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Wasting time

There are many things that people can lose that are very easily replaced. Money, sanity, keys, a wallet are just a few items that can be found or replaced if they are lost.

Time, however, is not one of them. Lost time will never be replaced and time, as we all know, is our most valuable commodity.

And because time is so precious I decided to turn off ESPN’s presentation of the Home Run Derby last night. I just didn’t have the time to waste in watching something so mindless – it couldn’t even be classified as junk food TV.

Actually, that’s the polite answer I give people (OK, person) who asked me if I caught the Home Run Derby last night. Truth be told, I had the tiniest of interest in knowing how Ryan Howard would perform – a scratch if you will. So when the telecast began and camera zoomed in on San Francisco’s ballpark (I honestly forget which corporation paid to put their tacky billboard on the buildings’ façade – besides, does it matter… don’t they all have the same name at this point?) I had my TV on and was set to devote some time to the event.

But then I heard Chris Berman’s voice.

Click!

Goodnight, folks.

No sense wasting any time on something so drawn out and annoying where the actual action is tucked neatly into the marathon of commercials… or Berman. I’d rather stand next to a giant speaker and listen to The Who circa 1969 and get tinnitus for the rest of my life than to hear Chris Berman speak a sentence. Hey, I’m sure he’s a lovely man with many redeemable qualities and goes out of his way to take care of the little people, etc., etc. But, well, you know what I’m getting at.

I’d rather deal with a case of toenail fungus than watch the Home Run Derby.

Needless to say I have no idea what happened in the Home Run Derby other than it probably lasted too long. Based on a brief scan of the reports from San Francisco’s ballpark it sounds as if I didn’t miss anything at all.

I will, sadly, tune into the All-Star Game tonight. I can’t say I’m too into it and must admit that All-Star Games in general have lost a lot of luster in the days since I was a kid. Back then I actually looked forward to those games. Now it’s just cool to have three to four days without a baseball game.

Jaded and tired? A little.

***
In an attempt to beat another day of the heat I missed a great broadcaster named Phil Liggett call the action for Stage 3 of the Tour de France. But since Versus plays them over and over in a loop I’m sure I can catch up at a moments’ notice.

I did catch the report regarding today’s outcome and my first reaction was, “Whoa! Look at Cancellara!”

That’s right, Fabian Cancellara took another stage today and looks like he will be in Yellow when the Tour hits the mountains.

Then it gets serious.

According to reports, Cancellara let it all hang out after the peloton reeled in an early breakaway during the flat, 146-mile stage. With 400 meters to go, the Swiss champ stood up, sprinted and shocked everyone by making it stick.

Meanwhile, it appears as if Cancellara and his CSC teammates are out to defend the Yellow Jersey for as long as they can. Look, Cancellara knows that as a sprint specialist he has very little chance at winning or even holding on to Yellow for more than a few more days, but that doesn’t mean he’s going to give up.

“We're respect this jersey, and we will work to keep it,” he said.

But for now Cancellara has been the man at the Tour. Not only did he smash up the field in the prologue, but also he took a spill and injured his wrist in the Stage 2 wreck with a kilometer to go that highlighted the day’s action. Regardless, the reigning World Champion extended his overall lead by 20 seconds to 33 seconds.

Stage 3 Final
1.) Fabian Cancellara, Team CSC, Switzerland
2.) Erik Zabel, Milram, Germany
3.) Danilo Napolitano, Lampre-Fondital, Italy
4.) Tom Boonen, Quick Step, Belgium
5.) Robbie Hunter, Barloworld, South Africa
6.) Robert Förster, Gerolsteiner, Germany
7.) Robbie McEwen, Predictor-Lotto, Australia
8.) Bernhard Eisel, T-Mobile, Austria
9.) Mark Cavendish, T-Mobile, Great Britain
10.) Heinrich Haussler, Gerolsteiner, Germany

Overall
1.) Fabian Cancellara, Team CSC, Switzerland, in 15:12:08
2.) Andreas Klöden, Astana, Germany, at :33
3.) David Millar Saunier Duval, at :41
4.) George Hincapie, Discovery Channel, at :43
5.) Bradley Wiggins, Cofidis, Great Britain, same time
6.) Vladimir Gusev, Discovery Channel, Russia, at :45
7.) Tom Boonen, Quick Step, at :46
8.) Vladimir Karpets, Caisse d'Epargne, Russia, same time
9.) Thor Hushovd, Credit Agricole, Norway, at :49
10.) Mikel Astarloza Chaurreau, Euskaltel - Euskadi, Spain, same time

Alexandre Vinokourov, the pre-race favorite, is lurking 50 seconds back in 11th place, while top American Levi Leipheimer is a minute behind in 32nd place.

***
The wire story regarding Ivan Basso’s continued drug testing made me laugh a little. A little background: Basso is currently serving a two-year ban for doping, despite never testing positive, and was forced to take a blood and urine test when testers showed up unannounced at his home last week.

What made it funny (not ha-ha) was a story told by Floyd Landis regarding the same type of deal. In fact, Landis claims that USADA sent a tester to his house when they heard the news that his father-in-law had committed suicide.

Yes, Landis says, they did it on purpose. It’s in his book on page 212.

For the record, USADA has not returned any phone calls or e-mails to present their side of any of the stories or to refute anything. Hey, it’s not like I’m hard to find.

***
Speaking of hard to find, I decided to do some rudimentary research to see if I could find what synthetic testosterone is and how an athlete could use it to aid his performance. Simply using steroids wouldn't help a cyclist, I figured, because muscle mass creates weight and weight is the enemy of any endurance athlete. Besides, the tests apparently show that Floyd Landis used “synthetic testosterone” during his brilliant ride during Stage 17 of last year’s Tour, and using something like that (plus, all the doctors and scientists I have asked have responded with, "It doesn't make sense...)

