Brian Cookson: UCI Era of Honesty, Straightforwardness, and Transparency?

Brian Cookson is the new president of the International Cycling Union!  Out with Pat McQuaid who has been accused of infecting cycling with his particular virus of lies, cover-ups, and corruption.  We cycling fanatics hope that the new administration will focus on the ideals of honesty, straightforwardness, and transparency.

But will this be the case?  Brian Cookson does seem an odd choice in light of the current doping scandals that continue to plague Team Sky, Bradley Wiggins, and Chris Froome.  No need to mention the continuing skepticism that plagues the resurgence in British cycling Mr. Cookson seems to be directly involved with as past President of British Cycling.  This British Cycling resurgence allegedly was nothing more than a harmless effort to invest money into a British national cycling program that had the goal of dominating Olympic and UCI track and road races.  Money spent on better facilities attracts better athletes.  Better athletes win more races.  The East Germans had the same philosophy.  But the East German state understood that no matter how athletically gifted her citizens are, it is virtually impossible for a single country to dominate Olympic and UCI cycling without using illegal performance-enhancing drugs.

Here are the most salient questionable points directly related to the absurd success of the recently resurgent British Cycling program quoted directly from the New York Times article composed by Ian Austen.

When Cookson, a modestly successful amateur cyclist, and landscape architect, became president of British Cycling in 1997, it was near bankruptcy.  Britain had won one Olympic gold medal in 76 years, and rare appearances by British teams at the Tour de France were embarrassments.  Development programs and partnerships introduced by Cookson, along with British national lottery money, helped Britain win gold medals in eight cycling events at last year’s Olympics.  The last two Tour de France winners, Bradley Wiggins and Chris Froome, ride for Team Sky, the professional offshoot of British Cycling.

"One gold medal in seventy-six years" then gold medals in eight Olympic cycling events!  British teams and riders were once considered embarrassments in previous editions of the Tour de France. Tommy Simpson and British petroleum not excepted. But suddenly, after the newly minted British Cycling program developed by Brian Cookson, Team Sky dominates the Tour de France with wide margins not seen since U.S. Postal and Lance Armstrong!  Bradley Wiggins in spite of his track racing prowess was never considered a good Grand Tour road cyclist; then suddenly he wins the race going away!  Team Sky dominates the peloton like Discovery Channel!  Brian Cookson seems an odd choice to elect as the new president of the UCI in light of the fact that people are declaring this new resurgence in British Cycling suspect, possibly aided by performance-enhancing drug use.  Brian Cookson may be ignorant of any dope related malfeasance among British Cycling or Team Sky riders; but then again, if these incredible results call for an "independent" investigation, the chair of this "independent" investigation may be the fox who is investigating the disappearance of the hens from the coop, for which he bears some responsibility.  Of course, this fox will lead the investigators astray with obscurantism since he and his fellow foxes may be culpable.  Realistically,  money can't buy all of this British success!

The British are making the Italians, French, and Belgians look like fools!  Countries who have produced numerous great cycling champions; Eddy Merckx, Gino Bartali, Bernard Hinault, and Fausto Coppi.  The Spanish have produced many great champions, Alberto Contador excepted.  Federico Bahamontes was a naturally gifted legendary climber of exceptional merit.  What has Britain given us?  Bradley Wiggins and Chris Froome?  Both British Tour de France champions are suspected of achieving success from performance-enhancing drug use.

I hope this change in the UCI leadership is something more than a cosmetic sea change which amounts to more of the same.  Of course, who would argue getting rid of Pat McQuaid is wrong?  Cycling was tainted from steroids and those who were accused of facilitating their use.  But what now?  Has cycling evolved, finally into a new "clean" era, and can the UCI administration "finally" be trusted to tell the truth in an honest, straightforward, and transparent manner?  Or when the evidence points to potential wrongdoing will we be fed more lies and deceptions?  Brian Cookson is an odd choice as UCI President given his potential involvement in a resurgence in British Cycling that makes no sense and is clearly suspect.  But why not give the man a chance to hang himself?

Lance Armstrong: Surrender Your Medal!

The United States Olympic Committee (USOC) has finally emerged from a thirteen-year comatose state and has demanded that Lance Armstrong voluntarily surrender his misbegotten 2000 Olympic individual time trial bronze medal to the USOC based upon his confession of using performance-enhancing substances; sans a due process arbitration hearing.  I am absolutely convinced this new humiliation of Lance Armstrong will absolutely prove to neophyte aspirants to Olympic success that glory achieved by doping is not worth the risk of detection, apprehension, and punishment.

Of course, this opinion as to the effectiveness of punishment thirteen years after the fact when it is very probable that every medalist in Olympic cycling during the steroid era used performance-enhancing drugs is highly dubious. Olympic cyclists who were never detected let alone punished for performance-enhancing drug use does not act as a deterrent for neophyte Olympic aspirants to refrain from doping. The probability of being caught and punished continues to be astronomically small during the Olympic games, in spite of advancements in dope testing.  Retrograde admissions of performance-enhancing drug use from a retired athlete, and demands for punishment for this admission from sanctioning bodies, deter nobody currently engaged in nefarious doping behavior.  Will the USOC insist that athletes who currently dope will be apprehended years from now in some dragnet, then humiliated with exposure for past crimes, then forced to return Olympic medals and refund prize money?

One of my former heroes, Jan Ullrich won an Olympic gold medal.  Herr Jan Ullrich was not only linked to Operation Puerto: but he also tested positive for amphetamines after taking the drug ecstasy during a rave.  Herr Jan Ullrich was Lance Armstrong's main rival for seven consecutive Tours de France and there is a minuscule chance Jan Ullrich rode clean during any Tour de France. Nevertheless, there is no clamor among the outraged International Olympic Committee (IOC) to investigate Herr Jan Ullrich for possible doping during the 2000 Olympic games where Jan Ullrich won gold and silver medals; or any suggestion that Jan Ullrich admit to doping; or that his teammate's exact revenge in sworn affidavits pointing out all of the doping violations Jan Ullrich engaged in.  Nor did the IOC demand that Rudy Pevenage be banned for life for his alleged involvement in cheating.  Nor did the UCI demand that Herr Jan Ullrich and Team Telekom be made into an international scandal and example of doping subterfuge.

Only in America do we drag our past heroes through the sewage exacting revenge; no other country in the world would ever consider doing something so despicable.  Yet who is the better model for our youth, Mr. Lance Armstrong or Herr Jan Ullrich?  Lance Armstrong is punished for his crimes and deprived of everything, while Jan Ullrich lives in luxurious surroundings fearing nothing, even though both men probably committed the same doping offense at the same time.  It is obviously better to embrace the notion that the ends justify the means; but not to do so for an extended period of time, since the distribution of punishment is arbitrarily applied.

It is also revolting to note that the very people who enforce rules are rooted in bribery and corruption; the very people who demand retribution from doping athletes.  Examine the corruption that occurred during the Salt Lake City Olympic Games from members of the International Olympic Committee (IOC); men who accepted cash bribes, special academic scholarships for their children, and services from local prostitutes.  Graft seems acceptable tokens for the Olympic games, and the city that provides the greatest largess wins the prize.  Revolting conduct that only serves to demean international athletic competition.  But so what?  Cycling has people who are not above accepting cash to provide favors to selected individuals.  Hypocrites who paint our sport with a tawdry brush.  Sadly, the majority of these enforcement people are impossible to eradicate from our sport.  They become entrenched with nothing to fear from outside Independent oversight, no matter how apparent their filth.

Lance Armstrong probably spit upon his Olympic bronze medal before he surrendered it to the United States Olympic Committee (USOC).  "One reptile devours another," as Ivan Karamazov stated to his brother Alyosha Karamazov.  The feeblest criminal will be excoriated in disgrace, while those doing the flaying will be extolled as virtuous people who deserve to be emulated by our youth.  Liars!  All of the miscreants should be swept out with a broom!

Court Orders Lance Armstrong to Testify

Lance Armstrong, poor misguided man and ex-doper who foolishly spilled his guts before an indifferent public who could not have cared less about his former doping exploits; has been backed into a corner with a foolishly misguided court order that demands that he openly testify as to whom and when his former confederates knew of his doping offenses during the seven long years that the cheater reigned as king.  The court is also very interested in statements that would implicate the UCI as participants in accepting bribes from the deposed kingpin. Then there are allegations of coverups that occurred over several occasions; allegations denied by Pat McQuaid and Hein Verbruggen as malignant slanders. The Lance Armstrong saga is like an unending revolving door that is annoying like a persistent fly; some insurance company is filing a lawsuit against Lance Armstrong to recover money that was paid out under fraudulent misleading circumstances.

Travis Tygart, the USADA mogul cares very much about the results of this testimony, be assured.  Tygart appeared on some syndicated horse crap sports show talking smack about his private corporation USADA that is funded with public money, as a constitutional entity based upon a decision of U.S. District Court Judge Sam Sparks; who opined that anti-doping arbitration offered due process to the defendant, not that due process was required.  Where in the constitution is an American citizen denied the option to forgo due process?  Where in the constitution does it state that the prosecution has the option to act as judge, jury, and executioner?  Where in the constitution does it state that solicited testimony may be acted upon without the accused being offered an opportunity to rebut this testimony under cross-examination?

