Floyd Landis Guilty or Innocent?



Posted: Monday, August 07, 2006

by
Klaus Helpensteins computer services

Drug scandals are becoming somewhat of a norm in the cycling field, after nine riders in this years Tour DE France didn’t even make it to the starting line because of doping scandals. In fact, too many athletes in all types of sports seem to be involved in drug scandals. With nine riders already disqualified, did Floyd Landis take the risk? Was he so desperate to win?

Although it is true that elevated testosterone levels can be a natural occurrence, in this case we are not talking about naturally occurring testosterone but about synthetic testosterone, Floyd Landis’s ‘B’ sample tested the same way as his ‘A’ sample did: Positive for a high level of testosterone, and for traces of synthetic testosterone.

Reality is that there seems to be the same answers from most athletes when it comes to testing positive for performance enhancing drugs, that being “I have no idea why or where these drugs are coming from in my system", his lawyers latest statement that it may be due to dehydration is far fetched, as this excuse has been used before and has been proven to be a defense that won’t stand up, if dehydration was a cause of elevated Testosterone levels then it would affect many, many athletes, marathon runners, tennis players to mention just a couple.

The ensuing ritual of employing high priced lawyers by well know sports personalities, seems like an almost compulsory after effect of doping scandals and in most cases seems a total waste of time and resources. Of course, it is possible that he ingested something accidentally, however I would imagine that his dietary intake is closely guarded by his management team, and in his position knowing that any trace of illegal drugs could mean the end of my career, I would not be ingesting anything where I didn’t know where it came from. Of course, it’s also possible that the lab in France is staffed by French patriots that have tampered with the samples, in which case there would be no hope to prove that. In fact, personally, I would not have had the sample tested in the same country, but would have sent it offshore to another lab where the country where it was being tested didn’t have a vested interest.

I believe the above to be extreme in any case, I think he took the risk and lost, and if he didn’t he would at the very least have known the difference in his stamina and performance. I am sure Floyd is totally aware of his capabilities and after his poor performance in the previous leg of the Tour De France, this was a massive turnaround.

There is of course his deteriorating hip, this could possibly be his last chance of winning this event, and possibly this was a mitigating factor in him taking such a huge risk, why doesn’t he just admit to it and be done with it, Floyd like so many in the public eye should also remember that he has a lot of impressionable followers as do all major public figures, there are two messages he is sending now, one it’s ok to cheat, and two if you get caught, don’t worry about it just play the game, I do not think that this is a good image to portray, dragging on proceedings can only harm him and his followers that look up to him as a hero.

Klaus Mathias Helpenstein, born in Germany in 1954, his parents migrated to Australia in 1967, he has been involved in the cooking trade full and part time for many years, also has more than ten years experience in the computer industry , as well has trained and worked as a social photographer and has a love for landscape photography, his photographs have been displayed in galleries and sold both in Australia and to buyers oversas he writes poetry, writes articles on cookery, computers, computer troubleshooting and photography, his current web sites are located here and here
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Top-level comments on this article: (3 total)
» left by Marika 5 years 185 days ago.
"Of course, it’s also possible that the lab in France is staffed by French patriots that have tampered with the samples, in which case there would be no hope to prove that." Another conspiracy theorist!!
» left by 5 years 182 days ago.
No I am definitely not a conspiracy theorist, but the possibilty is always there, in fact as I state it is more likely he is guilty.
» left by Anonymous 2 years 54 days ago.
anonymous records prevent that
» left by ed
from jacksonville, fl 4 years 198 days ago.
1 day of synthetic testosterone would not have the effect of turning someone into some amazing athlete. Floyd was a wold championship caliber cyclist before this race, and his power output on this particular stage was nothing amazing, only average. His strategy was excellent, and the peloton's disastrous. And the test has never said anything about his testosterone levels being high, but rather that his epitestosterone levels were low. The benefits would have been negligible at best, and besides, he really didn't need any drugs to do what he did that day. An average output from a champion cyclist. We watched Lance come back after bonking. Is it too much to think anyone other than Lance might be capable of a great ride?
» left by Anonymous
 2 years 73 days ago.
i have to do a paper on this subj.
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