So what did I find? Try this report by Tom Fine of the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory at Harvard University. In it, Fine writes that there is, “no difference between synthetic testosterone and naturally produced testosterone.”

What?

Let me get straight to the point: it's impossible to tell for sure that anyone has taken synthetic testosterone.

Unfortunately, the way Floyd Landis' exogenous testosterone test has been portrayed in the media is as if it were a perfectly definitive test. Like pink for pregnant and white for not (not really a good example, since that isn't so accurate). Such tests do exist: tests with a binary outcome, yes or no, and an extremely low false positive or false negative rate. This is simply not one of them.

There is no difference between synthetic testosterone and naturally produced testosterone – they’re one and the same chemical. Same atoms, in the same configuration, forming the exact same molecule, with identical chemical properties. At least at the atomic level. Once you mix natural and synthetic testosterone, you can't separate them again, any more than you could separate Evian from Poland Springs bottled water after they'd been mixed. Actually that's a bad example. It would be more akin to separating two kinds of distilled water from each other. Even that would be easier than testosterone, since one would presume that distilled water sources don't change rapidly.

At any rate, natural and synthetic testosterone are usually different at the subatomic level. All the carbon in the world has six protons, and almost all the carbon in the world has six neutrons (called carbon-12). Some small portion of the carbon though, has seven neutrons (carbon-13), and an even smaller portion has eight (carbon-14).

Here’s the full link, and here’s another, which claims the test as administered by the French lab and developed by WADA is prone to “false positives.”

This information is all in the Landis wiki, but I easily stumbled upon it with no knowledge that it existed and simply by researching synthetic testosterone.

Again, the USADA has not returned phone calls or e-mails. Nor did they refute these facts during the arbitration hearing in May.

Anyway, back to the original search -- synthetic testosterone commonly come in the following forms:

Testosterone Cypionate (Sold as Depo-Testosterone Cypionate)
The effect of Depo-Testosterone Cypionate is sustained longer in the body than anabolic steroids. A single injection of 200-400 mg is given once every 2-4 weeks, then a rest period of 4 weeks, followed by another injection once every 2-4 weeks.

Transdermal Testosterone (the "Patch")
Testosterone patches allow a slow, steady release of the hormone into the body. The Testoderm patch is applied daily to a man's shaved scrotum. The newer Androderm patch can be applied daily to the upper arms, back, thighs, or abdomen.
Miller and colleagues conducted a 12-week pilot study of an experimental low-dose testosterone patch for women. Fifty-three HIV-positive women who had lost about 10% of their normal body weight, and whose blood levels of testosterone were below the normal reference range took part in the study. They were randomly assigned to receive either a placebo patch, a patch releasing 150 micrograms of testosterone daily, or a patch releasing 300 micrograms of testosterone daily. Although the patches restored testosterone levels to normal, only the women who had used the 150 microgram patch gained weight. Unfortunately, all of the weight gained was fat, not muscle mass.

Nandrolone Decanoate (Sold as Deca-Durabolin, Hybolin Decanoate)
Deca-Durabolin is probably the most popular anabolic used in the treatment of HIV-related weight loss. It has a low rate of side effects and a high anabolic effect. The drug is given by injection into a muscle, at doses ranging from 50-200 mg, every 2-4 weeks for up to 12 weeks. After four weeks off drug, another cycle of treatment can be started. The androgenic side effects of Deca-Durabolin are much milder than those of testosterone.
At doses of up to 100 mg every 3-4 weeks for up to 12 weeks, women may be able to use this drug. If any changes in menstrual periods occur, the drug should be stopped until the cause of such changes is discovered.

Oxandrolone (Oxandrin)
This is an oral anabolic steroid available through the Special Access Programme (formerly EDRP) of the Health Protection Branch of Health Canada. The androgenic effects are very low and side effects are few. The dosage for men is generally 15-40 mg daily and for women 5-20 mg daily.

Phew! I’m growing hair in funny places just typing those sentences.

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What's going to work? Team work!

If you’re like me and hang in the pre-school/toddler set, no doubt you are quite familiar with The Wonder Pets! For the uninitiated, The Wonder Pets! is an animated TV show in which three schoolhouse pets – a guinea pig, turtle and duck – hang around in the classroom during school hours, but get into adventures and life-saving capers when the kids are away.

The hook for the show is the theme song with the refrain that goes:

Wonder Pets! Wonder Pets! We're on our way,
To help a baby [featured animal], and save the day.
We're not too big,
And we're not too tough,
But when we work together we've got the right stuff!
Goooooooo Wonder Pets! Yaaaaaaayyyyyyy!

That very song and the theme of The Wonder Pets! show was the first thing that came to my mind when I heard about the Phillies’ valiant effort to pitch in a help the grounds crew at Coors Field yesterday.

By now most followers of the Phillies know what happened. One of those crazy Colorado rainstorms barreled in to Denver and halted the game. But before the crew could get the tarp secured on the field, the wind had swallowed up a handful of people.

“Three guys went underneath, one guy came out, and I was like, ‘Where's those other two people?’” pitcher Adam Eaton told reporters. “Then, I saw their arms come out, and their eyes were as big as plates.”

But before anyone knew what was going on, the entire Phillies team tore onto the field and saved the day.

We're not too big,
And we're not too tough,
But when we work together we've got the right stuff!

Who was nowhere to be found during the entire scene? The Rockies.

“We saved two or three guys there, didn't we?” Charlie Manuel told reporters.

