Floyd, Floyd, Floyd...
Many people have asked me what I thought of the Floyd Landis affair. Did I think he did it? Do I support him? Is anyone clean in bike racing? Do you think that Lance Armstrong used performance enhancing drugs as well?
And now comes the sad news that his father-in-law, 57 year-old, David Witt, committed suicide.
I cannot help but pity Landis. Did he cheat?...who really knows? But did he really deserve to have someone close to him die? No way! Even if he did cheat, no one deserves to have this happen to him. Performance enhancing drugs, although wrong, affects so few people. Especially when one holds up the offense relative to "real-life" issues, such as the rampant violence one is exposed to via various media sources every day.
Do I personally know Landis? No, but with everything I have read about him, every interview that I have watched on television, he seems to be a pretty nice guy. Unlike many of the professional cyclists who seem like they are overly arrogant, Landis seems to be down to earth. Unfortunately, there is a possibility that the temptation to utilize synthetic steroids conquered his desire to race cleanly.
Did Landis cheat?...hmmm...not so easy to answer. The initial test, from what I understand, came back with the data that his testosterone to epitestosterone balance was out of whack. Intitially it was not reported that he had synthetic testosterone in his blood. There could be many reasons why his balance was not within acceptable parameters, not just that he injected himself with testosterone.
Along with this knowledge, the particular labratory that came to these conclusions is the one that leaked that Armstrong had epo issues way back in 1999. However, he has since been exonerated of those claims.
Is Landis guilty? I think only he really knows. Does he deserve our pity? On some level...absolutely...
posted by LoneCactus @ 10:21 PM
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