Aug 1, 2006
Landis is Busted
Today the news came out that Floyd Landis’ A sample contained traces of exogenos testosterone. This means that testosertone in his system is not his and was either administered or injested somehow. This type of test does not need to be retested since the results look at the composition of the testosterone in the urine and cannot be contaminated (from what I read). This is not good news since this makes it very difficult to explain why Landis has exogenous testosterone even if the B sample comes up negative.
As you can see, they also mention that his original T/E ratio was 11. A good argument could be made that a T/E ratio of 5ish is still within normal variation and could be a false positive. For T/E ratio of 11, a good argument can’t really be made. (There is a bell curve for the natural values at the bottom of my earlier post.) Add this to the observation that the testosterone is synthetic, and I think we have ourselves testosterone user. They mention in the article that there is still some retesting to do with other samples, but I can’t concieve of a way that those samples would produce differing results. — Pure Pedantry
Pure Pedantry is a medical science blog that has been analysing the Landis case and is coming up with some medical explainations of the doping tests. PP writes that testosterone does not actually aid in muscle recovery as quickly as many believe. The actual benefit would be to muscles over the period of 10 weeks. So an overnight injection or six hours with the testosterone patch may not be effective enough for muscle recovery.
What actually still puzzles me is why he would use it? We have been have a debate in the earlier post about whether it testosterone would have been effective for helping him win the race. I tend to fall on the side of No, primarily testosterone is not as a stimulant. Also, though some people mentioned the use of testosterone to aid muscle recovery, even then the time course for the action of steroids is not overnight — it is weeks to months. I find it difficult to believe that one injection the night before would matter.
There is a very legitimate question related to the timing of the positive test. Floyd Landis tested positive on day 17 of the Tour de France — right before he made a miraculous comeback to retake the lead. Some people may speculate that testosterone may have helped him do this. This is unlikely to be the case. Testosterone is used during training periods to gain muscle mass. It is not a stimulant like amphetamines. It is not likely that testosterone would improve performance on such a short time scale, nor has it ever been shown to have that effect.
Another interestin note is that Landis’ hip condition Osteonecrosis is associated with abuse of steroids.
For reasons still unclear, people who take steroids — including anabolic steroids — appear to have a greater chance of coming down with the condition….
All steroid use leading to or exacerbating osteonecrosis is a “well proven cause and effect,” said Dr. Mark D. Miller, an orthopedic surgery professor at the University of Virginia, who said that it’s possible Landis’ condition may have been caused or worsened by anabolic steroid use. Dr. Lewis Maharam, a New York sports medicine specialist, echoed that sentiment, but emphasized that osteonecrosis is just as likely to be caused by an injury.
While the Osteonecrosis may not be caused by steroid use, the crash and hip break may be enought to explain the condition.
So now the question is did Landis take a testosterone injection of wear a patch under the assumption that it would aid in his recovery? Did a staff member give a “magic bean” to Landis unknowingly? Could it have been in a steak that he ate? Or did Landis do something dumb and decided to go for a testosterone patch out of desparation?
One interesting fact is that during the epic break Landis was towing Sinkewitz the enitre way until he fell off the pace on the Joux Plane. Landis was also looking for assistance from the large breakaway group that would ahead early in the stage. The usual protocol is that the rider with GC ambitions rewarda breakaway companion with the stage win. If Landis had Sinkewitz stay with him to the finish, Sinkewitz would get the stage win while Periero would keep the Yellow Jersey. Landis would then not be tested unless he came up as one of the random six which would be unlikely. Anyway, another example of rampant speculation.