Regardless, this one goes right up there with Maurice Cheeks singing the anthem with that girl in Portland. And to paraphrase Jim Thome, this is what I call “good karma.”

Then again, what's it say about baseball players as a whole if something basic as helping out people in need is lauded in the national press? I guess people normally think baseball players walk around and kick puppies... wait, that's Michael Vick.

For the record the nastiest hailstorm I had ever seen was on the way up Trail Ridge Road outside of Estes Park in the middle of August. It was 85 and blindingly sunny when we left the house to go up Trail Ridge Road, but less than an hour later we were getting pelted with hail the size of canned hams.

***
I missed the end of today’s Stage 2 of the Tour de France because I wanted to get my run finished before the mercury got too far over 90 degrees. That last part didn’t really work because it got hot fast this morning and as a result of my rush to get out the door, I missed the finish where it seems as if there was a crash with about two kilometers to go.

Here's the Belgian TV look at the pile up:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FIdMakwaa10]

According to reports, Fabian Cancellara went down hard and scraped up his Yellow Jersey, but the top sprinters -- Robbie McEwen, Tom Boonen, Erik Zabel, Oscar Freire, and Robbie Hunter – were in front of the trouble. As a result, Team Quick Step, paced by Boonen, had a deftly maneuvered leadout in motion before the wreck that sewed up the stage for Gert Steegmans.

Yes, it was quite appropriate that two Belgians finished 1-2 in the stage that went from Dunkirk in France to Ghent in Belgium. Better yet it was team leader Boonen leading a teammate to his first ever stage win.

“All year he does work for me,” Boonen said. “I wasn't going to pass him on the line and rob him of a chance for glory.”

A high school friend was an exchange student in Belgium for a year and from what I can tell they all love cycling, sweets and strong beer. Sounds like the Belgians are good people.

Plus, the greatest rider ever is from Belgium.

Stage 2 Final
1.) Gert Steegmans, Quick Step-Innergetic, Belgium
2.) Tom Boonen, Quick Step-Innergetic, Belgium
3.) Fillippo Pozzato, Liquigas, Italy
4.) Robbie Hunter, Barloworld, South Africa
5.) Romain Feillu, Agritubel, France
6.) Robbie McEwen, Predictor-Lotto, Australia
7.) Erik Zabel, Team Milram, Germany
8.) Heinrich Haussler, Gerolsteiner, Germany
9.) Oscar Freire, Spain, Rabobank
10.) Sebastien Chavanel, Française des Jeux

Overall
1.) Fabian Cancellara, Team CSC, Switzerland
2.) Andreas Klöden, Astana, Germany
3.) David Millar, Saunier Duval-Prodir, Great Britain
4.) George Hincapie, Discovery Channel, USA
5.) Bradley Wiggins, Cofidis, Great Britain

Word is that Cancellara injured his wrist in the crash and Hincapie has a nice cut on his knee. Alas, they race again tomorrow. This time they go from Waregem in Belgium to Compiègne, a French city north of Paris. It’s 146 flat miles that are sure to end with another sprint.

How much longer will Cancellara remain in Yellow and when will the contenders like Vinokourov, Leipheimer and the rest make their move? As it looks now, Vino is in prime position to end the decade-long American dynasty.

***
Speaking of the American dynasty, no new news on the Floyd front, but there was a story of note in the San Diego Union-Tribune by Mark Ziegler that we will get into with more depth tomorrow.

For the record, I asked around to newspaper veterans about Ziegler and have been greeted with the same response each time: “He’s good… very thorough.”

He also seems to be one of the few American sportswriters who has even the slightest clue about the issues of doping.

***
I was at the Barnes & Noble this afternoon and noticed that there are a ton of cycling magazines and every single one of them are worlds better than the running magazines. Why can't running be cool, too?

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On the threshold...

More lactate threshold. More miles… that’s what I need.

At least that’s what I’m going to tell myself.

Here’s the week of July 2-8.

Monday – 1st run 15 miles in 1:37:26
2nd run 9 miles in 60:14
Total: 24 miles in 2:37:40
Crazy, crazy day. I was set to go out and hammer for 20 when I got the call to get to Philly to be on DNL with Floyd Landis. Because of that I just ran 15 (in 1:37:26) and wished that I could have gone much longer. It could have been the best I felt on a run all year. I don't know what got into me, but I ran solid without even trying.

splits:
1st 5: 32:28
2nd 5: 32:46
3rd 5: 32:11

After a Clif Bar a drive to Philly, a 30-minute segment on the show and then some general office jerking around, I drove out to Kelly Drive and ran nine miles around the River in 60:14. Actually, I think I went longer than 9 miles (closer to 10 than 9), but just for arguments sake we'll call in an even 9.

So there's a 24-mile day, though I think a straight 20 would have been best.

After the run I went to old pal John Turner's U.S. Hotel to hang out and have dinner. Good times.

Tuesday – 11 miles in 1:15:08
This one started out bad. My left hamstring, calf and foot hurt a lot. Better yet, they hurt to the point where I nearly abandoned the workout. But as I ran it loosened up and felt reasonably OK, though by the end of run I was tired and spent. I'm hoping to get up early and go race tomorrow, but the way my hamstring feels leaves me with some doubts.

splits:
1st 5: 34:04
2nd 5: 33:39

Wednesday – 8 miles warm-up and cool down
5 miles in 30:52
Total: 13 miles
Ran 8 miles as a warm-up and cool down with five in 30:52 in between. I wanted to run 29-something, but the mileage has definitely sapped my speed. So too has a nasty hamstring pull/strain or whatever it is. It's been hurting pretty much non-stop for two days and occasionally I feel it knot up. Interestingly, it feels kind of good the longer I run on it.

