Landis On Racing Clean

by Rant on February 6, 2007 · 2 comments

in Doping in Sports, Floyd Landis, Tour de France

Without naming names, a press release sent out by Michael Henson of the Floyd Fairness Fund on Monday afternoon appears to take direct aim at comments made by Bradley Wiggins in recent days. In the press release, Landis addresses recent comments about racing clean by stating:

Racing clean does not guarantee that there will be no faulty lab results or false accusations of positive results.

Indeed, there is nothing any athlete (or anyone who must undergo random drug testing) can do to prevent a lab from making errors in procedure or errors in data interpretation that could lead to a result inappropriately labeled as “positive.”

I have been clean my entire career – a fact supported by my perfect record of negative tests other than the one flawed result – and passed seven other tests at the 2006 Tour de France, including before and after Stage 17. I won four major stage races in 2006, and won them all fair and square.

And yet, as Landis observes, the consequences of a flawed result can be devastating for even the cleanest of athletes.

When an allegedly positive result is leaked to the media, a career of racing and winning clean gets lost among condemnations from people that are too lazy to inform themselves, or too scared to stand up for what is right.

Landis sympathizes with other cyclists concerns about how doping affects the sport, saying:

I agree with the recent comments made by a member of the pro peloton who expressed his concern about doping and about depending on professional cycling to make a living. This is especially true if the fundamental errors in my case are an indication of how flawed the anti-doping system can be.

Then, in a message that seems to be squarely aimed at Wiggins, Landis offers him this advice:

Instead of repeatedly seeking media coverage to point out that he is racing clean, he should worry about the anti-doping organizations’ current ineffective and unfair systems, which ‘catch’ clean riders like him right along with the cheaters.

Wiggins should definitely be worrying about that. As should all professional cyclists. Floyd Landis’ trials and tribulations should serve as a cautionary tale for those who believe that just living clean and racing clean is enough to avoid the anti-doping cops. It’s not.

No system is perfect. Eventually innocent people will become ensnared in the anti-doping process. Very likely, they already have. The mark of a well-designed and well-thought-out system is whether it can deal with these situations fairly while still being tough on those who are truly guilty.

The fight between Landis and the anti-doping authorities is important not just for Landis’ own professional future, but for those who may follow in his footsteps. As Steroid Nation states:

The importance of this case cannot be understated. The outcome will determine the direction of doping prosecutions for years to come.

Indeed, it will. And even Bradley Wiggins, for all his protestations of clean living and clean racing, may not be immune to a knock on the door from the anti-doping police.

Theresa February 6, 2007 at 11:32 am

Why must Wiggins keep running his mouth to the media? He’s given more interviews on riding “clean” than any results in races! Someone needs to explain to him how important this is to the sport (and other sports), and quit focusing on” ME,ME, LOOK AT ME”!! Oh, in fact I did not know that he was a medal winner. And I’ve seen him in the press at least a half a dozen times……and at this point I don’t really care about his career.

Yol February 6, 2007 at 2:08 pm

Tell Wiggin to ship a few ounces of fresh urine to LNDD, if he’s so confident. Unless he’s worried we might learn the results before he does…

Previous post:

Next post: