France Issues an Arrest Warrant for Floyd Landis and Arnie Baker

ESPN Radio reported that the French government has issued an arrest warrant for Floyd Landis and Arnie Baker. The issue is related to the hacking incident of the WADA accredited laboratory LNDD and the purloin of sensitive documents that relate to a conspiracy of incompetence by the laboratory and a subsequent cover up. The authenticity of the documents has been questioned and they may be fabrications. The documents may be found in the What is Fair is Clear slide show, with a disclaimer by Arnie Baker in the wiki defense.

ESPN Radio mentions that the warrant is confined to France, it is not an international warrant. ESPN Radio also reported that the hacking was discovered in response to a claim made by Floyd Landis that certain files pertaining to the Carbon Isotope Ratio Test were missing. The validity of these claims will be, perhaps, ascertained in a court proceeding of some kind. Floyd Landis calls the hacking accusations, fabrications. One other item of note pertaining to ESPN Radio and this is an unpardonable error, the report claimed that Floyd Landis tested positive for high levels of testosterone during the 2006 Tour de France. For accuracy sake, Floyd Landis did not test positive for high levels of testosterone at any time during the 2006 Tour de France. The test used to screen for high levels of testosterone, was artificially created by the French accredited laboratory LNDD. These testosterone/epitestosterone tests were rejected by the AAA arbitration panel as invalid. Floyd Landis was banned from competition for two years for the presence of a single metabolite that indicated synthetic testosterone use. But as Christiane Ayotte stated in David Walsh's book From Lance to Landis the WADA rule pertaining to metabolite(s) of testosterone above threshold indicating testosterone use, never meant anything other than a single metabolite above threshold, except at Don Catlin's UCLA accredited laboratory...that is. Nevertheless, simple research into the case before spouting off would be helpful, even by a prestigious news organization like ESPN Radio. The myth of the Floyd Landis high testosterone test has become reality, simply due to sloppy journalistic practice, and this is a direct consequence of sloppy laboratory practice by LNDD, and a very skillful smear campaign by the likes of former WADA director Dick Pound. ESPN Radio should strive to improve the content of their news stories to reflect fact, not fantasy...more of the fabrications that Floyd Landis was speaking of?

Positively False an Aside

One brief issue on Floyd Landis' book Positively False.

Allen Lim seems to have been nothing more than a physiologist who had a fresh PHD and nothing to do, (apologies to strbuk), but record SRM power meter data from training rides Floyd Landis did in Spain. These power meter readings are supposed to be available on the Internet. This is important news because it supports the assertion made by Floyd Landis that the Stage 17 ride was no more difficult than a hard training ride. In fact, Floyd Landis asserts, and this assertion may be verified by checking the SRM power data, that he produced more power in training than during Stage 17 of the 2006 Tour de France. The notion that the Stage 17, 2006 Tour de France ride was nothing more than a rocket fueled marvel is not supported by the SRM power data. This is another popular myth, created by a popular misconception that a rider could not possibly recover from a previous stage bonk without some form of performance enhancing substance (testosterone.) As Floyd Landis would insist, another fabrication?

Nevertheless, Positively False is a good introductory read into the background of some the characters that would later play such a prominent part in one of the most unjust doping cases ever conceived. Better and more comprehensive information for the serious student can be found on the websites listed under best blogs, trust but verify, rant your head off, WADAwatch, racejunkie, all of which link to velo vortmax. Read, learn, then make an informed decision.

After all, we don't need any more fabrications.