Anyway, here's how I ran in the "race:"
1 - 5:37
2 - 6:16
3 - 6:27
4 - 5:53
5 - 6:38

I had just one gear though the pace felt pretty easy for the entire run. There were a bunch of hills on the course, too. No, it wasn't hard; I was just tired.

Thursday – 15 miles in 1:41:31
I can't believe I ran as many miles as I did considering how bad my hamstrings have felt/feel, how tired I am, how much lifting/work I did this morning and how humid it was.

Crazy.

Anyway, my legs are a mess. They are tight, tired and have no snap. I think the run from Monday really zonked me and running in the race yesterday didn't help either. I probably shouldn't have done the race because it takes away from getting into to shape and preparing for the main goal -- let those weekend racers who go to all the rinky dink stuff have their plastic trophies... I want to run well in a marathon. That's the good stuff.

I'm beat after cleaning out the basement and garage, loading all the junk onto a U-Haul and taking it to the dump. It turns out that we had 1,665 pounds of crap to throw away that was sitting in the garage and basement.

Now it's gone.

splits:
1st 5: 33:49
2nd 5: 33:50
3rd 5: 33:50

Friday – 15 miles in 1:41:05
This one was a lot like yesterday. I was tight, tired, slow, but still pretty strong. There has to be something good coming from the fact that I can crank out miles like crazy.

Anyway, the weather was decent and the nice breeze kept everything relatively cool.

splits:
33:50
33:33
33:41

Saturday – 16 miles in 1:48:50
Ran on the roads and did a bunch of hills. Based on the effort I'd have to say that neglecting the hills in favor of running as much as possible on grass has been a slight tactical error. In the past most of my strength came from seeking out hills as if I was the running version of Don Quixote. Hills build strength and speed.

I guess I'll start doing more hills.

Anyway, I started out slow and easy, but picked it up to a decent pace during the second half. I feel strong and wasn't as trashed as I was the past few days.

Sunday – 7 miles in 48:49
Went easy and tried to go as slow as possible without crawling. Nonetheless, it was a fun, easy outing and I have to admit that I look forward to runs like this one.

This was a difficult one, but I rallied to go 101 miles for the week. I guess the end justifies the means.

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All we need is one more...

Here’s the amazing thing about the Phillies sitting on the verge of 10,000 all-time losses, and it’s not the fact that the Phillies have lost many more games than teams older than them. Certainly the fact that the Phillies are a good seven years older than the Cubs, Braves and Reds and have completely lapped the field in lifetime losses. No, the remarkable part isn’t the 10,000 losses, a milestone the Phillies can reach with just one more defeat. The remarkable part is that in 124 years the Phillies have won the World Series just one time.

That’s 1-for-124.

Hard to believe, Harry.

*** More than any other regular old Saturday, London appeared to be the most happening place on earth yesterday. Aside from the Wimbledon finals won by Venus Williams or the men’s semis in which Nadal and Federer advanced to today’s title match, there was the Live Earth show at Wembley that featured the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Metallica, the Foo Fighters and the Beastie Boys.

London, apparently, was a better alternative than taking the private plane (and large carbon footprint) to the Meadowlands. Let’s see – London or North Jersey? Yeah, tough call.

Of course while all of that was going on, Fabian Cancellara of Switzerland and the CSC team carved up the streets on his way to a dominant victory in the prologue of the Tour de France.

Needless to say, the Tour de France is an interesting idea. Perhaps a Tour de France that starts in California and finishes in Times Square would be just as interesting an idea. Get together the best riders in the world and get them across the United States – how cool would that be?

Maybe they can even do it Cannonball Run style?

Digressing, Cancellara, the world champion time trialist and classics specialist, obliterated the field by 13 seconds and will be in Yellow when the first stage goes the 126 miles from London to Canterbury. My guess is that he won’t have it for very long. In fact, I doubt CSC will try too hard to defend it during Stage 1.

However, during the flat 126 miles (like riding from Lancaster to Philadelphia and back) the sprinters like Cancellara lined up and shadowboxed for the long straightaway rush to the finish. But the Versus coverage was touting Aussie veteran Robbie McEwen throughout the stage as one he could/should contend for even when he fell off the back of the peloton and seemed as if he had been dropped.

Dramatically, though, McEwen made it very interesting.

McEwen, according to Phil Liggett, took an “incredible risk” to get back to the front. In fact, McEwen was nowhere to be found as the sprint began with a kilometer to go. He had to go from the back of the pack, all the around to make his final surge for the win.

Easy like Sunday morning.

Tomorrow the Tour de France goes to France and then leaves again in another flat stage from Dunkirk to Ghent, Belgium covering 104.7 miles.

Prologue Top 12: 1) Fabian Cancellara, Team CSC, Switzerland, 8:50.74 2) Andreas Klöden, Astana, Germany, 9:03.29 3) George Hincapie, Discovery Channel, USA, 9:13.75 4) Brad Wiggins, Cofidis, Great Britain, 9:13.92 5) Vladimir Gusev, Discovery Channel, Russia, 9:15.99 6) Vladimir Karpets, Caisse d'Epargne, Russia 7) Alexandre Vinokourov, Astana, Kazakhstan, 9:20 8) Thomas Dekker, Rabobank, Netherlands, 9:21 9) Manuel Quinziato, Liquigas, Italy, 9:23 10) Benoit Vaugrenard, Française des Jeux, France, 9:23 11) Dave Zabriskie, Team CSC, USA, 9:23 12) José Ivan Gutierrez, Caisse d'Epargne, Spain, 9:23

Stage 1Final 1) Robbie McEwen, Predictor-Lotto, Australia, 4:39:01 2) Thor Hushovd, Crédit Agricole, Norway 3) Tom Boonen, Quick Step, Belgium 4) Sébastien Chavanel, Française des Jeux, France 5) Romain Feillu, Agritubel, France

Overall after two days 1) Cancellara 2) Klöden 3) David Millar, Saunier Duval-Prodir, United Kingdom 4) Hincapie 5) Bradley Wiggins, Cofidis, United Kingdom

Note: McEwen was among the riders caught in the big bottleneck which was caused by a flat tire in a narrow pass of the road. According to reports, McEwen went down and injured his wrist -- it kind makes his rally a little more spectacular.

