So, this guy interviewed this other guy…

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We’re often (as a matter of course) a day late & a dollar short around these parts. The recent chatter regarding Landis/Kimmage being no exception to this doctrine of halfassedery.

Paul Kimmage interviewed Floyd Landis a few days before Thanksgiving of ’10. Their 7 hour conversation was distilled into Kimmage’s Sunday Times article published yesterday, meant for a general audience. Kimmage, however, felt that Landis’ detailed views on cycling needed to be aired, so he offered us the transcript of their interview. Naturally we accepted. The transcript is presented here in the form Kimmage intended, with no edits from us. We’d like to thank Kimmage and Landis for speaking freely, and note that the opinions within are strictly theirs.

http://nyvelocity.com/content/interviews/2011/landiskimmage.

NY Velo had it up two days ago. You can read it here: The Gospel According to Floyd. I’ve been working though it, slowly. By that, I mean I’ve had to read parts twice. Even three times. This goes very deep. There is so much to roll over in your mind. I have a lot of respect for both of these men. Are they without flaws? Of course not. Few among us are.

I’ll not put either upon a pedestal, lest they should fall off and get hurt. I’m glad this transcript is seeing the light of day. I’ve often said, only half joking, that the truth wants to be free. I’ve generally said that in regards to all the shenanigans and high jinks going on over at U.S. Postal, Bruyneel and his barrels of Belgian bunny juice be damned.

Landis speaks the truth. And his words weight a ton:

I was afraid to let (what I thought of myself) be based on cycling because I didn’t like what cycling had become; I didn’t like that it had become a game of doing all these other things; I never liked the bad politics; I never liked the fact that we had to dope. I shouldn’t say I had a moral objection to it because I had accepted it but it wasn’t something that I felt in my mind I should be proud of. Id.

You can also read it at velonews with the usual pro/con, god/liar arguments following in the comment section.

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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

41 Replies to “So, this guy interviewed this other guy…”

  1. i was wondering when DC would get in on the action. definitely worth a read. say what you will about landis, his motives… this is one badass story. and a great interview by kimmage.

  2. Its a long-ass read, but WELL worth it, IMO. Pretty much tosses Pereiro under the bus, then backs over him a couple times. As to the question of “Did(do) they dope?”…I’m thinking this interview points to a rather emphatic affirmative.

    I always liked Floyd…I’ve been waiting on an actual explanation for a while…nothing seemed congruinous with his projected personality. I’d love to hear the same type of interview with Tyler.

  3. I’m still not convinced Landis is speaking the Truth. Beyond that he has cried wolf so many times in the past, I know he hasn’t kept all of his agreements. Which makes his proclamations of being an honest and honorable man suspect.

  4. Thanks for posting this Big Juan, it’s a good and much needed read.

    I believe Mike Anderson
    Frankie Andeau
    Emma O’Reilly
    Lemond
    and many, many others.

    And yes, I believe Floyd Landis is telling the truth.

    Glad cycling is “leading the way” in cleaning up it’s act. But there is still a lot of corruption and it will get worse before it gets better.

  5. I most certainly agree that one may question the truthfulness and veracity of Floyd Landis in regards to his allegations against others as his prior statements are directly at odds with his present admissions of guilt. And, I may add, statements made under oath at that.

    I would like to point out that there is more than one story in that interview: the story of Floyd the man, where he came from, the choices he was faced with, and the path he took. What would you have done in his shoes? I fear many of use would have played ball. A shot at the Big Show? The biggest races in the world on one of the most powerful teams in the sport? A chance to race on his own and win the big races? Shit. I don’t think I’m such a saint. Are you? Are you really? What would you say to a five hundred thousand dollars a year in wages? There isn’t much I wouldn’t do for that kind of money.

    He has grown a lot in these last few years. More than most of us ever will.

    It will be interesting to see what the future brings. A more honest literary undertaking? A reconciliation with what he was, then became, and ultimately desires to be?

  6. It has been interesting to watch everything with Floyd along the way.
    I don’t think he has ever truly been quite the same as so many others that live and die under omerta, which is why things are where they are today. After losing so much he has really become more free to do and say anything, something probably making a lot of others really uncomfortable. Definitely one of the most interesting things I have read in a long time. And it seems to make sense.

