basically booted out of Postal. When Postal detected that doping was not emotionally embraced by a rider they were slated for removal. It’s why Heras, Checu (sp?) did fairly well there. They came from countries and teams where doping was totally acceptable.
Is everyone forgetting the book that was written and reported that Bruyneel and Armstrong dumped Floyd’s blood bag down the sink because Floyd placed too high in a ITT during the Tour? Was that 2004 or so? The next day Floyd led the final big climb all the way up and Armstrong won in a sprint. Floyd functions on rage.
Gnome, George is 6’3″ 170, and he won a mountain stage in July. By sitting on and then outsprinting a Spaniard. And he was clean? Puhlease. NICE GUYS DOPE TOO.
Besides, George has never had the tactical brains to win a cobble.
Well, that stage certainly does warrant discussion, but nope. Sitting on made all the diff on that one. I’ll take your opinion and raise you two dollars. Due is clean like cut sapphires, son.
If not that mountain stage, how ’bout the places at races like Roubaix when he made the selection – and he was surrounded by guys I’d never condisder clean. As in the 2001 Paris-Roubaix. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9b3Qf8PPOHk) He was packing huge horsepower that year. I don’t think he could have been there with those needle stabbing son’s a bitches if he wasn’t juiced too.
…stm…agreed…‘that’ part i do understand & w/ great empathy…
…mike…“the whole Postal team of the Golden Age were the biggest dopers of the bunch.”…dunno that they were the biggest but they did it “better” than anyone else…i now believe that behind the scenes they had the most scientific medical personal working in the biz…american ingenuity ???…
…lookit all the guys who got nailed when they moved on to other teams…not the same level of medical sophistication…
…“When Postal detected that doping was not emotionally embraced by a rider they were slated for removal.”…astute perspective & comment…everybody’s gotta be on board or the train ain’t gonna run smoothly…
…& zabriskie & landis were housemates in colorado or utah at one point…i wonder if that factors into the equation in any way…
…gob…“George has never had the tactical brains to win a cobble.…i love ol’ george being part of the scene but sometimes he shows ‘the tactical brains of a cobble’…& agreed, mike, his interviews are “safe”…ie: noncommittal & noncontroversial…
…slippery fucking slope, gentlemen…& we all thought things were starting to turn for the better a number of years ago…i think it’s just gotten more disingenuous…
George clean? Frankie and Jonathan wanted to believe in him…
I’m not buying it.
From the July 2005 IM:
FDREU: what abut GH climbing the mountains better than azevedo and the entire group
Cyclevaughters: from how floyd described it, i know exactly the methos
FDREU: explain that, classics to climber
FDREU: when did you talk with floyd
Cyclevaughters: i don’t know – i want to trust George
Cyclevaughters: but the thing is on that team, you think it’s normal
Cyclevaughters: or at least i did
FDREU: i guess. anything with blodd is not normal
Fine. Burn all my hopes for clean dark horse. you doods are jerks.
…hey, c’mon. gnomer…don’t take it so hard…you prob’ly couldn’t find a ‘clean dark horse’ even at the preakness these days…odds are that would be “a horse of a different color”…
…besides, if it makes you feel better, if anybody had hopes, i was one of the really naive ones…
…there was a time when i thought the ‘postals’ were all using just to keep up w/ the boss who i honestly believed was clean…
…but as we used to say about lsd back in the ’60’s – “better living through chemistry”…
“the tactical brains of a cobble”
Classic, BGW.