Here it is:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0p8n6dfJoYc]

*** I never understood why local TV news gave the weather report so much air time. After all, it’s just wind they’re talking about. Really, all those maps and dopplers and hype just to talk about the wind.

All it is is wind, people!

But after watching this, I know why:

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Nowhere to turn

In a tie game that, incidentally, should have never been tied, manager Charlie Manuel turned to right-hander J.D. Durbin to pitch in the 10th and 11th innings against the Colorado Rockies in the relative altitude of Denver’s Coors Field. We say relative altitude because Denver isn’t really that high and if you are one who loses his breath just walking around in Denver, it’s time to do a little self inventory.

And stay away from those mountains that you see ringing the city off in the distance.

Anyway, Charlie turned to Durbin for the turning point of the game even though the pitcher’s ERA was way north of 15. Prior to going to Durbin, Charlie had to call in Mike Zagurski, Jose Mesa, J.C. Romero and Antonio Alfonseca to blow the five-run lead rookie starter Kyle Kendrick took into the sixth inning. The skipper couldn’t go to oft-used Geoff Geary because he’s back at Triple-A working out the trouble that turned him into a fireman whose best weapon was propane. Nor could the manager turn to Ryan Madson, who had pitched in two straight games in Houston.

Besides, Madson has already been in 30 games so far this season despite spending time on the disabled list.

Brian Sanches and Anderson Garcia were also out there in the bullpen, but they were a last resort for Manuel. After all, he is trying to win.

Needless to say, the Phillies, at 43-43, are doing it with mirrors in the bullpen. Manuel really has nowhere to turn when looking to his bench. Sure, the so-called core of his team is as good as any in the Majors, but the name of the game still is getting 27 outs. In that regard, the Phillies struggle from the seventh inning on.

Some wise baseball people have suggested that Manuel is worthy of manager of the year consideration based on the job he’s done so far with the resources he’s been handed. I’m not sure that Charlie has earned an award, but when his contract ends at the end of the season he definitely deserves a medal.

***
The cool thing about being in Colorado, or even in the Pacific time zone, is that east coast games start early and end early. But east coast folks aren’t so lucky when it’s reversed. Nonetheless, when Durbin came into last night’s game I knew it was just a matter of time until I was able to head off to bed…

What, you think I was on my way out? I’m closer to 40 than 30 and have kid(s) and a serious running problem – that means no more fun of any kind.

***
No Floyd news here, nor the courtesy of a return message from USADA. Perhaps I should take the snub from the anti-doping agency personal (I don’t, I just really, really, really enjoy poking fun at everything), but since USADA is partially FUNDED FROM U.S. TAXPAYER MONEY, returning messages – even if it is to tell someone to, “go pound sand… we ain’t tellin’ you nothin’” – isn’t just a courtesy. It’s their damn job.

Trust me on this one: some government official is getting a well-written and pointed letter of complaint… not that they actually care what their constituents think.

Sigh.

Anywho, I watched the first rider of the prologue of the 2007 Tour de France fly out of the gate and through the streets of London for the short, 8k time trial and even saw Dave Zabriske take Yellow… for exactly 54 seconds. That said, here are a few revelations I’ve had over the last few days regarding the Tour and cycling:

  • It would be soooooo hilarious if an American won the Tour this year. If Levi Leipheimer, Z-Man or George Hincapie (he said he wants to win the prologue) end up contending, expect more than a few heads to explode.
  • I am now convinced that the UCI, the Tour and the other so-called leaders of cycling want to sabotage their sport. So far they are doing a pretty good job, but aren’t quite to Gary Bettman status quite yet.

    Give them some time.

  • Phil Liggett is the best sports broadcaster working today. Well… Vin Scully is pretty damn incredible, too. How about this: Liggett and Vin reading from a phone book?

    I’d listen to that all day.

    Meanwhile, based on the commercials aired on Versus during the Tour coverage it seems as if everything is OK in selling the event for TV... well, you know, it ain't the NFL.

    ***
    Wildly astute columnist Bob Ford wrote about the Tour for the Inquirer today. I’m not sure if Bob is going to England or France to cover the race, but if he is I hope he can steal me an ashtray or something.

    I was hoping to have John Eustice write for us at CSN again this year during the Tour, but haven't heard anything regarding that yet (yes, I asked). So without anything new, here's Eustice's reports from last year.

  • ***
    Tour predictions:
    1.) Levi Leipheimer, USA, Discovery Channel d'Epargne
    2.) Alexandre Vinokourov, Kazakhstan, Astana
    3.) Alejandro Valverde, Spain, Caisse

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    Rumors on the Internets

    One of the late, great Tug McGraw’s funnier lines was regarding the 1980 World Champion Phillies, when he quipped that if the FDA ever checked out the team’s clubhouse they would “Shut down baseball.” Certainly, behind the scenes that club must have been a wild dichotomy of personalities, quirks and egos. Think about it: Tug, Steve Carlton, Mike Schmidt, Larry Bowa and Pete Rose all in the same room at the same time… It’s a wonder there was any oxygen left.

