The Floyd Landis case will not end cleanly. This week brings news of hackers breaking into the French labs’ computers and the lab itself admitting that there were errors in the numbering of the samples. The French lab clarifies that this error in no way affected the positive result, which is part of the Landis defense. To say that the lab work and security are shoddy is an understatement.
The revelation of the computer hacking that includes a letter written in poor French that misspelled the name of the lab in the fake logo is bordering on hilarious. This is almost as bizarre as the Tyler Hamilton “Fake Mustache Man” story that was floated about, but never really followed up on.
The case could hinge on more than science. A man the Hamilton’s call “The Extortionist” has not been publicly identified. He sent text messages to Urs Freule, the manager of Hamilton’s former team, Phonak, claiming Hamilton and Perez would test positive. Both did.
“The Extortionist,” Hamilton said, knew the test results before he did.
It gets better. The man is the father of a former Miss Switzerland and a one-time amateur rider who raced against Freuler.
“It’s like a trashy novel,” said Hamilton.
“Unless you were living this, you wouldn’t believe it,” said Haven Hamilton. “I feel like a crazy person when I’m talking about the case.”
The man was arrested in Zurich after a police chase in which he was wearing a fake mustache for blackmailing Freuler for 20,000 Swiss Francs to protect another rider. Hamilton, who hired two Swiss detectives, hasn’t been able to establish a link between the man and a laboratory. The man said he simply made a lucky guess based on the fact that Hamilton had never won a time trial. But Hamilton said “that’s a bad lie” he’s won several time trials, including two in Switzerland.
-http://www.tylerhamilton.com/febmay2006239.html
Whatever the outcome, Floyd Landis will probably not have a very good relationship with any of the organizations such as the ASO, and the UCI which he has vowed to “bring down”. With all of this bizarre news and behavior from the various “professional organizations” the world of cycling is looking more like the world of pro wrestling.
Will Floyd Landis now color his goatee black ala Hollywood Hulk Hogan? Landis will be the first among a group of “heel” cyclist. They are not welcome into the ProTour but they win races. They have ducked the shoddy doping policies and have been cleared, but the UCI, WADA and ASO are always after them. Just take a look at the cast of characters that will be the “heels”:
Ivan “The Terrible” Basso – He finally found a good way to earn the “terrible” moniker alright. Now that Basso has made Discovery Channel public enemy number one.
Oleg Tinkoff could be considered the “Mouth of the South” Jimmy Hart for managing a team full of “heels”. From the links to Jan Ullrich, Fransico Mancebo and Tyler Hamilton, Tinkoff is looking at every possible way to piss off the ProTour.
Jan Ullrich can be considered Rowdy Roddy Piper as being one of the baddest of the bad.
T-Mobile and CSC can be considered the good guys as they implement team doping tests and want to show they are clean. Bjanre Riis is like Andre the Giant, being big and having his glory days in the past.
Anyway, the off-season has barely begun and Floyd Landis’ case probably will not be resolved until January or February, so sit back and look for more whack shenanigans from the world of Pro Wres–err I mean cycling.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jimmy_Hart
Sebastian
Landis could start every race by singing an off-key Star-Spangled Banner, just like Nikolai Volkoff did with the Soviet anthem back in the old days.
Also: someone give Francesco “legalize it all” Moser an orange tan and let him be Ric Flair. (How do you add an extra Italian syllable to the end of “Woo”?)