Lou’s Views: In Every Lie…

… there’s a bit of truth.

AP Photo/Peter Dejong, File

As I’m sure you all know by now, Floyd Landis dropped a bomb on the cycling world yesterday, detailing his own performance enhancing drug use and accusing many others of doing the same.

I won’t go into all of the dirt; that’s been laid out in excruciating detail elsewhere. What I want to talk about is the response. With only a couple of exceptions, professional cycling “closed ranks” and uniformly dismissed Landis’ allegations as lies, bullshit or the ravings of a madman, all while professing their own innocence and their support for clean sport.

I have to applaud WADA, who said they encourage, “…everyone with knowledge of banned practices in sport, including athletes who were caught cheating and who denied the evidence for years, to be forthcoming in disclosing the information they may have to the proper authorities,”  for the strongest response.

So… coming back to my quote that I started with:

“In Every Lie There is a Little Bit of Truth”:

I think that we can safely assume that Landis’ entire statement is not a lie. As I said above, he detailed his own history of drug use: what he used, when he used it, how much he spent and who he got it from. Why would he commit professional suicide for the possibility of taking down others on purely circumstantial evidence? He had to get the products from someone and whether it was those he named or others, THAT DESERVES TO BE INVESTIGATED.

Most notably, he concedes that he did dope during the 2006 Tour de France, but says that he was using human growth hormone, not synthetic testosterone as was said to be detected. Maybe he is pursuing a vendetta against France’s Chataney-Malabry anti-doping laboratory, but it CERTAINLY MERITS INVESTIGATION.

If individuals are named in his claims, I would fully expect that USADA conduct a thorough investigation. It’s going to be Floyd’s word against the others, but it should not be dismissed out of hand. I find it hard to believe that someone can dope for nearly 10 years and no one else knows anything about it.

As fans of cycling, we need to hold the UCI, WADA and USADA to their promise to control doping in sport.