  7. I didn’t believe Floyd when he denied cheating, but I tend to believe him now. I too wonder when or if the next domino will fall and who it might be. Shit’s f-ed up…

    Funny, reading about all of his questioning of his parents growing up and not accepting the status quo. It definitely fits right in with his current attitude and actions.

  8. I have a hard time believing Floyd for obvious reasons. I also have a hard time believing there are a lot of clean professional cyclists. Only time will tell I guess.

  9. http://velonews.competitor.com/2011/02/news/interview-former-armstrong-assistant-ashamed-of-working-for-him_158382

    This may be my favortie quote in any of this, comes from Mike Anderson:

    Asked how he felt upon reading the Armstrong team’s reaction to the Sports Illustrated article — Armstrong’s legal strategist Mark Fabiani said the SI report was “old news from the same old, discredited sources” — Anderson said it reminded him of Ali Hassan al-Majid, former head of the Iraqi Intelligence Service, who denied any wrongdoing up to his January 2010 execution.

    “Chemical Ali — remember that guy?” Anderson said. “All the way to the end … to the very bitter end. It’s amazing, the denials. I’m not surprised at all. I’m not surprised by anything any more.”

    That is fucking awesome….sleep on that LA.

  10. Fucking awesome interview, thanks for posting it.
    I believe Floyd because everything said by LA has smelled funny so far.
    Floyd either tells the truth (A)or,
    He is lying, meaning he and most others cheated…but LA didn’t.

    Ain’t nobody THAT fast, baby.

    To quote Jack White ” ooohh, I think I smell a rat..”

  11. That one will take a while to digest. Would that I had grown as much in half a century as Floyd has in his 35. Anyway, the rocks in Michaux don’t give shit one way or the other and are still there if you get back this way. Keep the wheels turning.

  12. So… one doper interviews another doper and they talk about ..what…a doper. Its time for everyone to get serious about the future of pro cycling.. its effed.

    seriously i like paul’s book though

  13. …floyd’s dichotomy was (a)- he was not only good @ what he enjoyed, racing a bike but he was better than most & (b)- he realized, to his chagrin just how the game was played but when offered the opportunity, he knew it was all or nothing & he decided he was all in…
    …that’s an opportunity to work in pretty rarefied air & if you’re not exceptional, you don’t get the offer…
    ……doping won’t turn a plow-horse into a thoroughbred but it can make the best even better…

    …as was pointed out, the manner in which he grew up was exceedingly different from 99% of us & the ‘how & why’ he approached life & growing up is, to me at least, interesting as fuck…

    …bottom line, it allowed for him to separate his personal self from his working self & so, of course he vociferously denied his guilt for one particular reason…that is how it was dealt with in that line of work & initially, he was all in…

    …i’d suggest floyd has a very specific & decided form of morality based on his childhood, as opposed to those who simply suspend their beliefs in order to benefit from it…

    …i would imagine his revelations as regards verbruggen & the uci certainly shed new light on the subject for most of us, at least in it’s depth & i honestly have no problem believing that that line of thinking has predominated the sport…

    …while it will be forever denied by the sports honchos, floyd just allowed for a much bigger problem overall to be addressed & trying to find a solution by pointing the finger at armstrong & all this hoopla about him being “the biggest fraud in sports history” is a lotta crap…this starts at the top & armstrong & bruyneel just played the game better than most…

    “the biggest fraud in sports history” is a twofold problem…(1)- as a society, our perspective of all pro sports has become fraudulent & out of proportion in that they are nothing but ‘entertainment’ that we’ve assigned a ‘god-like’ status & (2)- how pro sports are regulated & controlled…the situation with the uci is no different than major league baseball & pro football…

    …if your ‘work’ involves ‘play’ we admire, you can practically get away with murder…

  14. A long, long time ago there was a mtb named Shogren who was winning most regional races he entered. He was in his prime and he was 29. A 16 year old came and just trounced him.

  15. …rev…after reading the interview & learning about his early life, i’d suggest that was a bigger stretch for floyd than lance…

  16. Truth or not, I can’t get past the fact (ok…my opinion) that if Floyd would have won his doping appeal, with the help of all the money that people donated to him, he would have never made a peep.

  17. BS – Things happen for a reason and deating on what if’s is a waste of time.

    What is important here regardless of your opinion of Floyd is that he did test positive, he lost, and now he is trying to make things right.