But Travis Tygart would argue that these constitutional protections are unnecessary because doping in sport is not a criminal offense, but a civil matter, and that when given a license to compete, the athlete agrees to abide by certain stipulations, including USADA testing and USADA prosecution of alleged doping offenses: that essentially to compete in professional cycling racing the athlete agrees to sign away certain constitutional rights.  The whole process from licensing to final arbitration and sanctions are private matters that are governed by private rules; rules that are agreed to in advance by the athletes.  So when the process is subjected to capricious and arbitrary changes the athlete has nothing to complain about.  Thus the evolution of the "non-analytical positives," suspensions based upon testimonials of ex-teammates who claim to have witnessed the use of prohibited substances "taken or distributed" by the accused person.  These statements by ex-teammates saves the investigatory agencies a tremendous amount of time and money and the subsequent expulsions of the accused may not require due process because the athlete may waive his rights.

Nevertheless, Travis Tygart will be more than enraptured to read any testimony that Lance Armstrong may provide to the court.  Feeling slighted because Lance Armstrong refused to testify under oath as to his doping past, Travis Tygart hopes that finally, he will have the needed testimony to issue even further "nonanalytical positives" against potential wrongdoers that he failed to catch in the first dragnet.  Of course, this testimony will fill in the gaps that were never explained in the first go around, not to mention a bases for an internal personal justification for the "fair" process that serves to protect the "clean" athlete and ensure "fair" competition.  All free of charge, provided by the chief kingpin, drug racketeer, and disreputable villain Lance Armstrong himself.

Icing on the cake, baby!  Lance Armstrong will be compelled to destroy lives and careers while Travis Tygart cheers from the sidelines!  Hooray!  Champagne!  A toast to the death of villains!  Why consider whether these people were the victims of intimidation when they are such convenient victims of the "non-analytical positive," and serve as such succulent fodder for press releases.  Look at these horrific people peddling dope, our funding is justified, the process is working and generates results, and outsiders have no reason to meddle.

2013 Tour of Utah: Stage 4 Summary

A couple of photographs of the action:

The breakaway!

The peloton in hot pursuit!

Stage 4 of the 2013 Tour of Utah was raced at a hot tempo, Paco Mancebo attempted to escape, but the peloton paced by Garmin Sharp, sensing the danger, would not let him go.  The tempo of the stage was incredibly fast.  On the last lap, the gap was about fifteen seconds and it was a dead certainty that the peloton would catch the breakaway riders.  Glancing at the final stage results this outcome appears to have happened, not only that but the peloton seems to have unraveled a bit.  The stage was won by Michael Matthews (Orica-Green Edge) who seems to have attacked at an opportune moment with a surprise move that caught his rivals unprepared.

The crowds were very good, people were smiling and cheering on the riders all along the route.

2013 Tour of Utah Preview

Batten down the hatches kiddies, it is time for the Tour of Utah!  There have been fundamental changes to the race with additions of pristine scenic beauty down south around Cedar City; then the race meanders North along the traditional roads of the stellar Wasatch mountains that abut Salt Lake City and the Wasatch front.

Great, the visual images of the Tour of Utah should be unrivaled anywhere on earth, but where is the Time Trial?  No race of truth, this year?  That is a curious omission, but the event is only six days long and it is primarily designed for climbers, not sprinters or time trialists.  Sprints and time trials are unlikely to make much of a difference in the general classification, so why bother with the logistical nightmares. Right?

Gone too is Levi Leipheimer, a two-time champion who was ensnared in the Lance Armstrong, U.S. Postal Service confession mania and banished into limbo forever?  Back for another round of contention is Francisco Mancebo Perez, Five Hour Energy, a former Tour of Utah champion who is always dangerous and should never be underestimated.  The best team?  Garmin Sharp should kill in the team ratings, studded with stars; Tom Danielson, Christian Vandevelde, David Zabriskie, and Thomas Dekker.  Well known names with international Pro Tour reputations.  Don't be surprised if Christian Vandevelde finishes numero uno in the general classification.

The team list has gone international and there is always an unknown factor that could upset the apple cart.  In cycling racing, one crash can end your chances, and these long stage races have a tendency to generate accidents.

Stage 4 is a circuit through the streets of Salt Lake City, Utah, and with the exception of the University of Utah President's Circle is an exact duplicate of the 2011 course.  Up walls and down screaming descents, round and round, there are very few level spots on the course.  There will be attacks on this course and gaps, but a well-prepared team should have very little trouble managing the breakaways.  Don't expect anything decisive from this stage.

One comment on the media.  The Tour of Utah can provide a helicopter to provide visual effects, but even though the Miller family now owns a radio station it seems incapable of providing competent race radio.  I am tired of tuning into the official radio station only to hear endless discussions of sports that have no interest for me.  [Hint: The Utah Jazz.]  But after complaining for years and seeing no improvement, I am not going to feign interest.  Bother the local yokels who don't care about a bunch of buffoons dressed up like clowns who are insane enough to race up mountains on bicycles!  Give me another Utah Jazz update instead!  The Utah Jazz are very unlikely to make the playoffs this year, and with the Miami Heat, basketball is boring.  But so what.  It's not like there are thousands of rabid cycling fans lining the streets of Salt Lake City cheering on their heroes, who do not watch television.  Right?

Come on out and prove the yokels wrong.  There is nothing better in the world than watching the Tour of Utah!

Team Sky: Sky High?

Is Chris Froome doping?  There seems to plenty of people who think so.  There seems to be some scientific proof of this allegation; +6 watts per kilogram of power.  +6 watts per kilogram is considered by some experts as physiologically impossible.  +6 watts per kilogram aptly termed "superhuman power" is produced by blood transfusions combined with micro-dosed EPO, testosterone, and other performance-enhancing substances.

Now we have self-proclaimed sleuths watching the ascent up Mont Ventoux with a stopwatch and a laptop computer loaded with software that measures road grades, wind resistance, tire surface resistance, temperature, then compare these conditions to riders of the same stages in the steroid era; then compare the watts per kilogram generated between suspected doper, Chris Froome, versus proven doper, Lance Armstrong.  Quaint, voodoo nonsense declared Sir David Brailsford, the mastermind behind the United Kingdom surge in cycling: a surge that can only be compared to the old doped Chinese women's swimming team.  Great Britain does nothing in cycling for years, then suddenly they are walking away with all the gold.  Without dope.  Very improbable.

These anti-doping sleuths, the human calculators, want all of the professional team blood data teams collect released to the public for inspection.  Pro tour teams that pay lip service to the notion that blood is analyzed to prevent opportunistic blood doping among the riders may be deceptive.  Phonak claimed that an internal blood doping program that they pioneered was designed to detect then punish riders who dared to dope.  But in reality, the whole purpose of the program was to not test positive during a race.  Team Sky has the same claim: we support clean cycling and our internal measures are designed to deter cheating on the team and nothing more.  But can these claims be believed?

Because believe it or not the entire cycling world is fixated on one problem: the winning formula.  Michele Ferrari knew the winning formula, he devised the model that for seven years produced a Tour de France champion.  Lance Armstrong's contenders were experimenting with their own formulae; trying to develop a formula that would beat Lance Armstrong.  Tyler Hamilton writes about this quest, so does Floyd Landis, and even David Millar.  Finding the correct dosing regimen that would produce results and be undetectable at the same time was the summa cum laude quest for all cycling teams.  Perhaps doping without detection is the current summa cum laude team goal.

Whoever thought of two ascents up L'Alpe d'Huez in a single stage is a deranged sadist; reminds me of the attitude when the Pyrenees were added to the Tour de France: assassins!  Chris Froome looked in distress on the second ascent up L'Alpe d'Huez, he asked his team car for food in a non-feed prohibited area of the course and was penalized twenty seconds for this transgression.  The French press jeered: "Chris Froome is human."  Chris Froome is smart, he remembers that dope-fueled people who are flying sky high up beyond category cols bonk from lack of sugar; Lance Armstrong bonked, Tyler Hamilton bonked, Floyd Landis bonked.  Chris Froome merely was prudent and very wise to eat food in a prohibited zone and take a penalty, rather than bonk and lose the race.  Does this prove that Chris Froome is riding clean?  Absolutely not.  Theatrical performances that are designed to deceive can even be performed on ascents up L'Alpe d'Huez.  Remain vigilant and skeptical at all times.

David Millar said that when Bradley Wiggins was riding for Garmin that the team never imagined him on the podium; but when he moved to Sky the guy suddenly dominated the Tour de France!  Chris Froome finished second.  Now Chris Froome is sprinting up beyond category climbs at an inhuman rate and dominating the Tour de France!  No wonder people want to look at Team Sky's blood profiles, this is not normal, and the issue should be independently investigated.  David Brailsford says he will release some of Chris Froome's blood profile data to WADA.  What exactly will that accomplish?  WADA is a stakeholder with a vested interest, not an independent entity who will examine the evidence objectively.

Rubbish!  We suspect Chris Froome of doping, we suspect Alberto Contador of doping, we suspect Alejandro Valverde of doping; based upon past history, including suspensions for past offenses.  Release the blood profiles of all; end the omerta.

Floyd Landis: Positively False: Book Review

Is Positively False obsolete?  No.  The curtailment of athletes rights has expanded not contracted since 2006.  The alphabet agencies responsible for doping arbitration have systematically undermined the WADA code by exploiting loopholes and by writing decisions that do not require independent oversight.  USADA has eliminated the statutes of limitations, there is no penalty in doping arbitration for inaction, in fact, inaction is rewarded with increased sanctions against athletes sans due process protections.  Floyd Landis should be lauded for attempting to raise awareness into the unfair nature of doping arbitration and the arbitrary application of rules, but raising awareness is one thing, reform of the process quite another.  One must agree with Floyd Landis when he declared arbitration of the allegations raised against him a waste of time and money.  But one must wonder why a man would become so obsessed with his own personal crusade against the anti-doping agencies, a hopeless fight that ended in his own personal devastation and financial ruin.  The answer may surprise you.

