In any event, I can’t hate on a guy who had a humble response to defeat at the hands of Pat at the state cross race last Fall — I think Smithers put it best calling it classy.

People, like opinions, change all the time. Hopefully, more of them move in a positive direction than in reverse. My opinion of Landis remains the same, however.

Cheaters are cheaters, the method is immaterial.

Here’s an example. Ask people what would be an appropriate response to strong circumstantial evidence that high school athletes were doping. Kids. Not adults, kids. I bet most people would advocate for some pretty aggressive measures.

A number of years ago (2001 I think) I remember reading a story in the Strib about how All-Metro linemen had gotten way bigger in a short period of time. The author had checked stats and discovered a 50 lb increase in about 10 years. 50 lbs. I think everyone here can read between the lines of that story.

Remember, we’re not talking adults, we’re talking about kids and a career path that may pay for college but is almost certainly a dead end beyond that.

But no one cares. No one.

I care about doping when I get on the highway. Someone with a head full of shit could kill me or a member of my family. If you want me to get wound up about doping, that’s where I can get wound up about doping. I could get wound up about doping in high school athletes, but not by myself. Not if one one else cares. And no one cares.

When it comes to doping in sport, nothing beats the Olympics. You guys all groove on the Olympics, don’t you. No one cares about the dope, and the fact that no one cares about it is what allows sponsors to pump in the massive amounts of money that drives the doping.

Sorry, I can’t get wound up about doping in something I view as entertainment. My outrage peters out way before then. No one cares, including the people that insist they do.

Two points:

- Didn’t work that way for Bo Jackson.
- You don’t know he’s clean. Lots of guys dope and still suck.

Back to the point I originally wanted to make: I get more inspiration from local boy Adam Bergman and the progress he has made in the past few years. He has taken a mature, humble approach to his comeback. He realizes the rest of the world is bigger than him!

As for Mr. Testosterone, how anyone would want his signature now is beyond me. It is not so much that he doped, it is the the repugnant shameful way he carried out his defense. Having your manager threaten Greg Lemond with a personal secret told in order to help you but in strict confidence? That is just despicable, regardless of what you think of Lemond. The black tie he wore to court that day said it all, the man has no honor left. Personally, I can not even look at his picture in the cycling press much less cheer him. He deserves a harsher punishment from cycling fans than he got from USADA, lifetime ban.

“The 1977 Tour ended in confusion, depression and suspicion: Joop Zoetemelk gave a sample at L’Alpe d’Huez and his positive was announced after the penultimate stage at Versailles. He was penalised and at once a row erupted, led by Raphael Géminiani. ‘If the rules are to be enforced, let them apply to everyone,’ he shouted. Henry Anglade suggested sarcastically that Van Impe, currently third, might not after all have lost the Tour just yet, implying that both race leader Bernard Thévenet and second-placed Kuiper were culpable. People circulated secret lists of those suspected. Two hundred disillusioned journalists waited for an official statement, which finally declared Thévenet the winner. Some months later, during the winter of 1978, Thévenet admitted that he had used cortisone. He would never again figure among the leaders of the Tour.”

I’m not defending Landis here. He got nabbed for something. Maybe we’ll know the complete truth someday. In the greater scheme of things Landis isn’t so different than a lot of riders in the past or present. I’m sure there’s more to the story that we all don’t know.

I’m a cycling fan. I want to see cheaters get caught. But, I don’t really KNOW these people at all, and thus it seems a bit much to actually love/hate these people.

With respect to not riding like the Flandis of old, that’s due to the hip replacement.

And he’s the 2nd rider to have a Tour title stripped. Maurice Garin was the first.