Anybody who is even remotely interested in the detection and prosecution of athletes who have used performance enhancing drugs should take the time to read Judge William F. Hue's review of the Floyd Landis case: Serving the Master - the Landis Decision Explained

 

html version here: trustbut.blogspot.com/2007/10/hues-review-serving-master.html

 

.pdf version here: ia351411.us.archive.org/0/items/Hue_Landis_Review/Hue-Landis-Decision.pdf

 

In his review, the Wisconson Circuit Court Judge explains point-by-point the fundamental failings of the WADA code and prosecutorial system, which is designed to produce convictions rather than to dispense justice.

 

The entire piece is must-read information for anybody who has followed the Landis case or who is concerned about doping in sports, but I'll restrain myself to just one paragraph:

 

"The WADA code must be changed. The noble goal of ridding sport of cheaters has become obsessive. As noble as that goal is, once it becomes so obsessive that it threatens to destroy that which it aspires to protect, as we see happening today in cycling, for example, it has become dangerous. Cycling has reached the point where the fight against doping threatens to destroy not only its structure but its rich history as well. By modifying the system so that it serves its purpose and balances that purpose with respect for basic human rights, all “stakeholders” will benefit. The time to change is now."

 

Another qualified observer made the following comments on the CyclingNews message board:

 

-- As a professional scientist who has been working in a strict Quality Assurance (QA) environment for the past 27 years, I am continually discouraged by the general public's overall lack of understanding of science and the scientific process. Lest anyone be confused, the Landis decision was not about proving that Floyd had taken exogenous testosterone. What the majority of the panel was concerned with was whether or not the lab had followed the procedures they had established to detect exogenous testosterone. They apparently considered the scientific validity of those procedures to be outside the scope of their investigation, and it was certainly outside their area of expertise.

 

The unrefuted testimony of Dr. Amory, the only real scientific expert on testosterone to testify, was that those procedures were not adequate to establish the presence of exogenous testosterone. You will note that the majority opinion does not refer to Dr. Amory's testimony - there is no way to reconcile it with the verdict they wanted to reach. So Floyd was found guilty on the basis of one WADA-accredited lab's flawed procedures, procedures that wouldn't even be accepted by other WADA-accredited labs. (For those who have been asleep through this farce, the French lab accepts the presence of elevated levels of a single exogenous testosterone metabolite as evidence of doping, while the US lab at UCLA requires the presence of three.) As Dr. Amory pointed out, exogenous testosterone metabolizes in a defined way, with the levels of metabolites rising and falling through time in a certain pattern. The analyses performed by the French lab of the entire set of Floyd's samples did not show the pattern that would be present if Floyd had, in fact, doped. Dr. Amory's opinion was that they made no sense at all.

 

Floyd was found guilty through a political process with no basis in science. WADA and the UCI are on a witch hunt, and Floyd was unfortunate enough to fall into their cross-hairs. I'm all for catching dopers and throwing them out of the peloton, but the tests must be scientifically valid and be performed by neutral, qualified analysts, not by a lab eager to break (or is that "make"?) the news for l'Equipe. Some form of equal protection under the law would be nice too, such as all WADA-accredited labs having the same criteria for what constitutes an adverse analytical finding. And since Floyd apparently passed all the same tests Oscar Pereiro and Andreas Klöden were subjected to, how about subjecting them to the same test Floyd supposedly failed before moving them up on the podium? Or doesn't fairness go that far?

 

All cyclists being coerced into signing that document promising to give up a year's salary if found guilty of doping should be afraid--the deck is stacked completely against them. Bravo to Bettini for refusing to sign.

 

Rick Beauheim

Carlsbad, NM, USA

Saturday, September 29, 2007

 

This is no longer about establishing the innocence or guilt of any single athlete. This is an indictment of the entire system, and a call to action. WADA has let us all down, and all who love sport deserve better.

Believe it or not, I wrote this one initially in Swedish, intending to post it on the HappyMTB.org forums, but I changed my mind at the last minute and decided to post it here instead. Write to me if you would like an English translation.