    You can never know until you walk a mile in his shoes…. I have a good friend that raced on the Jr. National team and used to cart his ass around when he was a youngin’. Have a feeling that even if he never tested positive it would have eventually eaten at him. You can rationalize anything to suit your needs I guess, but it is all moot.

    There is a saying , ” no matter where you go, there you are…” . When you live a lie,

  18. I have to say I admire Floyd for attempting to come clean. I think it’s hard to judge a guy if we have no clue what the inside world of pro cycling is like.

    Here’s something to consider….

    “Say you are a truck driver that has to deliver cargo from point A to point B. The road between point A and B has a strickt speed limit, but you start noticing that most of the other truck drivers break that limit constantly. You also start noticing that the ones that are speeding are the ones that are getting the better contracts and bonuses (aka more $$). Plus only a couple of the drivers get caught speeding from time to time. How long will it be untill you too are breaking the speed limit?”

    This was a analogy that I found in a cycling book and it gives some sort of idea as to how doping works in cycling.

  19. …@nicebigguy…to add to that analogy – as you sit behind the wheel, you realize that perhaps driving a little faster doesn’t seem to be at all dangerous & hey, if you diligently pay attention, you might not get caught speeding like those other guys…so…

  20. …@humpty…we may have our differences but i believe we’re both on the same page regarding landis’s revelations…

    …i think the man has a basic streak of honesty a mile wide & that the situation & his place it was eating at him from the get-go…

    …yes, he denied it to the tune of millions of dollars ‘because that’s how the game has always been played’ & he was good at the game but he got tired of it…

    …then oscar pereiro, like lance, a guy who’d teamed with floyd & who floyd knew to race ‘dirty’ go off with their disingenuous musings & i think floyd just got tired of the character & nature of his ex-compatriot accusers…

    …floyd said “basta…i’ve got a conscience & i’m not afraid to stand & face the music”…hopefully, more & more will stand with him…

    …btw, the basson article is also great & goes hand in hand wonderfully with the kimmage/landis interview…

    …whether these articles will lead to an ‘actual’ cleansing of the sport remains to be seen but the more guys who step up at this critical time, the more transparent the sport becomes…

  21. Doesn’t appear to be much of a difference between pro-wrestling and pro-cycling. Both spectacles built on a willing disbelief.

  22. …i won’t try & further the analogy but what is interesting is that floyd landis 100% admits that he used ‘blood doping’ in winning the 2006 tour de france but 100% denies that he used testosterone in any form (at that time…he had in the past)…he always denied the patch theory & i believe he’s now telling the truth 100%…

    …he was popped for testosterone (i smell a rat) which leads me to believe his allegations regarding the complicity & cooperation between armstrong & the uci through hein verbruggen are correct…landis had been at odds with armstrong for several years & we know armstrong holds his grudges & has powerful friends…floyd was made an example of because he wasn’t being a ‘team player’, just like armstrong tried to do to simeoni in the 2004 edition…right or wrong, the guy has always liked to wield his power as the ‘patron’

    …personally, i’m 100% in floyd’s corner in this battle but at the same time, i’m still an armstrong (on the bike) fan & think that he should ‘man up’ & by dropping the pretense & admitting what i’ll always believe is the truth, he’d still remain the well known cancer demigod & yet with the proper cooperation from the uci, the two parties could go a long way in actually cleaning up the sport, not simply paying it lip service…

    …armstrong isn’t anti-doping, his vehement denials just say “don’t accuse me”

  23. Its odd how most professional sports have some element of drug use now a days. It doesn’t surprise me that it occurs but its shocking how afraid the athletes are of being accused of it where even a false positive test will ruin their ‘good name”. Not that Im for the roid and what stuff but it wouldn’t be such a big deal if the athletes were not worried about losing sponsorships.

  24. That analogy would come across a tad different if the truck driver had to stop at a rest stop to have a doctor remove, manipulate and re-inject a bag full of blood before he was allowed to speed.

    We’re in to Frankenstein kinda shit now. No more pills or injections of speed. Now they are getting close to playing Gawd.

  25. WOW, awesome interview! Floyd is a regular dude that played the game and wasn’t favored by the UCI. I believe Floyd now. UCI seems fucked up. Floyd has been fucked over by the drug war. Same old shit, some ass kissers get away with it; some non ass kissers don’t. Massive respect to Floyd; never thought I’d say that, but I have to now.