    But here’s one I never heard and it’s equally entertaining if not something to pique one’s interest about the only championship team in the Phillies’ 124 years.

    Peter Gammons, the great baseball writer, was on the Dan Patrick radio show yesterday talking about the resurgence of Sammy Sosa and his snub from the All-Star Game when he dropped a little throwaway line about the ’80 Phillies:

    “Two years ago he looked like he was 63-years old and done. But he’s come back and he’s had a terrific year and yet he’s never flunked a drug test in his life. Yeah, he got caught with a corked bat – Ted Williams used a corked bat… the entire 1980 Phillies team used corked bats – that doesn’t get me morally upset. Whatever you believe you have to surmise that it’s circumstantial evidence on Sammy Sosa.”

    Wait… the Phillies corked their bats? Did I hear that correctly? Ted Williams, too? Wow. Cool… I guess.

    For the record, from my experience corking a bat takes a lot of patience and skill.

    *** The Phillies hit Denver tonight, which is the Gateway to the Rockies. Interestingly, Denver is a city that is a lot like Philadelphia except for the fact that Denver is cool. They love the Broncos there, too. In fact, it seems as if the entire state shuts down whenever the NFL team plays.

    Anyway, if I were in Denver watching the Phillies I would head up to the Rocky Mountain National Park in Estes Park, Colo. the first chance I got. Short of that, I’d go hang in nearby Boulder along Pearl Street.

    Or, if I were the gambling type, I take the hour-long drive to Black Hawk and Central City, two abandoned mining towns, that have limited stakes blackjack, poker and slots.

    Then again, maybe I’d just sit there at Coors Field and read the words on my laptop.

    *** The Internets are abuzz with word that a verdict in the Floyd arbitration hearing is imminent. What better time to talk about the case than on the eve of the Tour de France’s prologue in London?

    Nevertheless, here’s an update from my end: The publishers of David Walsh’s book, “From Lance to Landis…” sent me a copy of the book. Kudos to them.

    I haven’t read the entire book yet (it just arrived less than an hour ago), but I read several chapters (I took speed reading classes in high school and practiced a lot in college) and my knee-jerk reaction is that the book reads like the trashy conversations that sportswriters have in press boxes and media rooms anywhere in the world. Some of the tall tales may be based in truth, but there would be no chance that a self-respecting writer would even consider actually sitting down and writing about the crap that gets tossed around in those bull sessions.

    Trust me on this: every writer worth a damn knows hundreds and hundreds of salacious stories regarding the teams/sports they cover that would make the typical fans' hair stand up straight. Yet at the same time any writer worth a damn would never write those stories for public consumption because they are based in hearsay, circumstantial evidence and -- get this -- MIGHT NOT BE TRUE.

    The aim of journalism is truth. After the truth has been proven comes the story.

    Nevertheless, there are always a few who think it’s OK to write about gossip and circumstantial tall tales. Perhaps David Walsh is one of them? Either way, it will be interesting to see what is in the rest of his book and expect a review on these pages by this time next week.

    For the record, I must admit that the trashy side of me enjoys those Kitty Kelly novels/biographies, too. Perhaps Walsh is equally as entertaining?

    On another note, USADA still hasn't returned my calls or e-mails.

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    Adding on

    Lots of stuff going on around here and none of it has to do with the Phillies or baseball. In fact, with a couple of days off and the regular holiday busyness going on around here, I think the last thing I saw from the Phillies was Pat Burrell smacking a home run.

    How’s that for a lasting image of the 2007 Phillies?

    Anyway, here’s a prediction kind of regarding the Phillies – if someone backs out of the All-Star Game for the National Leaguers, Ryan Howard will be selected as a replacement. Certainly his numbers aren’t stupendous, but Howard is fourth in the league in homers despite spending some time on the disabled list. Howard still projects to 43 homers and 133 RBIs, which is a decent season… think the Phillies are disappointed with that?

    Nope, me either.

    ***
    I’d like to leave homeboy Floyd alone for a little while, but it just seems so impossible…

    Firstly, Lance Armstrong spoke to a group in Aspen, Colo. this week and told the audience that he thinks Floyd is innocent of the doping charges levied against him, but it appears unlikely that the steamroller of (un)justice that is USADA will not agree.

    In fact, it seems as if Armstrong, I and other correct-thinking folks agree that the testing in cycling far exceeds the system in the American pro sports.

    Quoth Armstrong: “If you went to Major League Baseball and said, ‘We're going to have random, unannounced, out-of-competition controls,’ they would tell you, ‘You're crazy. No way, we're not playing another game.’ The NFL, they would never do that. NHL, no way. Golf, forget it. Tennis, forget it. Of course, cyclists get tested more than anything else, and perhaps that's why they get caught more than anyone else.”

    Interestingly, there is a report that Armstrong may race at Leadville with Floyd on Aug. 11. Perhaps if they can coax Jan Ullrich to join them the last nine surviving Tour de France champs could be doing a race at 11,000-feet in Leadville, Colo. instead of climbing the Alpe d’Huez.

    How much fun would that be?

    Speaking of fun, there is a report that a verdict from USADA on the Landis case could come as early as tomorrow.

    Maybe that’s what has kept someone from USADA from returning my phone calls or e-mails.

    ***
    Speaking of ignoring me, David Walsh’s publisher has not acknowledged my request for a copy of From Lance to Landis: Inside the American Doping Controversy at the Tour de France.

    Perhaps it’s the crazy holiday week? Or maybe they don’t want me to read what’s in that book? Who knows? All I know is that the so-called anti-doping groups seem to have a low level of credibility when it comes to answering calls or emails.