 

---

 

Nymodigheter inom MTB som jag tror även det mesta retrogrouch kan komma att uppskatta på sikt:

 

Rapid Rise

Dual Control (åtminstone på bakväxeln)

1-finger bromsning (som fungerar lika bra när det regnar)

Lätta, breda fälger med lätta, högvolym däck som rullar bra (Kenda Small Block, WTB WWLT)

Mjuka gummiblandningar som fungera någorlunda bra på våta stenar

Valmöjligheter när det gäller styre (Mary, H-Bars, Midge, Moustache, Ergon handtag etc.)

Justerbara sadelstolpar (Gravity Dropper, Maverick Speedball)

Stål ramar som inte vägar så mycket

Ti ramar som inte kostar så mycket

Ofjädrade cyklar som rullar lättare över stökig terräng (29ers)

Here I sit, enjoying the tactical drama that is the Tour de France yet again. It seems silly to be so entertained by a bunch of lycra-wearing leg shavers, but it is only for a few weeks every July and I have decades invested in inadvertently memorizing useless trivia about the tour so it would be a shame to give it up. Even so, I am discouraged by the propensity of many in the media to mindlessly regurgitate and perpetuate the spread of misinformation surrounding Floyd Landis.

 

My background in cycling, sports medicine and research gives me perhaps a different perspective than that enjoyed by the talking heads and writing fingers of those with a wider audience. To recap some of the relevant history for those who don't know, I began a formal course of study of sports medicine in the mid-1980’s, earned a degree in Physical Therapy in 1989 and spent the majority of my career as a PT working with athletes, including a stint as a soigneur for a professional cycling team as well as rehabilitation and training for numerous world and Olympic champions in a wide variety of sports. After moving to Sweden I did a research project for the Olympic Committee here during 1999 to help determine strategies for testing and training to improve performance and reduce the risk of injury. My study for that report included extensive review of nutritional supplementation research. Following that I continued working at the Karolinska Institute, where I had the opportunity to learn more about proper testing and research procedures, as well as giving me a chance to discuss WADA with folks who would eventually be involved with the organization before it was officially formed.

 

In the Landis case as with the earlier Armstong accusations it all hinged upon leaks of information from the same lab and inappropriate personal interference by Dick Pound, a man who has repeatedly shown himself to be incapable of staying within the ethical and procedural guidelines of the very organization that he presides over.

 

When the news reported that Landis had an adverse analytical finding following s17 I automatically went through the list of probable suspects based upon what I knew about the circumstances. I tried to put myself in the shoes of medical team/trainer/athlete, wondering what they might have done that would: A) explain a performance boost, and B) show up in that test, but no other test before or after. When it later became known that it was an adverse epitestosterone/testosterone screening, I was baffled, because as far as I know there is no peer-reviewed research that would lead one to believe that administration of testosterone (or other anabolic agents) would provide any measurable short-term benefit to a cyclist under those circumstances, but there is plenty of evidence that those who take such compounds test positive in drug tests. There was no upside. It didn’t make sense. At the time the only speculation that I could come up with that might possibly explain both a performance boost and high levels of testosterone would be if he had drawn blood during a building phase (assuming that he was taking testosterone) during the winter and reinfused it between s16 and s17, but that would have shown up as a big jump in his blood numbers and probably would have spiked his subsequent testosterone findings as well. All of it was wild speculation, and none of it made any sense from a performance or testing standpoint.

 

Of course, if the lab, the UCI and WADA had all followed their own rules, none of the information would have been made public until much later, if at all. They would have had a chance to go through the information internally, privately inform Floyd of the adverse finding and ask him to quietly refrain from further participation in the post-tour crits while they tried to sort through everything. His pending hip surgery was would have been a perfect excuse for him to quietly withdraw and go home early without causing undue suspicion. Based upon the information presented at the USADA hearing in June, any reasonably rigorous scientific review of the testing procedure and results that would have been conducted at that point in an environment free from political pressure would have very likely come to the conclusion that there was not enough evidence to suspect doping.