Background: A Poor Mennonite Kid Wanting To Do Good.

Floyd Landis came from a poor Mennonite family, "we never had any money."  Mennonites believe in "strict interpretation of the Bible and non-participation in modern society."  Floyd wanted to upgrade his cheap Huffy bicycle to a three hundred dollar mountain bike, but his father told him that if he wanted a new bike that he would have to pay for it.  Floyd put down a deposit for the mountain bike at Green Mountain Cycles, in Farmersville, Pennsylvania, and became life long friends with Mike Farrington.  Mr. Farrington would sponsor a local mountain bike team Floyd Landis rode for.  I am convinced after Floyd Landis won the USA national juniors mountain bike title, and then competed in the juniors world championships, his desire to become a world-class cyclist and eventual Tour de France winner did conflict with his Mennonite upbringing and did cause Floyd Landis some personal angst. But I would not argue Lance Armstrong became a surrogate father figure for Floyd Landis, as was insinuated by Martin Dugard.

Scrappy: Gaining Attention 

Floyd Landis had to become known on the road circuit.  He entered road races and attacked right from the start.  One day Floyd Landis told David Clinger and Scott Moninger of Team Mercury to pull and do some work when they were in a breakaway.  David Clinger tried to offer a deal: we will help you work if you will let one of our riders win the stage.  Floyd Landis refused the offer, he continued to pull with Clinger and Moninger drafting in his wake, but as Landis would report, "I took second anyway."  John Wordin was impressed, "we don't sell races," and he offered Floyd Landis a contract: five hundred dollars a month.  As Floyd Landis expressed it:

"I was a pro racer.  My job was to attack and break apart the field in the last few miles of a race to pave the way for our top sprinter, Gord Fraser, to win stages."

Pure Gold: A Contract with the U.S. Postal Service Professional Cycling Team

Team Mercury soon ran into financial difficulties, John Wordin could no longer pay the rider salaries.  Floyd Landis sent a letter of protest to Hein Verbruggen, president of the UCI demanding that the riders be paid out of a bank guarantee that all professional cycling clubs are required to deposit with the UCI in order to be granted a license.  Hein Verbruggen complained he considered the Floyd Landis letter an act of intimidation, "that may work in America, but won't work with the UCI, and certainly not with me."  Fortunately, Bob Stapleton of Tailwind Sport was aware of the situation and offered Floyd Landis a contract to ride for the best professional cycling team in the world: the United States Postal Service Professional Cycling Team, and for the greatest Tour de France champion of all time; Lance Armstrong.

Note: Floyd Landis also complained the UCI was not doing enough to recover his salary from Team Mercury to the press during the Tour de France.  These statements apparently violated a gag order the UCI had imposed on the riders, UCI arbitration between riders and teams over financial disputes was not to be commented upon to the press.  Lance Armstrong and Bob Stapleton insisted  Floyd Landis apologize to Hein Verbruggen for his statements, and Floyd Landis did apologize to Hein Verbruggen.  In a larger context, in Positively False, Floyd Landis attempts to establish the fact the UCI had an ax to grind over this dispute, and later when Pat McQuaid leaked the Floyd Landis synthetic testosterone positive result to L'Equipe and the New York Times before Floyd Landis had received his Lab Document Package, that the UCI was exacting revenge.

Cappuccinos: Making the Grade: Floyd Landis is Selected to Ride in the Tour de France!

One fine day in Girona, Spain, with nothing better to do, Floyd Landis and David Zabriskie went to a roadside cafe and ordered a cappuccino.  Then they ordered another, then another, engaging all the while in cracking jokes with increasing hilarity.  The grand total was thirteen cappuccinos ordered and consumed in one sitting.  The cappuccino prank became legendary on the U.S. Postal squad, but, Lance Armstrong was not amused.  Lance Armstrong decided Floyd Landis was an unfocused rider lacking discipline.  Lance Armstrong decided Floyd Landis needed some personal training mono a mono to sharpen his focus and cycling skills.  Floyd Landis was up to the challenge, in spite of the warnings by his teammate's riders were broken with these personal training sessions.  At the end of a grueling, exhausting marathon of col climbs, Lance Armstrong decided Floyd Landis had enough stamina to ride as a teammate in the crown jewel: the Tour de France!  The dream was real, Floyd Landis was now a U.S. Postal Service super domestique.  Winning the Tour de France with Lance Armstrong meant earning real wages.

2004 Tour de France: Stage 17: Col de la Croix-Fry: Turning Point

Floyd Landis status as super domestique ended in incredible fashion on the Col de la Croix-Fry during Stage 17 of the 2004 Tour de France.  Floyd Landis had set an incredible pace throughout the stage and there was a possibility that if he attacked the last descent he could win the stage. Here is a conversation Lance Armstrong and Floyd Landis had previous to the descent:

Lance Armstrong: "How fast can you ride downhill?"
Floyd Landis: "Real fast!"
Lance Armstrong: "Okay. Ride like you stole something."

But the ploy failed when Jan Ullrich bridged the gap to Floyd Landis who attacked the group.  Jan Ullrich was angry over the Posties refusal to work with Jan Ullrich to attack Ivan Basso.  Poor Floyd Landis had to "sit up" to protect Lance Armstrong who had been dropped.  Lance Armstrong, who was furious over the fact Jan Ullrich had denied Floyd Landis a stage win after his huge pace-setting effort, won the stage in an incredible last moment surge after Andreas Kloden attacked the group in the final kilometer.  Nevertheless, people suddenly realized Floyd Landis had potential as a team leader and might succeed as a favorite to win the Tour de France himself.

The Floyd Landis contract with U.S. Postal Service was  expiring, but there was an undercurrent of friction brewing between Floyd Landis, Bob Stapleton, and Johan Bruyneel over training equipment.*  Floyd Landis had complained about the exception of Lance Armstrong, the team was training on outdated junk bicycles.  Floyd Landis thought he could improve his time trial skills if he was allowed to train on a new time trial bike.  But Johan Bruyneel told Floyd Landis if he gave Floyd Landis a new time trial bike he would have to give everybody on the team one.  Floyd Landis was also unhappy when he compared his salary to other riders on the team.  Floyd Landis thought he was underpaid and unappreciated at U.S. Postal; so he began to make contacts with Andy Rihs owner of Team Phonak to see if he could negotiate a better deal.  Andy Rihs offered Floyd Landis a contract considerably larger than the contract being offered by Bob Stapleton and Tailwind Sport, to work as a super domestique for Tyler Hamilton.

Phonak Blood Doping and Positive Tests: The Fall of Tyler Hamilton

Suddenly Team Phonak had no leader.  Tyler Hamilton tested positive for using a heterologous blood transfusion at the 2004 Tour of Spain along with teammate Santiago Perez.  Team Phonak was under scrutiny by the UCI and it was uncertain whether Phonak would be allowed to participate in the 2005 Tour de France.  Floyd Landis describes the situation:

Phonak had no lead rider anymore and was in disarray.  Because of all the doping infractions, the UCI refused to give Phonak a license to be in the big leagues, the Pro Tour for 2005.  With no license, Phonak would need a special invitation to be included in the Tour de France as one of the two wild-card teams selected each year, which didn't seem likely after all the doping scandals.

Floyd Landis faced a dilemma, stay at U.S. Postal Service and endure a bad situation or move on to Phonak and miss the 2005 Tour de France.  This choice was important because Floyd Landis was facing a medical calamity and he was racing on borrowed time.  Floyd Landis could ill afford to miss the 2005 Tour de France because there was a high probability he would not be medically fit to compete in future races.  Floyd Landis was suffering from severe avascular necrosis in a hip caused by a training ride accident.

All Systems Go: Team Phonak

Floyd Landis (Ouch). 2009 Tour of Utah Prologue Time Trial. Photo: velovortmax

Floyd Landis decided that in spite of the doping controversies Phonak was facing to take a calculated risk; but first, he had to pass the team physical examination.  The orthopedic doctor who examined Floyd Landis turned out to be a quack who merely reported one of his legs "was a few millimeters shorter than the other; but, he was medically sound to race."  Floyd Landis called Brent Kay, who owned OUCH Medical Center, and laughingly reported this diagnoses.  Dr. Kay responded it was lucky they didn't take an X-ray.  Floyd Landis slid on some gravel on a training ride that "fractured the neck of my femur.  I had snapped off the ball part of the ball-and-socket joint of my hip."  At the insistence of Dr. Kay, Floyd Landis was rushed into emergency surgery and the ball was repaired with three titanium screws.  Unfortunately, the hip never healed properly and the bone began to die around the injury.  When Floyd Landis was examined by Dr. Andy Pruitt, Landis was told the ball of his femur was flattening out; the ball was developing a groove; there was a possibility a large fragment of dead bone could become dislodged, and the entire hip could cease up without warning.  This condition would require a hip replacement and would probably terminate the professional cycling career of Floyd Landis.  In addition, Floyd Landis hired Dr. David Chao, Oasis Sports Medicine Orthopedist and team doctor for the San Diego Chargers professional football team, to remove and replace the original titanium screws causing pain, with shorter screws in outpatient surgery.  The joint had compressed during healing, the heads of the screws were grinding against tissue, but Floyd was riding time trials, imagine the pain!  Dr. Chao also recommended a hip replacement, but, in the opinion of Dr. Chao,  because Floyd Landis was young and healthy the replacement should be "delayed as long as possible."  Dr. Chao also performed separate decompression surgery on the deteriorating hip of Floyd Landis, to encourage scar tissue that would help stabilize the joint.

