Lots of information on T/E testing on FreeFloydLandis. Lots of press coverage on the incident, far more than there was when he was winning the Tour de France.

Great comparison on PezCyclingNews that demonstrates the differences (or lack thereof) between Floyd’s training rides and his epic Stage 17 performance in the Tour de France.

Training Ride:

Duration: 6:04 (hrs:min)
Distance: 115 miles
Average Speed: 19.0 mph
Perception of Effort (1-10): 7
Average Power: 247 Watts
Total Work from Power: 5394 Kjoules
Peak Power for 1 min: 545 watts
Peak Power for 5 min: 470 watts
Peak Power for 30 min: 391 watts
Peak Power for 1 hour: 377 watts
Peak Power for 2 hours: 372 watts

Here’s Floyd’s data from Stage 17 (source: Allen Lim, Bicycling.com):

- 5 hours 23 minutes and 36 seconds.

- Covering 200.5 kilometers (130 km alone in the wind).

- At a speed of 37.175 km/hr.

- Averaging 281 watts when moving for the whole ride and 318 watts over the last two hours.

- Averaging 324 watts while pedaling for the whole ride and 364 watts over the last 2 hours.

- At an average cadence of 89 rpm.

- 5456 kj

- Attacking about a quarter of the way up the Col des Saisies for 30 seconds at 544 watts, which settled into a 5-minute peak of 451 watts, which continued for 10 minutes at an average of power of 431 watts, and left everyone in his dust after 30 minutes at an average power of 401 watts.

- Spending 13.2% of his time or 43 minutes coasting like a rocket on the descents and another 60% between 4 to 7 watts per kilogram of body weight (aka, the pain cave).

- Holding onto 373 watts over the Col de Joux-Plane.

Landis won several prestigious races this year, including the Tour of California and Paris-Nice. He passed all of the doping controls then. It doesn’t add up that he would pass all the tests up to and after Stage 17.

I used to be a Tyler Hamilton apologist (after all, he swore on his dead dog’s grave!), but after looking at the faxes between his wife and Dr. Fuentes, I’m more skeptical. With Landis, I’m still on his bandwagon. Occam’s Razor, in my mind, doesn’t apply here even if the B sample confirms the A sample. Elevated T/E ratios doesn’t imply doping; it is what it says, and those ratios can be explained by other means than doping.

Now for some good news… CNET UK recently did a mano-a-mano battle between a Newton MessagePad 2100 and a Samsung Q1 UMPC. Despite the 10-year age gap, the Newton comes out of the ring victorious! The Newton weathered several blows from the Q1’s color screen, Windows application support, and sync abilities, but it struck the knockout blow using its superior battery life (30 hours to 2.5 hours) and rock-bottom price ($50-100 vs. $1000). As a lifelong Newton user, I hold my Newton up in pride! Hear hear! Long live the Newton!

This is not what I wanted to hear when I heard that one rider tested positive during the Tour de France last week. Floyd Landis tested a positive A sample following the 17th stage, when he single-handlely decimated the peloton and rode himself back into contention.

I’m still siding with Floyd on this one, and here’s my explanation of the situation. Medical science and testing still cannot explain seemingly superhuman feats of athletic achievement. Two weeks ago, Rae and I watched Wired to Win, the IMAX movie on the Tour de France and the brain’s ability for adaptation. The movie originally was supposed to focus on Tyler Hamilton, but that plan got thrown out the window when he tested positive in the Vuelta. Focusing instead on Baden Cooke and Jimmy Casper, the movie explained how the brain wires and rewires itself after every experience and challenge.

For Landis, the effort he put into Stage 17 must have affected his body in ways that scientific tests would categorize as potential doping. I believe in the power of the mind to push the body to heights not normally attainable, and I want to believe that this is what happened to Landis. The thought of him shooting up in the middle of the night (following his beer and press conference) doesn’t jive with me.

There’s got to be another reason, and I speak for nearly everyone in saying we’re on pins and needles awaiting more information.

Wait, there’s one more thing. Landis got this little sidebar mention that he won the Tour on all the major US news sites last weekend. One reason is surely Tiger Woods’ 11th Major Win at the British Open. Now, when he’s accused of doping, guess what Floyd gets? Not a little sidebar, but a front-page photo and headline. Gotta love the sports media here.

Listen to today’s press conference with Floyd Landis on VeloNews.com.

