http://sports.espn.go.com/oly/cycling/news/story?id=5203604
🙂

during the years that he rode for the U.S. Postal Service

Wish my postie did….post at 1pm somedays!

he has become a cycling pariah with little to no chance of ever riding for an elite team again

I'm not sure flinging mud at all and sundry is going to chnage that.

Did anyone really believe he was innocent? I didn't think he even sounded convinced most of the time.

LOL – sounds like he's going to blow the lid big time!

I really want an 'I believe Landis' t-shirt now (I know it was Tyler but…)

I thought it was pretty well accepted that he was a drug cheat anyway?

I'm not sure flinging mud at all and sundry is going to chnage that.

I'm not sure the point was to become less of one now, more to clear his conscience (or take others down while he goes) since he's suffering those problems anyway, can't imagine he's thinking "if I tell the truth everyone will love me again".

nah, the whole "I didn't inject testosterone, I just AM that manly" always sounded desparate.

sounds like his shrink has pushed him into public disclosure as a way of shedding the emotional baggage that lying about your way of life for years and eventually being forced to accept that noone that matters believes a word that you said, except your mum (that must have been a hard call, actually) must bring with it

he's so discredited now though that any journals or what he can bandy about will probably be ignored.

Supporting Professional cycling sometimes feels harder than participating in it. the bastards.

Disappointed to see that the Floyd Fairness Fund has closed 🙂

For those who missed out:

http://web.archive.org/web/20080111020942rn_1/www.floydlandis.com/blog/

All that time and money he spent defending himself, the book he wrote, the whole "I never doped" thing and now he does a U turn that would put most politicians to shame…

Why, what's the reason behind it all? He just comes across as even worse than he did in the first place. If he'd have done what Miller did, hold his hands up and say "Yep, it's a fair cop" then that's something but now it just seems to have turned into a vendetta to bring down some more of the big names. Nice timing Floyd, middle of the Giro and 2 months before the Tour… 🙁

…along with female hormones…

😯

What's that do for you?

oldgit – Member
I thought it was pretty well accepted that he was a drug cheat anyway?

Are any of them not?

The main issue will be any mud flinging will be discredited as by his own admission, he has been lying for the last 8 years. I bet Weightweenies and the Cycling News forum are quiet this morning, they seem to be the usual domain of the Landis is innocent brigade.

…along with female hormones…

What's that do for you?

It's to make sure your riding kit matches your bike.

As far as drugging up goes, there's a difference between being a drugs cheat, and not getting caught it seems. There's plenty of books on the subject but there's a fair number of sports doctors out there who are of the belief that drugging people up *to a point* is perfectly acceptable, as long as they don't drug them up enough to trigger the test threshold.

What a gold-plated, diamond encrusted arsehole. He dragged the whole of the sport through the courts thinking there was a chink of light that he might get off on a technicality knowing all along that hes a lying **** ****.

What an utter ****.

could be it's a cynical attention grab, but I suspect (and hope) that it's more part of his therapy to come clean so he can move on personally.

A lot of people can suffer serious depression from maintaining these lies over the years and in the face of public expectation of both performance and moral standing. The pressure can be unbearable. Often the only way to move beyond it is to take the cork off the bottle and release the pressure. Public admission is one way for someone in the spotlight like Floyd. If he is being completely honest now then that's more important for his mental health than whether the public believes him. His mum on the other hand……

The timing would always be bad but I agree, middle of the season is worse than most.

So few of these guys actually make a fortune out of the sport, you wonder where the pressure comes from that so many of them do this. Can't be for the fans; I know not one cycling fan who enjoys seeing riders pulled mid race for doping offences or shrugs their shoulders when a 25 year old stagierre had a heart attack because his blood is thick as treacle. I can only assume the competitive spirit alone is driving them, which is pretty close to mentally broken if it's pushing you that far I think.

glad I'm a recreational rider without the talent or drive to get mixed up in that world. Not sure I could take it and it seems that Floyd couldn't either.

could be it's a cynical attention grab, but I suspect (and hope) that it's more part of his therapy to come clean so he can move on personally.

could be it's part of his therapy to come clean so he can move on personally, but I suspect it's a cynical attention grab.

Or maybe he just felt drained by living a lie and couldn't face his conscience anymore?

You know. It could be as simple as that.

Somethings needs to be done to discourage cheating.

I suggest that in future all potential sports professional are cloned versions of one particularly successful professional from the past.

Therefore all competitors will start out from the same baseline and all will have the same potential in their genetic make up. They will also need to be brought up in a controlled environment, so maybe the parents will need to be cloned as well.

Then the winner really will be the one who worked the hardest and it will remove the temptation to cheat because one competitor wont be thinking another competitor has an unfair advantage due to naturally producing more testosterone.

hora

What a gold-plated, diamond encrusted arsehole. He dragged the whole of the sport through the courts thinking there was a chink of light that he might get off on a technicality knowing all along that hes a lying **** ****.

Exactly what most of the cycling world will be thinking right now and Landis knows it … and has known it for years

hora

Or maybe he just felt drained by living a lie and couldn't face his conscience anymore?

very well put. At least I hope this is the case.