 

Unfortunately, that is not how things happened. Dick Pound glommed onto the adverse finding like a terrier to a rat, trumpeting his bizarre schadenfruede over this evidence that cycling was indeed a den of iniquity (“See, I told you that Lance was a doper. They are all dopers! I was right all along!”) to anybody who would listen, inventing the story of “Roid Floyd” and destroying lives and reputations in his wake. The fact that the boss couldn’t be bothered to follow procedure, and didn’t understand the more-than-shaky foundations for the concrete conclusions that he was presenting as fact has set the course for all of the misinformation that has followed.

 

I have neither the time nor the liberty to go through everything that I know about the science of this case, but I hate what Dick Pound has done to WADA, the practice and reputation of drug testing science, the Tour de France and to cycling, and I hope that he and his cronies end up fired and disgraced for it. The strange thing about it is that I am not on Floyd’s side because I am an American or because I am a fan of his (I wanted Bobby Julich to get on the podium last year.) I’m still not even sure that Floyd or anybody else is clean. For all I know they might all be dopers! What I do know is that Dick Pound’s witch hunt hasn’t come close to proving that Floyd took testosterone, and the fact that the media has been more interested in going after the quick and easy sound bite rather than going after the truth has made this whole situation much, much worse than it needed to be. We as consumers of information deserve a higher standard of reporting.

 

I gave my LiveStrong bracelet away last Friday.

 

Those of you who know me and what my family and I went through last fall might wonder what is up. Not a lot of grass has grown, and my sister and I haven't even managed to deal with putting up a gravestone for our mother, but I think that it was justified, and I know that Mom would understand.

 

Until last fall I respected what Lance had accomplished as an athlete, but I was never enough of a fanboy to snap on the yellow silicon rubber bracelet just because everybody else was getting them. It wasn't until we got Mom's diagnosis that I became personally involved enough to affect what I had considered to be until that time a fashion accessory. I soon realized that there could be a deeper purpose involved. I found that those wearing the yellow band have a legitimate excuse to talk about feelings and fears and pain and to admit that life and one's ability to cope are both fragile things. It somehow becomes OK to be more human, to need help and to offer it when necessary.

 

Last Friday I found out that a coworker got news from her sister much like the news that I received from mine on October 21 last year. Suddenly, there was somebody else in the room who needed the yellow bracelet more than I did. To some it is just loop of yellow silicone rubber, but for some of us it is something more.

 

Bikes and stuff are fun and can accomplish a lot of good, but they aren't always the most important thing. Keep an eye out for how to be the best human you can be, not just the best cyclist.

In April 2007 my family and I traveled to the Southeastern US for my wife to attend a convention in Orlando and for us to visit some dear friends near Asheville. While in the area we took the chance to have some family fun, and my wife and kids were patient while I met with three new suppliers and one that has been along from the beginning.

 

After spending the obligatory day at the Magic Kingdom and a couple of transport days on the Interstate the first business-related visit for me was with Peter Gilbert at Cane Creek, in Fletcher, North Carolina. They are an employee-owned manufacturing and assembly company located in what was originally a Dia-Compe facility. Other notable items built on-site include the first runs of RockShox forks. Peter and I met at the Sea Otter Classic back in 2005 just after they had introduced their Double Barrel rear shock, which was developed in conjunction with Öhlins AB, one of the premier manufacturers of shock dampers in the world of motorsport. It has taken a couple of years, but we are very happy to be able to offer the Double Barrel as an OEM fitment on most of the frames imported by North American Flyers.

 

The next day we drove up the road a bit to Asheville, where I met with Jeff Baucom and the rest of the gang at Industry Nine, a company that jumped into the premium end of the wheelbuilding pool from the very beginning with their innovative proprietary spokes and hubs. Industry Nine is a small part of a company that produces a wide variety of high-tech products. They have what I think is one of the best-designed freewheel mechanisms on the market right now, and I think that we can look forward to a lot of good things coming from them in the future.