    Also, the podcast from The Competitors radio show featuring a 60-minute interview with Walsh won’t load onto my iTunes. Don’t make me listen to the pudcast again!

    ***
    I dropped my Pat Burrell/Saddam's hanging line on Mike Gill of The Mike Gill Show this afternoon... I think it went over well.

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    Putting it to bed

    Phew! What a crazy few days it’s been around here. Firstly, as was well-publicized here and other places, I did the whole Landis thing last weekend, which culminated with an appearance with Floyd on the Daily News Live show on CSN yesterday. That was crazy enough until one throws in all the e-mails I received (all positive, which I wasn’t expecting, but thanks), mixed with normal life, marathon running and work.

    Truth be told, I am horrible at multitasking so a normal day for most people wipes me out… so bookended between a 15-mile run in Lancaster and a 9-mile run along the Schuylkill in Philadelphia was a 30-minute outing on TV. In that regard, everyone says it went well (of course it did – would anyone tell you if you sucked… well, some might but most have a semblance of couth) but it definitely could have taken the entire 90-minutes and there are a few more things I would have liked to say.

    One is that if Floyd Landis played baseball or football instead of being a professional cyclist, he never would have tested positive. Never. That’s a fact.

    Conversely, if Barry Bonds were a cyclist (and what a huge cyclist he would be), he would have been banned from the sport a long time ago and he could even be looking at personal bankruptcy.

    As written here before, it’s lazy, stupid and irresponsible for journalists to write how cycling (or running) cannot be taken seriously when the doping issues in baseball and football are perhaps more rampant and yet they can somehow take any of those games seriously. My guess is a lot of them used to cover baseball and football regularly and either missed the steroids stories, ignored them or were a decade late in coming to the table and have now decided to take it out on sports that have no unions and pro-active and Draconian doping policies.

    During the 1990s, the only thing differentiating Major League Baseball from professional wrestling was the script.

    Anyway, I think it would have been neat to talk about Floyd training and crazy stunts, such as how he decided to ride to France from Spain before the 2004 Tour de France. I could talk about training and racing stuff all day long.

    OK… one last time. Here are a few snippets from Floyd on DNL:

    * Floyd Landis talks about why he decided to write a book
    * Landis talks about spending the past year trying to clear his name
    * Landis on what happened with the testosterone tests
    * Landis says he is still planning on racing in the future

    And here are the links to the Landis stories:

    More: Floyd Landis on Tour to Clear His Name

    I also added it here: Finger Food: Floyd Landis on Tour to Clear His Name

    And here: Finger Food Columns: Floyd Landis on Tour to Clear His Name

    And now I’m done. Thanks for indulging and we will return this to its normal lunacy as soon as possible.

    OK… here’s stage 17 from last year’s TdF:

    And of course...

    And then...

    [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uRIbmhqSiME]

    ***
    Here’s a funny one – I was catching glimpses of the Phillies game from Houston on television last night while having dinner at John Turner’s resplendent U.S. Hotel in Manayunk, when I quipped, “Geez, watching Burrell walk up to the plate to hit is like watching Saddam’s hanging. You’re sitting there the whole time thinking, ‘are they really going to go through with this? This is not going to be pleasant to watch.’”

    Then sure enough, he smacks a home run. Take that, me.

    On another note, it’s nice to see Aaron Rowand get an All-Star nod. Kudos to him.

    ***
    Not that anyone else cares, but the only proper way to top off yesterday’s action-packed day would have been to roll down I-95 to Washington, D.C. to see Joe Lally and The Evens show at Fort Reno Park. I don’t want to even think about it because I know it was probably a really good show and I’m bummed that I couldn’t be there.

    ***
    I'm not sure where I read it, but it is worth a note...

    According to someone (not me and I'm upset I wasn't smart enough to come up with it, but I wasn't watching anyway), Florida basketball player and newly drafted Joakim Noah showed up at the NBA Draft in a suit and look that made him look like, "all of the villains from Batman rolled into one..."

    Can you see Joakim getting dressed before heading off to the draft? I imagine him looking in a full-length mirror, tugging at his lapels and saying, "Wait until they get a load of me..."

    Hey, if he can get away with it, let your freak flag fly.

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    Floyd Landis on Tour to Clear His Name

    EPHRATA, Pa. – It wasn’t supposed to be this way. Not here. Not now. In any other era or any other point of history, Floyd Landis should be relaxing after a ride through the Pyrenees near his training base in Girona, Spain, or perhaps even trekking his way from France to London ahead of the prologue of the Tour de France, which is set to begin next Saturday.

    Perhaps even he would be preparing for a ceremonial role in the 2007 Tour de France after undergoing hip-replacement surgery last November. Instead of leading his team through the heat of the French lowlands and the brutal climbs up the Pyrenees and Alps every day for three weeks, Landis could have been like the Grand Marshal in the race he won quite dramatically just a year ago. It could have been like a victory lap around the entire country and a way for the American rider from Lancaster County, Pa. to say thanks to the fans for witnessing the culmination of a lot of blood and sweat to make a dream come true.

    Better yet, he could simply be watching it all from a top-floor suite at Le Meridien with sweeping views of the elegant City of Lights and an unobstructed look at the Eiffel Tower. That is if he had not chosen to grind it up Alpe d’Huez or Col du Galibier in an attempt to bring home two in a row.

    Yeah, that’s how it was supposed be.

