July 28, 2006

Postscript

This is the best story I've read explaining the "doping" controversy involving Tour de France champion Floyd Landis. I'm reserving comment for now. Meanwhile, here's a blog post about Landis from a year ago.

I just checked Landis' website, FloydLandis.com, and it had this message:

The site is currently offline as a result of technical difficulties. On July 27, after news broke that Floyd's A sample test from stage 17 at the Tour de France was positive for abnormal testosterone:epitestosterone levels, the site experienced an increase in traffic it could not handle. The site went down. The site has been moved to a more powerful server and we are working migrating the content.

UPDATE: Landis' website, a blog, is back up as a blog and the current top entry on the home page says Landis "will appear on Larry King Live tonight to speak out against recent drug allegations. Please tune in. Floyd appreciates your support."

Here's the Larry King Show's (website.

Update: This report from Bloomberg.com says Landis and his teammates drank a lot of beer and whiskey after Landis' disastrous performance in the 16th stage, when he seemed to fall out of contention in the Tour. Could that have increased his testosterone level? Bloomberg:

According to a 2001 report by Simon Davis of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California, the ethanol content of alcohol can increase the ratio of testosterone to epitestosterone.

Second Update: This story from The Australian newspaper adds more interesting details.

Tour de France champion Floyd Landis's positive drug test "doesn't add up", according to a member of the World Anti-Doping Agency. Gary Walder, a spokesman for the American College of Sports Medicine, said testosterone creams, pills and injections were used to build muscle and strength and improve recovery time after exertion but took several weeks to work. If Landis was a user of testosterone, earlier urine tests during the Tour would have also been affected, Walder said.

Landis's positive test came after his extraordinary come-from-behind performance in stage 17 of the race, which included five major climbs, the last of which was the gut-busting climb up the Col de Joux Plane to more than 1800 metres. Walder said one-time use of steroids could result in an abnormal test, but it would have no effect on performance and could not account for Landis's astounding feat on that particular stage, "so something's missing here". "It just doesn't add up," he said.

The test for which Landis returned a positive result detected both testosterone and epitestosterone, which is not performance-enhancing. Both are produced by the body naturally and are also made in synthetic form.

The ratio for testosterone to epitestosterone is usually 1:1 or 2:1, Walder said. Suspicions for improper steroid use arise when the ratio climbs above four parts testosterone to one part epitestosterone, Walder said. Officials have yet to reveal what ratio Landis's test showed.

Some men have naturally occurring high levels of testosterone and or epitestosterone, but there is a sophisticated test called a carbon isotope ratio test that can be used to detect synthetic forms.

Meanwhile, Lance Armstrong - repeatedly falsely accused of doping by the French, who hated him and hated having an American win "their" bicycle race seven times in a row - has some good advice for Landis that boils down to this: Fight back.