"outLANDISh"

title stolen from my RoadBikeRider newsletter. unfortunately, this title was given due to Floyd's first mega accomplishment, winning the Tour de France. i'm not sure how they will "out-Landish-ize" the second title, given for his potential disgrace. it is now known that Floyd is the rider listed as testing positive for testosterone after the epic stage into Morzine. it both makes complete sense and none whatsoever. he was empty. he came back. Heroism. Drugs. on one hand, innocent until proven guilty. who knows? bad B sample. some other wack but true excuse. on the other, this sport is poisoned, probably like all other sports, but it is a sport based solely on sponsorship, and therefore at the whims of the "market", the need to be chased. in a typical league, say the NFL or EPL, a rogue state can cause problems, but the brotherhood of owners has an equal and compelling need to cover each other's back from negative press and publicity. they are much more 'in it together', being equals as owners. in the cycling biz, there is no owner but rather competing PR entities who want to one-up the next entity to grab more and more PR. there's no overriding structure. there's no top. compare the drug story versus Cycling and versus Baseball. does anyone think there are fewer drugs used in baseball? if you do, you're a Bush-supporting Republican and the WMDs are in Baghdad. hell no, those 'roid freaks look like a bunch of Michelin men with muscle. BUT baseball's power structure NEEDS those stories to go away, the owners, the players, the union...it's only the press that tries to get the story, but to little avail.

Cycling, on the other hand, seems mired in a kind of clan struggle for the sport- the UCI, the Managers (DS) assoc, the riders' assoc (very small that it is), the Pro-Tour, the ASO and the other Tours, the press, WADA, need i go on? none of these entities seems to work with another for the betterment of either the sport or the pocketbook. no top. free for all!

i don't know. sour grapes. they're a bunch of cheaters and deserve to get caught. i saw that German TV may not televise the future Tour. i can certainly see OLN doing the same (or not doing the same, as it were). but are the Germans serious to think that they're beloved footballers aren't dosing enormous amounts of EPO, stimulants, HGH and the like to be bigger, better footballers? what a ridiculous, naive notion.

if it comes back negative and we have an anomoly, great. if it's positive for doping and he loses the Tour, i will immediately erase my bookmarks of pro cycling, and i will personally write to Floyd the Fraud, or Phloyd the Phony, and demand the $$ back from him that i paid for a t-shirt extolling his inspiration. i hate this.