Velochimp: Astrochimp on Cycling

Austin Murphy of Sports Illustrated got a call back from Floyd Landis. Murphy is probably the first reporter that Landis has spoken with since the news broke today of the positive drug test. In the interview Murphy asks Floyd the obvious question and gets an obvious answer.

I asked him straight up: “Did you do it, bro?”

He said, “No, c’mon man,” in what would turn out to be the first of several denials.

I want very badly to believe him.

Landis is doing what he can at the moment to fight the doping case by proving that he has an elevated level of testosterone.

He’s retaining the services of a Spanish doctor named Luis Hernandez, who has helped other riders shown by tests to have elevated levels of testosterone. “In hundreds of cases,” Landis told me, “no one’s ever lost one.”

Landis also points to other contributing factors including a newly revealed thyroid problem.

He raised the possibility that the cortisone shots he’s been taking for his ravaged right hip — the hip he’ll soon have replaced — may have had some effect on the test. Then he revealed this: “I’ve had a thyroid condition for the last year or so and have been taking small amounts of thyroid hormone. It’s an oral dose, once a day.”

Sport Illustrated

Now the newest doping related drama looks like it will drag on for a while. Meanwhile all of the riders from Astana that were barred from the Tour for their alleged connection to Operation Puerto have been cleared. Showing that the banning of the Astana team was hasty if not unfounded. Velonews