Good Fortune Smiles on Phonak

Andy Rihs wanted the UCI to re-issue Phonak the Pro Tour license rescinded due to blood doping violations. Restructuring the team, Phonak hired former Amaury Sport Organisation (ASO) public relations director John Lelangue as directeur sportif.  Phonak also required riders to sign on to a "no tolerance of doping" team code of ethics.  Phonak also initiated an internal team anti-doping program, run by Dr. Denise Demir, who measured riders blood values in the field with a portable centrifuge, and who examined blood samples with a blood diagnostic unit purchased by the team.  Convinced  Phonak had reformed, the UCI re-instated Phonak's Pro Tour license. 

In retrospect, one wonders what team Phonak was really doing with all of this blood diagnostic equipment; employing medical schemes that would keep the riders hematocrit as close as possible to the UCI legal limit of fifty percent without going over the limit?  After all, Floyd Landis admitted he used two autologous blood transfusions during the 2006 Tour de France.**  And there is other evidence of Phonak malfeasance when the list of suspected cyclists connected with Operation Puerto was released.  Floyd Landis explains the situation:

Two of those named on the list of riders suspected to be involved with Fuentes were my teammates and had been part of Phonak's 2005 Tour de France team: Santiago Botero and Jose Enrique Gutierrez.  Botero was a strong climber, and Gutierrez was one of the best all-around riders and climbers we had, he had just finished second place in the Tour of Italy, behind Ivan Basso, the week before the scandal erupted.

Good Fortune Smiles on Floyd Landis: The 2006 Tour de France

First Lance Armstrong retired.  Then Operation Puerto would be of great benefit to Floyd Landis and would greatly increase his chances for success in the 2006 Tour de France.  But under a most bizarre set of circumstances, this would be the case.  At the last moment and in the most dramatic fashion:

Every single rider who finished in the top five behind Lance Armstrong in the 2005 Tour: Ivan Basso, Jan Ullrich, Francisco Mancebo, and Alexandre Vinokourov [were booted from the race.]

Ironically, all of these riders had already completed their pre-race physicals, and in the case of Alexandre Vinokourov, although he had done nothing wrong, so many of his teammates were implicated in the scandal, Astana was disqualified because there were not enough riders left to field a legal team.  Under a bizarre ruling, it was determined the remaining teams could not replace riders who were disqualified.  Thirteen riders were banned.  One hundred and seventy-six riders started the race.

Also, prior to the 2006 Tour de France, tired of suffering from intolerable pain from his damaged hip, Floyd Landis accepts cortisone treatments, he informs his team of this development and submits a therapeutic use exemption medical explanation to the UCI.  Also, during the 2006 Tour de France, Floyd Landis receives one cortisone shot immediately before the race and one shot during the race.

On the second rest day of the 2006 Tour de France, Floyd Landis announces at the conclusion of the race, he will seek a hip replacement.

2006 Tour de France Stage 16: La Toussuire: Bonk!

Floyd Landis, wearing the yellow jersey, unexpectedly bonks on La Toussuire!  Axel Merckx in a courageous act of selflessness paces Floyd Landis to the finish.  Floyd Landis loses over ten minutes to stage winner Michael Rasmussen (Rabobank).  Landis drops in the general classification from first to eleventh place.  Oscar Pereiro reclaims the maillot jaune and leads Floyd Landis by eight minutes, eight seconds.

In a curious aside one must ask the question: Why did Denise Demur give Floyd Landis Jack Daniels whiskey?  Is not Jack Daniels whiskey distilled from corn?  Does not corn generate carbon 13 testosterone?  Would not a hepatic enzyme that metabolizes carbon 13 testosterone be considered a proof of synthetic testosterone metabolism induced by artificial means and not by diet?  Would it not be ironic if the single metabolite above the threshold was a result of the metabolism of corn-based ethanol?

2006 Tour de France Stage 17: Le Bourg- d'Oisans to La Toussuire: Attack!

Unforgettable.  The greatest single feat of cycling I have ever witnessed.  Talk about an adrenaline rush!  Every second after Floyd Landis attacked you expected him to bonk again!  After Floyd Landis finished the stage, I sat there and counted the seconds on the clock as they ticked by, praying for a miracle, hoping beyond hope Floyd Landis would be reincarnated as maillot jaune.  Oscar Pereiro managed to stay on the top of the general classification by thirty-eight seconds; but as everyone was aware, Floyd Landis was a much stronger time trialist: employing the patented "Praying Landis" style.  Being an ex-Phonak teammate of Floyd Landis, Oscar Pereiro knew Floyd Landis would make up his time deficit in the time trial and emerge as maillot jaune.  Hope re-emerged for every Floyd Landis fanatic that day.  It was an incredible moment.

Some people called that attack "superhuman."  It certainly was heartbreaking after Floyd Landis admitted he used performance-enhancing drugs during the 2006 Tour de France. **  But even in 2006, there were suspicions.  For example, Floyd Landis admitted he took an intravenous saline solution mixed with glucose, nothing more after he bonked on Stage 16.  This is equivalent to carbohydrate loading and could be considered a form of doping, could it not?  Further speculation: is it possible to add a little EPO to the glucose?  It is possible to transfuse an autologous blood bag on top of a saline bag?  Is that medically possible?

Floyd Landis Tests Positive For Synthetic Testosterone

...And this case might be the means of introducing a new method.  One can show from the psychological data alone how to get on the track of the real man. 'We have facts' they say. But facts are not everything, at least half the business lies in how you interpret them.
Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Crime and Punishment

The joyous moment of winning the Tour de France and living the dream had come true for Floyd Landis.  Even his hip survived the ordeal.  Now it was time to cash in on the endorsements and schedule a hip replacement.  But the clear skies and the smiling sun would soon be replaced by frowning overcast skies when John Lelangue called Floyd Landis to inform him that his "A" sample for Stage 17 of the 2006 Tour de France had tested positive for synthetic testosterone.  Floyd Landis was astonished at this test result, he could not believe it.  Why?  Because he did not use synthetic testosterone during the 2006 Tour de France.  Floyd Landis did not test positive for synthetic testosterone.  I was convinced in 2006, and I am convinced in 2013, that the Laboratorie National de Depistage du Dopage (LNDD), the WADA accredited laboratory located in Chatenay-Malabry, France, produced one of the most blatantly false-positive testosterone/epitestosterone ratios in history. Then they compounded the problem with a blatantly false interpretation of the carbon isotope ratio test.  This carbon isotope ratio test false interpretation was reinforced by the expert testimony of people who were deemed to be top scientific experts in carbon isotope ratio testing, Don Catlin, and Christiane Ayotte.  Don Catlin and Christiane Ayotte, directors of top WADA anti-doping laboratories, argued that a single metabolite above threshold found in the urine sample of Floyd Landis was either an indication of the use of synthetic testosterone or a marker of a synthetic testosterone precursor.  However: in rebuttal to these conclusions, Dr. Arnie Baker, in a brilliant discussion, presented: "What is fair is clear" to the USADA Anti-Doping Review Board.  Dr. Arnie Baker explained that drawing a conclusion of synthetic testosterone use based upon the fact that a carbon isotope ratio test found a single metabolite above the threshold was nothing more than a smoke and mirror theory that lacked a sound scientific foundation.  Dr. Arnie Baker cited research reports documenting the fact that control medical students in testosterone experiments, people who had never used synthetic testosterone, had higher single metabolite delta unit scores than LNDD measured in the urine sample of Floyd Landis after Stage 17 of the 2006 Tour de France!  Therefore: the single metabolite above threshold found in the urine sample of Floyd Landis may have been nothing more than a random event, or a normal byproduct of Floyd Landis unique metabolism.  Nevertheless: this convincing medical logic was rejected by every alphabet soup agency: the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), the International Cycling Union (UCI), the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA), and the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), as groundless.  Floyd Landis also argued to the arbitration panel that there were infinite documented problems associated with LNDD laboratory practice.  [For the best discussion of the scientific issues that plagued this case consult the most excellent blog trust but verify.]  It seems that everyone reached the wrong conclusion about the carbon isotope ratio results except for Christopher Campbell; who was the only man not to be sucked into the group think vortex, and the only actor in this whole drama who exhibited any intelligence in this case.  "What is fair is clear" is located in the appendix of Positively False.  Don't trust my word for it, read Dr. Baker's argument for yourselves, and make your own conclusions.

The Case Of The Dumbo Ears: Profiles In Incompetence

Final note:  The Pepperdine arbitration panel agreed to allow alternate "B" tests that Travis Tygart requested as supplemental evidence of synthetic testosterone use by Floyd Landis: conclusive proof that was to be proven by running carbon isotope ratio tests on every "B" sample of every stage of the 2006 Tour de France where Floyd Landis had submitted a urine sample.  [Note! The "A" samples had been destroyed by testing and were no longer available.]  [Note! The arbitration panel had ruled that these tests could not be used to file additional adverse analytical findings because an adverse analytical finding requires a confirmation "A" sample test.  But oddly, the "B" samples could be considered valid supplemental evidence, even though this decision was unprecedented, and violated WADA code as to what could be constituted as acceptable valid scientific proof.]  But, while examining the GC/C/IRMS used in the alternate "B" tests, Floyd Landis defense scientific expert Simon Davis noted that the large metal rings used to move the IRMS, were still attached, "years after delivery."

These machines have two massive magnets that are highly sensitive and the key to the accuracy of the results.  Think of how an iron object placed near a compass distorts the magnet, inhibiting the ability of the compass to reliably point north.  The dumbo ears could have a similar effect on this machine.  In other words, not only are my B sample retesting results suspect, but every test ever done on this unit may be unreliable, and no one at the lab ever noticed it before.

Conclusion:

Floyd Landis was framed by a group of people who refused to retract their bogus adverse analytical finding that convicted Floyd Landis of using synthetic testosterone, even in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary.  WADA, the UCI, the CAS, and USADA had too much invested to lose this case.  The abuse continues unabated.  Floyd Landis fought so desperately because he was innocent of the adverse analytical finding filed against him.  He truly had nothing to lose.

Furthermore, if there is a lesson to be learned from the Floyd Landis case it is the arbitrary and capricious application of "science."  Three metabolites above the three delta unit threshold on Monday, two metabolites on Tuesday, and a single metabolite*** above the threshold on Wednesday.  In Australia, the WADA threshold standard was four metabolites above four delta units to ascertain a positive result.  A WADA positive doping test based on floating amorphous criteria that have no foundation in medical science, medical literature, or in medical experimentation; and which also lacks a physiological baseline, is absolutely unacceptable as a premise to suspend a professional athlete from cycling or any other sport.  Nevertheless, the results, no matter what they be or how they are derived, are interpreted as conclusive evidence of doping: then these conclusions are force-fed to a gullible public.  If the "scientific" requirements as to what constitutes a positive test are subjected to arbitrary and capricious interpretations; then how is an athlete to prepare and present a coherent defense?  Impossible.

Aftermath:

Floyd Landis scolded the anti-doping alphabet organizations in Positively False for their idee fixe to prove that Lance Armstrong used performance-enhancing drugs.  "Let it go!"  One must wonder if the positive synthetic testosterone test was nothing more than a ploy to obtain evidence from Floyd Landis that would serve as a base to file non-analytical positives against Lance Armstrong, Johan Bruyneel, Michele Ferrari, et al.  Why else would Travis Tygart offer Floyd Landis the shortest suspension in history as a deal for evidence?  Ironically, Floyd Landis may have reasoned after he was declared persona non grata and refused a continental or pro tour contract with any team that it was in his best interests to provide evidence to USADA.  Once Floyd Landis made allegations of doping against Lance Armstrong and U.S. Postal Service; USADA sprang into action by threatening other ex-teammates of Lance Armstrong with legal action if they refused to cooperate, extracting a mountain of coerced testimony that resulted in the USADA prosecution summary The Reasoned Decision.  Floyd Landis said he wanted to be part of the solution, not part of the problem.  In the end, Floyd Landis gave Travis Tygart everything on a silver platter.  But in the end, Floyd Landis may in up in the lurch with nothing, once again.

UPDATE

*It has been determined that Johan Bruyneel sold team Trek bicycles and Shimano dura-ace components on the black market to partially fund the U.S. Postal Service team doping enterprise.  This may explain why the Postal Service team members, except for Lance Armstrong, were training on outdated equipment.

**This Floyd Landis doping confession assertion is based upon an unreferenced footnote in Tyler Hamilton's book, The Secret Race, where Floyd Landis allegedly admitted to blood-boosting and micro-dosing EPO during the 2006 Tour de France. Daniel Coyle provides no credible source for the EPO claim.  However, Floyd Landis did admit in an interview with Gram Bensinger, "I did two blood transfusions in 2006".  During the 2006 Tour de France.  A courier disguised as an autograph-seeking tourist delivered the blood disguised as a gift in plain sight.  Floyd Landis simply placed the parcel in his jersey pocket and rode away.  Source: In-depth with Gram Bensinger, Rules didn't apply to Lance Armstrong, Video, Time, 12:46-14:24.

***The single metabolite was 5 alpha.  "The appellant's 5 alpha metabolite in both samples exceeded the WADA positivity criteria of 3.0 0/00, within the LNDD measure of uncertainty of +/- 0.8 0/00."  Before the Floyd Landis case, the WADA standard was two metabolites above the 3.0 0/00 threshold for a positive test.  However, the andro metabolite was inconclusive, the "A" sample measured 3.99 delta units, but the "B" sample measured 3.15 delta units.  There appears to be a great amount of variation between the "A" and "B" test results that justify the uncertainty.  Therefore, the andro metabolite was inconclusive.  No amount of academic argument could justify the andro metabolite results as positive due to the range of values.  Apparently, the Court of Arbitration for Sport came to the same conclusion and relied upon a single metabolite to justify the award against Floyd Landis.  Thus it would seem that WADA standards only apply when convenient to the court.  The other two metabolites measured were well below the threshold and do not factor in this discussion.  Source: Court of Arbitration for Sport, Floyd Landis Award, VI, Scientific Matters..., P.15.

Originally I included an argument about the worthless acute testosterone patch used in races to increase performance or recovery because there is no definitive scientific proof acute testosterone applications provide any benefits at all.  Testosterone builds muscle mass and strength through long term applications over months or years.  And Floyd Landis, as far as I know, has denied using any form of testosterone during the 2006 Tour de France.  Of course, this sounds like a desperate argument a Floyd Fairness Fund apologist would make.  Weak.  Floyd Landis has admitted using testosterone in other races.  Floyd Landis has admitted Allen Lim managed a blood doping program for Floyd Landis and Levi Leipheimer when they were training in Girona, Spain prior to the 2006 Tour de France.  Who is to say testosterone was not used as well?  If blood stored from these training sessions was re-infused during the race, residual testosterone could have been detected in the samples.  I think this is how Alberto Contador was caught using clenbuterol.

The entire premise of my argument is not that Floyd Landis rode clean during the 2006 Tour de France, but that he was falsely charged with using synthetic testosterone.  The proof provided to substantiate this accusation was inadequate even to meet the "comfortable satisfaction" standard.  Of course, we hashed out these arguments on the Internet with endless debates during the entire Floyd Landis arbitration fiasco.  LNDD did not help matters when they obliterated a doping control number with whiteout.  Experts went through every page of the Lab Document Package finding errors.  The ramp temperatures were wrong.  The IRMS sucked in air from the atmosphere.  The staff was inadequately trained to operate the equipment.  The conclusion of experts; LNDD laboratory practice was so sloppy, the results had no reliability or validity.  WADA had become so arrogant they did not care about quality control.  WADA results were beyond question in arbitration.  WADA was infallible. Did Floyd Landis use synthetic testosterone during the 2006 Tour de France?  I honestly do not know.  But, Floyd Landis had to be punished for contesting WADA results as an example to others not to repeat the same folly.  Establishing the truth was never an issue with these people.  Bottom line, WADA had to remain infallible, even if the lives and careers of innocent athletes had to be destroyed in the process.

David Millar: Racing Through the Dark: Book Review

Racing Through the Dark, David Millar, Touchstone Books, 2012.

It is immensely refreshing to read an anti-doping tome that is not all about Lance Armstrong.  It is also nice to see that the Millar family is a normal group without the inherited trait of self-righteous honesty, unlike the pious Tyler Hamilton family.  Indeed!  David Millar's father was a Royal Air Force wing commander, his mother was a common housewife. David Millar was a military brat, rootless.  David Millar's parents were divorced.  David lived in Hong Kong with his father.  Fran, his sister, lived with her mother in the United Kingdom.  Nothing untoward here.

David Millar was an amateur sensation.  His greatest skill was time trials.  He signed a professional multi-year contract with Cofidis in 1997.  The first lesson neophyte professional David Millar learned when leading out a training ride was, these guys are fast!  When Millar rode on point at a pace that totally destroyed amateur racers, he noticed that his teammates were barely winded.  Welcome to stark top professional cycling rank reality!

It didn't take long for David Millar to become acquainted with the doping culture in professional cycling.  After the training ride, David Millar's Cofidis teammate Frankie Andreu immediately broke out ampules of assorted "legal" recovery products and syringes! "d prefolic, epargriseovit, and ferlixit could boost your blood values one point, completely naturally."*  But don't tell Betsy Andreu!

All well and good, after all, what harm could an injection of iron in the rump do?  But Cofidis had a unique philosophy, a concept called being prepared.  A preparation might consist of injecting harmless vitamin supplements, perhaps increasing hematocrit values one point, or may consist of injecting dangerous illegal drugs.  There were illegal products available; cortisone, testosterone, human growth hormones, synthetic EPO, and a combination of unknown drugs euphemistically called "Italian recovery products," if needed.  Cofidis was a results-driven team and they paid cash to riders based on UCI bonus points accumulated during the season.  But since Cofidis and other professional cycling teams have no culpability when a rider tests positive for illegal performance-enhancing drugs, the methods used to acquire UCI bonus points were of no concern to Cofidis.

Millar Time!  2000 Tour de France.

David Millar smoked Lance Armstrong in the Futuroscope Time Trial and became an instant sensation as maillot jaune; and he did it riding clean!  There were endless discussions of David Millar, he was so young, he had ample time to win a future Tour de France.  He gave interviews in fluent French, his mother complained that the odds of him winning the 2000 Tour de France at fifty to one odds was an outrage.  Millar was a remarkably charismatic character who became immediately loved by the cycling community as the greatest time trialist on earth.

The Fall of Dunkirk! 2001 Tour de France.

David Millar suffered from several crashes during the 2000 Tour de France and abandoned, but he was still riding clean at this point.  But this would soon change, after abandoning the 2001 Tour de France.  Cofidis suggested that Millar go home, rest, and prepare for the Veulta d' Espana (Tour of Spain).