 

The following day we drove up on the Blue Ridge Parkway in the Mt. Pisgah region, then headed down to I-85 towards Atlanta, stopping in to see Ted Ciamillo at Zero Gravity, just outside of Nicholson, Georgia. Ted and his crew designed and built their own factory, which looks like an Architectural Digest take on a traditional barn, built with unfinished cypress wood beams and planks. Inside, one finds everything necessary to mill, anodize and laser-etch something over 90% of the parts used in some of the best road brakes in the world. The supply is tight, but I managed to get a couple pair of the 0G-07 Stainless brakes for customers who had pre-ordered, and a pair of the Titanium model for one of my own demo bikes.

 

We continued on and spent the night just South of Atlanta before making our last stop (for business, anyway) with David Parrett and Karen Glass at LH Thomson in Macon, Georgia. Thomson was one of the very first suppliers that I started with, and I've had the pleasure of seeing David at Interbike, Eurobike and at the factory. Besides making some of the highest-quality stems and seatposts in the world, Thomson also machines parts out of a wide variety of metals for customers in the aerospace industry. Regardless of what is being made, the folks at Thomson do more to verify that their parts match design specification than any other supplier that I work with.

 

After finishing at Thomson we drove to the beach at Tybee Island, spend the night near Savannah and after touring the beautiful historical district there the following morning, continued back down to our friends in the Orlando area. Our last full day was spend shopping and relaxing pool-side, loading our batteries before the long flights back to Stockholm.

 

A photo gallery of our trip can be found here: web.mac.com/drt/iWeb/Site/Spring%2007%20Field%20Trip.html

One might rightly ask why everything on this site is in English when the company is based in Stockholm. The answer has partly to do with my own linguistic proclivities (yes, I am indulging in purposeful obfuscation), and partly with the fact that my target customers here in Sweden, Scandinavia and Europe are already very good at finding and buying their favorite bike goodies in languages other than Swedish.

Evidence exhibit A) happymtb.org/forum/read.php/1/572086

That having been said, we do plan to add Swedish pages to the site after we get the English ones working properly.

In the meantime we are able to read incoming comments and write back in Swedish, and we promise to do our best with reading incoming messages in other languages as well. Feel free to write to us using whatever language works best for you. We'll do our best to sort it out.

Since North American Flyers is a distributor rather than a dealer the Wishlist is a tool to help show possibilities rather than a Shopping Cart. The purpose is to help initiate a dialog about what items might best fit the desires and budget of the customer. Prospective customers fill in the Wishlist and the comments field at the bottom to get the process started. Once it is clear which specific items the customer is interested in, the information gathered will then be forwarded to the customer's shop of choice, along with a prospective purchase order.

 

All shops that have done business with North American Flyers will appear in the "Where to Buy" list. Dealers that regularly carry and advertise products supplied by North American Flyers will appear on the list of Preferred Shops which the customer can easily select when sending the Wishlist form. Customers wishing to buy from other shops can fill in the name and contact information of that shop in the comments section. Inquiries from customers who do not have a preference will be sent to the most appropriate Preferred Shop on the list.

 

Brands and products will be added to the Wishlist as we are able. Anything that is shown as being available on the websites of our suppliers is also available through us, whether or not it appears in the Wishlist.

 

Please use the Contact page to get in touch with us if you have any questions or suggestions!

 

Dane

 

PS - One more thing about the Wishlist. As of right now it works pretty much as it should in FireFox 2 and IE 7. Other browsers are still problematic, but Safari 2 and IE 6 are on the list. Thanks for your continued patience with this!

We are finally on the verge of launching version 2.0 of the North American Flyers website. In going through the old site I re-read some of the things that I wrote in those early days, just to see how 3 years of reality have shaped my idealism and my business. Here is one of my original functional goals, published in November, 2003:
"My goal is to provide shops with access to high-end goods with prices, service and support that are attractive enough to make the local bike shop the customer's first choice when buying high-quality frames and components."

Still works for me. Here's hoping that it works for you as well, and that the new site can help make this more of a reality for as many cyclists as possible. -- Daner

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