What an amazing Tour de France this year! This was easily the most exciting race since 1989 and 2003, with the race changing leads a record-tying eleven times. Landis truly deserves this race after proving to everyone that it’s not over till it’s over. I watched Stages 16 and 17 live, and like all those who have been following the race, I’ve gone from sadness to incredulity to sheer amazement. I’m shocked that this sporting event and this particular story has not gotten the attention it should have in the mainstream US press. Amid the stories of the Bonds “will he get indicted or not?”, Landis’ remarkable comeback is getting second page status. That’s really quite sad.

Felix, who has been staying at the house for the past two days after returning from Vietnam, was telling me that the ratings for this year’s Tour are down 50% from Armstrong’s seventh victory last July. What can be done to bring the ratings and American’s interest up?

Here’s my theory on why cycling, nor soccer, in America hasn’t caught on. Americans share a tradition of having a strong work ethic. Despite this, when it comes to sports and recreation, we’re basically lazy. We don’t like sports where we have to go all out for hours at a time. We like to rest and relax between plays. Sports in the US are tied heavily to the broadcast networks and commercialism. Baseball, football, and basketball all have plenty of commercial breaks, wherein Americans can grab a beer, go to the bathroom, or stuff themselves full of food. In soccer, you can’t miss a moment; a goal can happen almost anytime. With cycling, there’s no rest on the bike for three weeks; you keep going and going, every day trying to turn back the clock in the exorable march to Paris. Sports that don’t have the interests of capitalism and commercialism just don’t cut it here in the US. Can it change? I think so, but I struggle right now to see how. What do you think?

Landis today proved that it’s not over till it’s over! Over 8 minutes down at the beginning of the stage, he made a daring breakaway and gained back over seven and half minutes! Amazing! It’s going to come down to the final time trial on Saturday. If not then, we may see a sprint for the Yellow Jersey on the streets of Paris on Sunday!

“I came here to win the tour. That’s what I still want to do, and I’m not done fighting yet.” Regards the ride today, “I don’t care. I came here to win the Tour de France.”

That miracle I alluded to yesterday? It may have just happened! Rock on Floyd!

Stage 16 turned the entire Tour upside down. Landis cracked badly on the ascent to La Toussuire. I was watching the stage this morning, and I felt so bad for him as he was dropped by Menchov, Kloden, Sastre, and Pereiro. When you crack, it’s as if you’re standing still on the bike.

Now 8 minutes down, his Tour looks to be over. There have been comebacks in the past, but it seems like only a miracle will bring him back into yellow by Sunday.

It’s the day before the three epic stages in the Swiss Alps. These are the days that will determine the winner of the Tour de France this year, and these are the stages I’ve been waiting for.

Who do you think will grab the maillot jaune? Landis, Evans, Kloden, Menchov, Sastre, Rogers, or Leipheimer?

Some thoughts on the World Cup match yesterday.

I’ve come to dislike penalty kicks as a way to determine the winner of the match. I say play until one team scores the Golden Goal. Because of the way the match ended, I’m not sad that France lost; rather, I’m disappointed they didn’t get the opportunity to win outright.

I must say that the block by Buffon on the Zidane header was pretty good. The header itself was amazing to see. That could have been Zidane’s defining moment had it gone in. Instead, we got another type of defining moment using his head! What was Zidane thinking? Was he called a terrorist or harki by Materazzi? Or did he just lose it in a moment of madness?

Read the rest of this entry »

After watching today’s Stage 7 time trial, I’m wondering if anyone wants to win the Tour de France. Like the commentators said, this was a strange time trial. No clear favorite in the field meant we’d see some fireworks, right? Sorry, the Fourth of July was last week for the American. Julich crashed. Levi had a horrible day in the saddle. Hincapie didn’t look like he’s ready to wear yellow again. Even Floyd Landis, who came in second on the day, had some issues with his bike during the first 16km.

The general classification has been shaken up with the Pyrenees looming. I don’t know if Levi can make up the 6+ minutes that he lost today in the mountains. The interesting storylines to follow in the next two weeks:

• How does Team Discovery function when playing behind?
• Who’s the leader of Team Discovery?
• Who’s the leader for T-Mobile? They have riders in first, third, and fourth position
• Coming out of Lance’s shadow. Can Landis win the Tour?
• Will Tom Boonen win a stage?
• Can Robbie make it four stage wins this year?
• Who’s the leader of CSC? Basso disqualified. Julich crashed out. Sastre next?