David Millar was introduced to EPO by a teammate known as L'Equipier.  L'Equipier owned disposable syringes of EPO, purchased through black market contacts.  The EPO was stored in a faux soda can with a cap that screwed on.  The best part of this recollection is where David Millar and L'Equipier were searching through the seedy ghetto area of town looking for drug contacts, and how this whole episode disgusted David Millar.  L'Equipier would later provide the French police with information that David Millar was using performance-enhancing drugs.  This intelligence would instigate a raid on David Millar's personal home.  This raid would lead to David Millar's arrest and eventual two-year suspension from cycling.

My Personal Jesus. 2002 Vuelta d' Espana.

Jesus Losa was a sports do/ctor who specialized in doping who worked with David Millar to prepare.  They were using EPO, cortisone, testosterone, and an unknown cocktail of performance-enhancing drugs euphemistically called, "Italian recovery products."  Millar and Losa also used high altitude training to increase endurance on the cols.  But there were pitfalls, Millar says he became so focused on losing weight to increase power, he lost too much weight, which decreased his power.  Then, of course, karma intervened on the Angliru climb, a vicious col with leg-breaking grades up to twenty-five percent.  Worse, it rained, the surface of the road was covered with coal dust from the local mines creating dangerous racing conditions, and multiple road crashes occurred during this stage.  David Millar crashed three times during the stage, the third time his bicycle was run over by a team car while his feet were still clipped into the pedals.  At the summit, a concerned fan attempted to cross the barriers and assist a battered and bloodied David Millar, but the heroic fan was tackled by a police officer and thrown to the ground.  David Millar protested the unsafe conditions of the stage by ripping off his race number, abandoning his bicycle on the course, and by quitting the race.  All of his preparation was a pointless waste of time and effort.  After all, the goal of his preparation was to win the Vuelta d`Espana.

2003 Tour de France: The Dropped Chain.

This wouldn't be the last time that karma would intervene to foil David Millar.  The 2003 Tour de France prologue time trial dropped chain added to the misery.

David Millar says Alain Bondue modified the time trial bikes by removing the small chain wheel, the front derailleur, and the front derailleur shift lever.  To make things worse, Bondue decided to change the large chain wheel to a chain wheel manufactured by a sponsor at the last moment.  The problem was that the chain wheel and the chain were incompatible.  Millar says he watched in horror when his teammates lost their chains on the cobblestone sections of the course.  In the final corner, Millar dropped his chain and went from first through the time checks to 110th overall for the stage.  Alain Bondue and Cofidis originated one of the strangest time trial bike modifications in history, a modification that will never be repeated, and a modification that cost Alain Bondue his Cofidis job at David Millar insistence.

2003 World Championships. David Millar: UCI World Time Trial Champion.

David Millar stated in interviews that he could have won the World's time trial without using any performance-enhancing drugs, probably true given his talent.  But he did use EPO; disposable syringes which in a moment of carelessness, instead of throwing away, he placed the syringes into the lining of his suitcase.  This carelessness would later sow the seeds of doom for David Millar when his home was searched by the French police.  Millar stated that he placed the syringes behind his personal library books and simply forgot about them.**

David Millar's home was raided, David Millar was arrested by the French police.  His telephone had been tapped by the French police and his conversations were recorded before the raid.  Cofidis fired David Millar.  David Millar's life began to spiral out of control into an alcohol-induced haze.  The French tax authority was ready to seize all of David Millar's personal property as payment over a tax dispute.  David Millar thought his cycling career was over.  David Millar thought that his life was over.

Redemption.

There are human beings in cycling too.  David Millar after serving his suspension went to Jean Marie LeBlanc and asked if he could return to the Tour de France?

Le Blanc: 'you have served your time, that is punishment enough'.  But: 'Mais alores, David.  You can not ride the Tour if you do not have a team'.

Jean Marie LeBlanc pointed to a photograph of the Catholic Pope visiting a man in prison who shot the same Pope, as an example of how ASO should treat miscreants.  Too bad Christian Prudhomme, in spite of his pious name, could not have followed LeBlanc's example.

David Millar found a team; Sunier Duval, low budget, low pay, full of misfits, low-quality riders, and ex-dopers making a comeback.  Sunier Duval considered David Millar a big name bargain.  But David Millar began to suspect that riders on Sunier Duval were experimenting with performance-enhancing drugs, which was a direct violation of his new philosophy of "ride clean."  David Millar sent several letters directly to the UCI expressing his concerns as to the suspicious behavior of certain riders on Sunier Duval.  The UCI responded that they were aware of the situation.

Time for David Millar to move on.  Jonathan Vaughters and Slipstream decided to start a new cycling team that would have a "no tolerance" policy toward doping.  David Millar was eager to join a team that promoted clean cycling and a team that would go beyond the UCI out-of-competition doping controls by employing internal random blood and urine tests of team members; a prototype biological passport system that would employ longitudinal measures as safeguards against doping.

The Persuader.

David Millar expressed his outrage that Discovery Channel would have the audacity to hire Ivan Basso; even though there was an unwritten rule in cycling that riders who were under investigation for doping offenses would not be employed.  Ivan Basso was then under investigation for links to Operation Puerto.  Millar scolds Lance Armstrong at a cycling function:

Millar: "Look, Lance.  I know how much you love the Tour, but you're alienating yourself from it more and more.  What are you going to do twenty years from now if you're not welcome back?  How can they invite you back as a past champion if you treat the sport like shit and are clouded in controversy?"

Lance Armstrong scoffs and says that the sport needs to do a better job and police it's self.  Lance Armstrong says that he is now focused on exciting projects away from cycling.  Millar rejoins:

Lance, that's bullshit.  You will always come back to cycling."

Yes.  Much to his regret.

David Brailsford and Team Sky.

David Brailsford, is the King Midas of cycling, everything the man touches turns to gold.  Team Great Britain became the golden team during the 2008 Beijing Olympics; Bradley Wiggins, Chris Hoy, and Vicki Pendleton dominant; mountains of gold poured onto the velodrome floor.

David Millar was torn, he loved the purity of Slipstream, but he wanted to join British sponsored David Brailsford lead team Sky where Bradley Wiggins and most of the Slipstream riders were destined.  But, alas, as David Millar describes it, the decision was made for him:

In the end, the decision was made for me.  Dave Brailsford told me that team Sky couldn't take me because of my doping past and that he would be enforcing a zero-tolerance policy toward any members of the Sky professional cycling team having any prior doping history.

Quaint logic that even David Millar could not understand.  Millar reasoned that as an experienced doper who had run the gauntlet that he would be an invaluable influence for novice cyclists who might be tempted to circumvent the rules.  Of course, there may have been even more sinister reasons to exclude David Millar from Sky.  Perhaps Dave Brailsford did not appreciate a man who had a tendency to blow the whistle to the UCI when he suspected doping and cheating.  After all, team Great Britain, with the piles of gold it accumulated in Olympic track races and the improbable domination by team Sky in the 2012 Tour de France, was, as Lance Armstrong would express it: not normal.

Finis

David Millar has a message for all of you neophyte riders.  People are human beings who are capable of making mistakes and they should be forgiven if they succumb to temptation.  But it is never too late to learn from your mistakes and reform.  And the most important message of all?  You can win without using performance-enhancing drugs.  David Millar proved it when he beat the most doped man in the world, Lance Armstrong, at Futuroscope, riding clean.  David Millar came full circle, he is a survivor and a man who should be emulated by every young rider.  David Millar's memoir should be required reading for every aspiring cyclist and serve as a blueprint for what not to do.

UPDATE:

*In a cycling Internet forum discussion that references this passage, from this blog post, a person states that these drugs are harmless vitamins, and in subsequent printings of the book, the drug names were edited out of the text and replaced with the word vitamins.  Apparently, people derived the sinister impression that Frankie Andreu and his Cofidis teammates were unabashedly schooling neophyte cyclists like David Millar into the use of illegal performance-enhancing drugs, in plain sight, and with Cofidis knowledge and approval.

**This behavior seems suicidal, but from David Millar perhaps this careless behavior had a purpose.  I believe David Millar wanted to be caught.  He wanted to keep the syringes as a reminder, a sort of self-laceration, to remind himself that his world time trial championship was a fraud.  David Millar was an honest man.  When he was caught he confessed everything.  No denials, lies, and prevarications.  David Millar accepted his punishment like a man.  David Millar told the truth, dopers are frauds, and he was true to his word to ride clean.  David Millar pontificated the philosophy of clean riding from the pulpit, not as a hypocrite, but as a true practitioner.  A truly remarkable man.

Tyler Hamilton: The Secret Race: Book Review

The Secret Race, Tyler Hamilton and Daniel Coyle, Bantam Books, 2012.

The Secret Race is a sad story of a poor prodigal son from Marblehead, Massachusetts, a "C" level cyclist who rode Paniagua: (a "Spanish status name for a servant who worked for his board and lodging") but who with increasing improvements in cycling performance was promoted to the "A" squad.  "A" squad riders were considered elite Tour de France riders, and they used large amounts of performance-enhancing substances distributed in white lunch paper sacks under the direction of debased doctors.  Only after Tyler Hamilton was permanently banned from professional cycling for repeated doping violations after years of cheating, did his guilty conscious prompt him to return to honesty with a full confession and disclosure of the illegal doping that was rampant on the United States Postal Service Professional Cycling Team.  The Secret Race summarizes examples of doping during Tyler Hamilton's days with Lance Armstrong on the U.S. Postal Service Professional Cycling Team, but, after the admission by Lance Armstrong to doping, these examples are of secondary importance.  What is of primary importance is the cognition and behavior of Tyler Hamilton, not a cheap and tawdry psychological examination of what may have been driving Lance Armstrong.

