Two Wheel Blogs

Well there you have it. Floyd's B sample was positive. Phonak phired him immediately. Le Tour will probably ask for their yellow jersey back. Money too - all $576 Grand of it.

Floyd Landis is likely to lose his Tour de France title after a second drugs sample confirmed a positive test for excessive amounts of the male sex hormone testosterone.

A statement issued by the International Cycling Union (UCI) on Saturday said Landis's B sample taken after his win in the 17th stage on July 20 had confirmed a doping offence.

Landis, who again denied ever taking drugs, was immediately sacked by his Swiss team Phonak.

He will now probably become the first rider ever to be stripped of the Tour de France title for doping, lose 450,000 euros ($575,700) prize money and face a two-year ban from the sport.

"Landis will be dismissed without notice for violating the team's internal Code of Ethics," Phonak said in a statement. more

It's a long way from over, folks. Floyd and his lawyers are burning up the midnight oil coming up with challenges to the tests.

Do you think he stands a chance? I think he's toast.

The New York Times just published an article that says the testosterone found in Floyd Landis wasn't his:

Test Said to Show Synthetic Testosterone in Landis’s Body

Tests performed on the cyclist Floyd Landis’s initial urine sample showed that some of the testosterone in his body had come from an external source, and was not naturally produced by his own system, according to a person at the International Cycling Union with knowledge of the results.

This one hot on the heals of the CyclingNews article earlier today saying the test they did on Floyd's sample was the kind that detects exogenous testosterone:

As it turns out, the semi-synthetic testosterone has less 13C than the testosterone made in the body. The amounts of these carbon isotopes are measured using a method called Isotope Ratio Mass Spectrometry (IRMS). A urine sample that is low in 13C, compared to a standard of endogenous testosterone indicates doping.

He said
Jesús Manzano on the effects of testosterone:

Its effects are felt almost immediately. It gives you a lot of force and produces a euphoria.

First are patches, called AndroGel, which are applied in during a light massage usually during the evening mealtime. The patches had to be used less than two hours to not risk going above the T/E ratio threshold and risking a positive doping test. Suppositories are used as well as intravenous injections, called Rastandol, taking about 20 minutes to 1 hour before competition.

She said

I was reading CyclingNews today and saw the Allen Lim interview where he gave a glimpse into Floyd Landis' powertap files from his amazing breakaway in yesterday's Stage 17 of Le Tour de France. Lim is part of Floyd's training entourage.

There are some interesting statistics in the article which I've pulled out here in bullet form:

• Floyd Landis' average speed for Stage 17 was just over 37kph, or 23mph. There were five mountains to climb in Stage 17.
• Floyd's power for the nearly 5 1/2 hour stage was 281 watts. He raised that to 318watts for the last two hours.
• Some of his peak power levels for the stage (all of which took place during his attack):
  

  Time           Wattage
  30 seconds     544
  10 minute      431
  30 minute      401
  

• On the Joux-Plane, the final climb of the stage, with an 8.5% grade for 11.7km / 7.3miles Floyd averaged 373watts. Must have been getting tired.
• His average cadence for the stage was 89rpm.

I'm curious to know whether his cadence average includes zeros. If not then his average cadence when pedaling will be much higher, because a great amount of the descending time would be spent coasting. His top speed on the final descent was only 83.7kph, or 51.9mph. Not all that fast if you go by how fast the OLN guys always say the peloton descends. Then again Floyd was alone, so he didn't have the aero advantages the peloton affords.

I hope you're weather has improved as much as ours has here. The last week nearly drove me insane with the heat. When I saw my thermometer reading my first thought was, "Ah well that's it. The darned thing died from the heat." But it was after all the correct reading. Temps in the low 80's today, and under a brilliant blue sky. Just gorgeous.

I just checked my media recorder. Good. Today's the Time Trial at Le Tour. (you didn't forget, did you? Yeah I didn't think so.) Recorder is recording. I think I'll go hit some trails today. Won't my monkey be excited. It's been waiting patiently for some decent trail riding weather. There's been so much hot weather lately I've turned to the road exclusively. Time to get back on my 29er for some off-road excitement.

More on that later. Oh, and here's the meaty part of my last ride. More time in the sweet spot.

You do know about training in the sweet spot,

I think I'm more tired out from watching Floyd Landis in yesterday's stage than I am from riding. Simply amazing. I'm not sure there are words to describe what we saw in yesterday's stage.

To say he came back strong from his bad day doesn't come anywhere close to describing Floyd's ride.

Speaking of his bad day, I had wondered aloud about Floyd's power output in his shattered ascent of La Toussuire:

"Watching him struggle up La Toussuire got me wondering. Do you think it's possible a normal hack like you or me could hang with a bonked Floyd Landis on a Category 1 climb like La Toussuire? Wouldn't you love to try?"

I got my answer from Robbie Ventura during yesterday's coverage. He mentioned that during the last 10k up La Toussuire Floyd's power output had dropped to an average 260 watts.

OK well on the one hand, yes, I for one at least could have paced Floyd up La Toussuire. Possibly you could to. Could you do it after 4 hours in the saddle? Not me. Maybe after one hour. Not after two.