Landis Says He'll Prove His Innocence

I have a hard time believing Landis would be so stupid as to take any kind of performance drug knowing he will be tested. He might as well not race. Why would anyone think they could get away with that?

I really don't have a hard time believing Landis gave his body a boost. But yeah, if so, he certainly ain't very smart. I guess he hasn't seen or read anything lately about a guy in baseball named Bonds. And his I'm-innocent response, so far, hasn't exactly been convincing.

What I do have a hard time believing is that his "positive test results shocked the cycling world." Is any athlete's illicit ingestion/consumption/injection of banned or should-be banned substances a surprise to anyone these days? I wish it were.

Bonds (and other ball players, yes) has put a fat freakin' smudge on baseball by living a public lie for years. It looks like Landis might be looking to join that club, representing his sport.

But who knows. Maybe he's innocent of what the test results suggest, and I'm just a cynic.

What pisses me off is that athletes draw their fans into their personal and professional victories, only to let them down. My Dad is fighting an as-yet incurable disease, and absolutely loves cycling. When guys like Armstrong and Landis appear to be poster-boys for overcoming adversity while simultaneously excelling physically ... only to bring their methods and approach into serious question, it can destroy the trust and hope that fans living with similar challenges have in them, the sport, and the treatment of their disease.

I feel a bit like a nattering grandma, shaking a wrinkled finger at these guys in disgust, but hell. Shame on you, shame on athletes who can't compete naturally.

Like anyone was expecting him to ever admit to doping?

Even is he does have naturally high levels of testosterone, his T/E ratio (testosterone to epitestosterone ratio) would still be normal.

The T/E ratio test was first designed by Manfred Donike in 1982, and has a very low rate of false positives, 0.1%. The average ratio is 1.33:1, Landis's was greater than 4:1.

I'd like to believe him. I really would, because it was a great story.

But I don't. And that's kind of what it's come to in sports nowadays. No one gets the benefit of the doubt anymore--that's just the way it is.

Every time an athlete is accused of using a performance-enhancing drug, you get the same response. "I'm as surprised as you all are! I have no idea how this could have happened." And then in a few weeks, "Did I say I didn't use drugs? I sure was confused, I meant that I did use drugs. I'm really sorry... please don't take away my award."