We start at the end, not the beginning, at the Cache-Cache in Aspen, Colorado, and we have to ask the question of why Tyler Hamilton and his attorney visited an establishment known to be a favorite haunt of Lance Armstrong after Tyler Hamilton claimed on the news program 60 Minutes that he personally witnessed Lance Armstrong using performance-enhancing drugs?  The answer is not as propounded in The Secret Race as a simple entertainment for friends.  No.  Tyler Hamilton took people along as witnesses to an explosive event he attempted to provoke.  Remember, there was Jeff Novitzky and a secret Federal Grand Jury investigation into possible criminal conduct by the United States Postal Service Professional Cycling Team and Lance Armstrong, and there was a distinct possibility Tyler Hamilton would be called to testify for the prosecution.  A confrontation with Lance Armstrong at the Cache-Cache with witnesses would lay the groundwork for a new theatrical performance Tyler Hamilton desired: The Intimidated Witness.  Predictably, the encounter at the Cache-Cache generated international headlines.  Tyler Hamilton's lawyer claimed Lance Armstrong told Tyler Hamilton if Tyler Hamilton testifies in court to any alleged wrongdoing by U.S. Postal Service cycling teammates, staff, doctors, or other people possibly involved in a doping conspiracy; Lance Armstrong's legal team would "rip his lungs out."  Tyler Hamilton's ploy would have worked to perfection except for one fly in the ointment, no one could clearly hear the conversation.  So there was no absolute proof Lance Armstrong threatened Tyler Hamilton.  Bad Karma.  Undaunted by this flaw in the plan, Tyler Hamilton spun one of the most paranoid delusions in the history of cycling.  Lance Armstrong was everywhere, tapping his phone, hacking his computer, reading his e-mails; the lady who glanced at Tyler Hamilton in the grocery store was one of Lance Armstrong's moles.  When Tyler Hamilton shaved in the morning, Lance Armstrong's grinning face was reflected in the glass.  Tyler Hamilton repeatedly phoned Jeff Novitzky, "Lance is everywhere!"  If Jeff Novitzky would have placed Tyler Hamilton in the federal witness protection program, Tyler Hamilton would have been ecstatic!  But, an unexpected event occurred that derailed Tyler Hamilton's performance.  Suddenly the secret Federal Grand Jury was disbanded and the criminal investigation was terminated!  Tyler Hamilton was so angry at this development he "punched the refrigerator."  Without an indictment of Lance Armstrong Tyler Hamilton expected daily, there would be no trial, thus Tyler Hamilton would not be needed as a prosecution witness, thus there was no reason for Lance Armstrong to continue his intimidation surveillance.  Bummer.

There is a second possible reason for Tyler Hamilton's journey to the Cache-Cache; he went there to deliver a message.  But first we must examine some of the historical record presented in The Secret Race.  Pay special attention when the UCI called Tyler Hamilton to appear at their corporate offices in Aigle, Switzerland, and the subsequent malfunction of Tyler Hamilton's paranoid delusional mind.  Dr. Mario Zorzoli, UCI chief medical officer,* called Tyler Hamilton into his office and informed him blood tests had revealed a double red cell population consistent with a blood transfusion from another person.  Tyler Hamilton called the tests an "impossible" error because he knew he only used autologous blood transfusions of his own blood collected, stored, and modified by Dr. Eufemiano Fuentes.  Tyler Hamilton incorrectly reasoned since there had never been a problem with any of Tyler Hamilton's autologous blood bags, because blood doping had never been previously detected, there could never be a problem.  Dr. Zorzoli stated the possible blood irregularities detected in Tyler Hamilton's blood could be accounted for by other medical reasons, but Dr. Zorzoli warned Tyler Hamilton he was a marked man.  When Tyler Hamilton returned home to Girona, Spain, a letter from Dr. Mario Zorzoli was waiting for him that repeated the warning his blood profiles would be carefully monitored.  Dr. Zorzoli's warning letter was dated June 10, the same day Tyler Hamilton set a personal time trial record up Mont Ventoux and put "1:22 on Lance Armstrong in less than an hour."

Then there was an uncanny number of bizarre circumstances that were misconstrued, but these circumstances would sow the seeds of the eventual destruction of Tyler Hamilton.  Floyd Landis spins a yarn?

"Lance called the UCI on you.  He called Hein Verbruggen after Ventoux.  Said you guys [Team Phonak] and [Iban] Mayo were on some new shit, told Hein Verbruggen to get you.  He knew they'd called you in.  He's been talking shit nonstop.  And I think you have the right to know."  P.211.

Tyler Hamilton rationalizes Dr. Zorzoli's warning in this completely irrational way after the information provided by Floyd Landis:

Now it all made sense: the trip to Aigle, Switzerland, the weird meeting with Dr. Zorzoli.  It all had been because of Lance.  Lance had called the UCI on June 10, the day I'd beaten him on Ventoux, the same warning letter they'd sent to Girona, Spain.  Lance called Hein and Hein called me. P.211.

Talk about an odd coincidence!  The warning letter was based on solid scientific evidence of heterologous red blood cells due to a probable mix up of blood bags by Jose Maria Batres who was an assistant to Dr. Eufemiano Fuentes, but Tyler Hamilton has rationalized the whole episode as a set up by Lance Armstrong.

Lance called the UCI on you.  Told Hein on you.  He's been talking shit nonstop. P.212.

Tyler Hamilton reasoned Lance Armstrong was a rat who finked Team Phonak to the UCI.  Tyler Hamilton, the $900,000 Phonak team leader and 2004 Tour de France favorite contender rode up to 'le patron' Lance Armstrong during Stage 1 of the 2004 Tour de France, and when Lance Armstrong opened his mouth to speak, Lance Armstrong was abruptly cut off by a legendary Tyler Hamilton steroid rage infused tirade:

Tyler Hamilton to Lance Armstrong: Shut the fuck up Lance, you piece of shit, shut the fuck up.  I know you.  I know what you did.  I know you've been ratting me out, talking shit about our team.  [Phonak]  Worry about yourself, because we are going to fucking kill you!  P.212; italics added.

Tyler Hamilton thought he would win the 2003 Tour de France going away.  But bad karma intervened again.  He was mixed up in an early stage peloton crash and fractured his collar bone.  His date with destiny to become a Tour de France champion was derailed again, although Tyler Hamilton did finish fourth in the general classification and win one stage of the race.

Back to the Cache-Cache.  Tyler Hamilton went to the Cache-Cache to send Lance Armstrong a message, something along these lines.  Listen you rat.  Me and my new team, Jeff Novitzky, the secret federal grand jury, the Justice Department, Travis Tygart, USADA: worry about yourself, because we are going to fucking kill you!  Like some tragic Shakespearean jester, Tyler Hamilton could not resist singing arias about the certain demise of the king.  He arranged the "accidental" meeting with the deliberate intention of provoking an argument, baiting the bear, savoring the moment.  Tyler Hamilton would finally have revenge on the rat who took away his Olympic time trial gold medal, the rat who foiled his destiny to win the Tour de France, the rat who ruined his life.

And it was all a misplaced paranoid delusion.  The UCI didn't need Lance Armstrong to convict Tyler Hamilton of doping.  Tyler Hamilton was obsessed with his blood bags, even after he, Iban Mayo, and Jan Ullrich all got sick with a high fever during the 2004 Tour de France from the blood that came from the laboratory of Dr. Eufemiano Fuentes.  After all, Tyler Hamilton realized he got a bad bag when he urinated dead red blood cells all night during the 2004 Tour de France.  How could a man with such a sophisticated doping education not realize the danger and fit the pieces of the puzzle together, how did such a superb athlete become so dependent upon dope that he failed to reason out the consequences of his behavior?

Easy.  For the same reason these supermen bonk.  The muscles don't need high hematocrit, they don't need steroids, they need glucose; a fact they forget when they are flying high and bonk.  Cheaters need a stable mind and a good amount of luck.  Most of all dopers need a good doctor and people who keep their mouths shut.  Tyler Hamilton was evolving from Dr. Jekyll into Mr. Hyde and eventually, he would have offended someone and been caught even if his precious doping doctor had not gotten careless.

Tyler Hamilton: a man of bad karma, manipulative tendencies, and self-delusions; was an attention seeker who Lance Armstrong in the end refused to entertain.  When Lance Armstrong refused to fight USADA, Tyler Hamilton's influence ended.  Tyler Hamilton was counting on years of arbitration.

Conclusion:

There may be further civil litigation against Lance Armstrong since people are lined up for miles to sue him, so don't despair Tyler.  They may need your services yet.  And you are a despicable enough person to provide them.

Footnote:

*Dr. Mario Zorzoli, chief medical officer of the UCI was fired after he released Lance Armstrong's 1999 Tour de France doping control forms to Damien Ressiot of L'Equipe, during the 2004 research tests done at LNDD that reportedly found recombinant EPO in Lance Armstrong's 1999 Tour de France "B" urine samples.  This "B" sample results Travis T. Tygart later called "flaming positives."  Unfortunately, the confirmation "A" samples were depleted in 1999 and unavailable for testing.  Under WADA Code an adverse analytical finding cannot result solely from the "B" samples.  Travis Tygart exploited the unsophistication of his audience to spin a "white lie."

Bicycle Riders Are Idiots Too

Forget the ineradicable corruption of the UCI that will forevermore spread through the hallowed ground of cycling like a metastasized cancer only because the briber in chief refuses to come forward and blow the whistle on the corrupt who refuse to relinquish power.  There are more important topics, mainly road survival of cyclists who may potentially become an endangered species; not only because of reckless people who drive automobiles and multitask; slaves to gadgetry, oblivious of their surroundings; but because some people who ride bicycles pose potential death threats to themselves, due to ignorance and stupidity.

The other day a person driving a Ford F-250 pickup truck hauling lawn equipment ran a four way stop sign and hit my back bicycle tire, not the wheel, but the tire. A most amazing experience: knowing that you are about to collide with an idiot and die, only to survive by a miracle and live to tell about it.  Of course, this incident was trivial; cyclists experience similar incidents with distracted multitasking morons every day and live to discuss these incidents with a cavalier smirk.  A cat has nine lives but a cyclist has ninety nine lives, daredevils who scoff at the grim reaper with impunity.  But as everyone knows death always draws the white pawn.  Sooner or later death will win no matter how brilliant your defensive strategy or how brilliant your planning; and following the rules of the road like a saint won't save your life from a distracted fool.  However, you may prolong you life until that last incident.

Death does not necessarily excuse bad bicycle behavior though.  The object is to live as long as possible, not hasten death by means of stupidity or recklessness.  Most avid cyclists have experienced enough close calls to understand that it is better to follow the rules of the road and act like a responsible adult rather than a child, even though the road is full of irresponsible adults who act like children.  Cyclists are professional riders who have identifying badges of courage in the form of healed bones and road rash scars from encounters with automobiles and bicycle riders who have a callous disregard or basic ignorance of basic road safety.  There is a bicycle automobile collision every eleven minutes in the United States and automobile drivers are at fault seventy percent of the time.  That means that bicycle riders are at fault thirty percent of the time.

Examples of bad cycling practice:

How many times have you had to ride around a moron who is riding against traffic?   Riding against traffic is the number one killer of bicycle riders, people don't expect traffic coming from the wrong direction.

Then there is the curb hugger.  Curb huggers have a bad habit of drifting out the bike lane into the curb at red lights even though there may be a hundred cars backed up waiting to turn right.  You are still in the bicycle lane waiting patiently for the light to turn green and you have allowed enough distance for automobiles to turn right unobstructed.  Usually curb huggers are weekend warriors, or worse, simpleton hillbillies who wear old shabby clothes and ride old mountain bikes or cruisers with parts dangling off the frame.  But nothing makes me more angry than to have a curb hugger with a garbage bike pass me on the right while I am stopped at a red light.  Professional cycling teams and European riders wait behind you in single file and then pass you when the light turns green, perfectly acceptable; a man does not remain Mario Cipollini forever.  But come on man, you get in my way then ride at five miles an hour, and the way the street lights are timed in this city, I pass you, then I have to wait at the light, and here you come along dragging ass; then you go around me again and park your worthless ass up against the curb.  You irritate me and you irritate the frustrated drivers who stack up behind your worthless ass.  But never try to comment on the stupidity of these fools, they actually act offended and act like they are bicycle sages while in comparison you are some sort of dolt.

Then there is the gung-ho faux pro rider who has to pass you on the road.  Nothing makes me laugh more than watching a young man sprint for all he is worth to pass up an old master like me. Listen clown, you don't have to endanger my life with a display of your cycling prowess, you will never impress me!

Then there is the red light runner.  Most street lights don't recognize bicycles; bicycles don't trigger the mechanism.  I have watched lights at clear intersections cycle through the walk cycle and reset a dozen times; but if a automobile never arrives then the cycle would repeat indefinitely.   You have two options, pitch a tent and wait forever, or run the light.   Methuselah would run the light or perish from old age.  But this is different from the idiot who weaves in and out of traffic to avoid stopping for a light.  What is most stupid about this trick is the fact that you always catch these morons at the next light even after obeying the traffic light and waiting.  Stupid.  But never comment on these people either.

Then there is the round and round.  Around and around in circles in front of the patiently waiting traffic and cyclists who are stewing in increasing frustration watching this fool show off like some sort of exhibitionist lunatic.  

Conclusion:

I could list another thousand violations committed by bicyclists that deserves a good beating across the kidneys with a bicycle pump, but what is the point.  Stupid fools exist everywhere, that is a human trait that will never be eradicated from this planet.  But there is no excuse for cyclists who refuse to comply with or understand good bicycle practice; cyclists who endanger more lives than there own, or for cyclists who set bad precedents, or who aggravate automobile cyclist relations.  Truth, all cyclists are regarded as idiots by automobile drivers by default because of the bad behavior of a few stupids and crazies, but then again, true cyclists regard all automobile drivers as idiots because of the bad behavior of a few stupids and crazies.   

Listen:

If I do not post for a while check the obituaries.  I am seriously thinking of composing a farewell message to be posted after my death, "died from injuries sustained from a collision with a distracted driver while riding his bicycle."

Have a nice ride today!

Travis Tygart: Out Of Bounds

Travis Tygart is pounding the drum for Lance Armstrong to come forward, complete with confession in hand, to implicate the duplicitous nefarious scoundrels that comprise the UCI leadership, who allegedly accept bribes in return for favorable suppression of positive dope tests.  Hein Verbruggen allegedly stuffed his pockets on numerous occasions from desperate cyclists who would rather continue to "unduly enrich" themselves rather than face arbitration hearings, suspensions, disgrace, and lack of income.  It has also been alleged that the current president of the UCI Pat McQuaid along with the current UCI executive committee endeavored to cover up this bribery scheme.

Of course, all of these issues were to be rectified by an investigation by an independent committee of highly qualified people who were expected to leave no stone unturned to arrive at the truth.  There was a question as to the true nature of the independence of the committee, however, when it was revealed that some of the committee members had affiliation with the International Olympic Committee that by implication would infer a covert effort to protect the World Anti-Doping Agency from any culpability.  Also one would wonder if the committee composed of such people would have a motive for revenge against the UCI for past skirmishes and lawsuits that were filed between the UCI and WADA during the Hein Verbruggen administration.

Nevertheless, the lack of cooperation of Lance Armstrong to come forward and blow the whistle on the UCI is troublesome considering the fact that the independent committee was disbanded before considering the bribery issue and considering the fact that the UCI executive committee has refused to take any action.  Travis Tygart is convinced that the independent committee was abandoned so that the blinders and handcuffs would remain on in order to leave the truth opaque.  Perhaps Lance Armstrong would be more forthcoming if Travis Tygart would be more diplomatic and compromise by reducing the lifetime ban he imposed with a more reasonable suspension.  However, this is unlikely to happen because then cycling fanatics could accuse USADA of employing the same sort of duplicitous tactics that Hein Verbruggen employed only in a opposite sense, bribery for information, instead of bribery for suppression of information.  This USADA method was quite successful when applied to cyclists who were more than willing to provide affidavits to implicate Lance Armstrong, Johan Bruyneel, Michele Ferrari, et al, during the steroid era of rampant doping that allegedly occurred on the United States Postal Service Professional Cycling Team.  Indeed, USADA was not loath to bribe riders with sweetheart deals to extract "truth."  So why would USADA be reluctant to continue the trend of deals for information with Lance Armstrong, the man who could settle the issue once and for all?  Is it because Lance Armstrong refused to come forward and admit under oath that the entire contents of the Reasoned Decision was truth not statements based upon envious people with an axe to grind or upon imaginary embellishments contrived through an excess of prosecutorial zeal?  Lance Armstrong did admit to using performance enhancing drugs, but he never suggested that the contents of the Reasoned Decision reflected an accurate depiction of events.  Most people came to the conclusion that the contents of the Reasoned Decision reflected truthful accounts of events by default not through an a posteriori examination of the evidence preferably by an independent committee.  It would be reasonable to conclude that USADA had in mind verification of the Reasoned Decision by the chief culprit himself, and it is not unreasonable to suggest that Lance Armstrong would be baited into implicating himself into some sort of criminal case by careful legal maneuvering that would be revenge for the lack of a criminal indictment by the Federal Grand Jury probe.

Nevertheless, Lance Armstrong refused to accept a barren hook devoid of the worm on the advice of his attorney who scented out the trap.  After all,  Lance Armstrong would have to confirm the conclusions of the Reasoned Decision, if he refused to confirm every conclusion, USADA would call him an outright liar, deceiver, and cheat, as they have done with his denials of using performance enhancing drugs after riding with Discovery Channel in 2005.  Lance Armstrong claims to have ridden clean in 2009 and 2010, but USADA claims UCI Biological Passport data that proves doping, even though in the absence of a failed anti-doping test the UCI Biological Passport data is nothing more than a statement of probability.  Perhaps USADA was counting upon Lance Armstrong to confirm under oath that the UCI Biological Passport data that USADA had in their possession was a factual record of doping in spite of his formal denials during the Oprah Winfrey "confession," more  icing on the cake.  For years the UCI Biological Passport has been criticized as an expensive boondoggle that exposes nothing more than wishful thinking, but an admission by Lance Armstrong would be the final coup de grace to all of the critics forevermore who have the audacity to question the UCI Biological Passport and would set in stone another atrocity against the fundamental rights of athletes.

Clearly Travis Tygart should focus on his own concerns and refrain from trying to police the entire cycling community.  We all know that the UCI is a corrupt organization that should be placed under adult supervision and that the elements that promote corruption should be eradicated without constantly being reminded of this fact by USADA.  We realize that the UCI needs immediate reform and replacement of certain undesirable elements and a new refreshing approach, but we are also cynical enough not to expect miracles.  But then again intransigence, obstinacy, and a refusal to make concessions in expectation of future rewards is also the wrong approach to the problem and ensures nothing more than continual failure to achieve stated goals.  But can you reason with grandiose madmen to make them discern reason from folly?  Good luck with that.