    Landis speaks...
    Why is there a disconnect between the public/press on the issues? Is it because they are “doped” on the issue of dope?
    "It’s a lot of things and that tops it all off. The subject of sports is all about doping and people have had enough. So whenever the subject comes up and someone is accused, they just write it off as, ‘Yeah, he didn’t do it, I’ve heard it all before.’ That’s all fine and USADA and WADA say that [its] tests are perfect and people believe them because why would they say it if it wasn’t true? You can’t imagine that an anti-doping agency would want to do anything other than find the truth.

    "But the problem is they have this lab and it’s not a very good lab and they made all of these mistakes. And when they realized they had made these mistakes and made a huge public scene and Dick Pound [president of World Anti-Doping Agency] says that, ‘Everyone says he’s guilty.’ Well, if they back down from that then they lost all credibility. They just can’t all of a sudden say, 'we’re sorry.’"

    I assume you have heard about the Walsh book?
    "People have told me about it… "

    Are you going to sell more books than him?
    "Oh for sure. First of all, his book is in the fiction section so if people are looking for some entertainment, there you go.

    "His problem is that he just hates Lance. It’s clear. He’s not anti-doping, he’s anti-Lance. That serves no purpose."

    It's his third time writing the same book...
    "How many times can you write a book in different languages? It’s still the same book."

    What can you tell people about Lance Armstrong that no one else knows?
    "I don’t think I know anything that anyone else knows. People have perceptions of him that might not be very accurate, but I don’t know any details that they wouldn’t know. The guy is obsessed. With whatever he does he is obsessed, and whatever he does he wants to be the best at it.

    "Ultimately, he doesn’t have a lot of close friends because of it and he winds up not being the nicest guy. But that doesn’t make him a doper. That doesn’t make him a cheater. It might make him someone you don’t want to be around, but that doesn’t mean he took advantage of anyone else or that he deserves the harassment some people are giving him, like in the Walsh book."

    Are you still going to race at Leadville (in August)?
    "Yeah, it seemed like a good idea back when I was training more… that’s going to be painful. I’ve been riding a little more since the hearing ending – I’ve been trying to get some more miles in. If I can just get a few decent weeks of training in I’ll be alright. I don’t particularly like to race at altitude and this one is at 10,000-feet, but I’ll be fine.

    "I don’t like altitude at all. I hate it. I did that thing a few weeks ago in Vail (Colorado) at the Teva Mountain Games for a fund raiser and that was a problem. The problem there was that I sat in that hearing for 10 days and I didn’t do [anything]. I didn’t even move. It wasn’t like I even exercised, I just sat there. Then I got on my bike a week later and tried to race and it was painful. Hopefully I can get some time up at altitude somewhere."

    When you train, do you usually go to altitude?
    "When I really care and I want to be in shape and I’m training for the Tour or something, I go to altitude. It helps. It helps if you’re going to race at sea level, but if race at altitude you have to train there. You can’t just show up."

    Is training in the Northestern U.S. humidity as difficult as training at altitude?
    "It’s not the same. It’s equally as hard, but (humidity) doesn’t help you adapt to altitude. It’s very difficult if you aren’t used to altitude. Riding around here is hard if you aren’t used to humidity. Those little hills that go up and down – you get tired fast riding around here [in Lancaster County]. You don’t ride 100 miles around here. In California, for example, you can ride along the coast and do 100 miles and not climb a whole lot and be alright. There’s nothing like that here."

    How good are the riding conditions in this part of the country?
    "This is one of the best. If you want to win the Tour or are at the level I was at, you need big mountains. You need to be able to climb for an hour or an hour-and-a-half at a time. But as far as just riding goes and training and you want nice roads, it doesn’t get any better than this."

    Who is going to win the 2007 Tour de France?
    "Not me."

    -- John R. Finger

    Instead, Landis was sitting on a soft couch in a dimly lit but comfortable room atop of a bicycle shop near his old stomping grounds in Ephrata, Pa. answering a reporter’s questions. And he’s trying to figure out the fastest way down Route 222 in order to get from Ephrata to Lancaster for an appearance at a Barnes & Noble. From there it was figuring out how to negotiate the Schuylkill Expressway for another media outing. Instead of stages on the tour like Mazamet to Plateau-de-Beille, Landis will be attempting to get from West Chester, Pa. to Washington, D.C. to Wheaton, Ill.

    Instead, Landis has lost a potential $10 million in earnings and has spent more than $1 million of his own money to clear his name.

    What a difference a year makes, huh?

    “I wasn’t doing this (last year),” Landis said. “Right about now I was flying from California to France to start the Tour and I was in the best shape of my life. I’m not so much now, but I’m into some other stuff.”

    That other stuff is a different type of tour. Call it the Tour de Book or the Tour de Plead-thy-Case. Landis was relaxing after an afternoon ride in Souderton, Pa. to help promote the Univest Grand Prix race that will take place on Sept. 8. While relaxing, he multitasked by taking a phone call from a reporter before entertaining questions from another reporter from a Lancaster TV station and newspaper. After that, it was off to the Barnes & Noble in Lancaster where he would sign copies of his new book, Positively False: The Real Story of How I Won the Tour de France until late into the evening.

    That’s what his life is like these days – another city; another stage; more books to sign; and more reporters asking questions leading to the same theme of, “Did you do it?” Or “How can they get away with it?” It’s a different kind of preparation with more grueling jagged mountains to climb. But unlike the Tour de France, this tour doesn’t have an end in sight.

    And when it does end, it could end badly.

    Needless to say, Landis hasn’t thought much about his victory in the Tour de France and it’s no wonder that he was a bit unsure of when the world’s biggest cycling race was going to begin this year. In a sense it’s like he never really won it behind the cursory pomp and celebration, but then it didn’t really mean anything yet.

    “At some levels it seems like forever and other levels it went very quickly,” he said. “The whole thing was a strange experience. Winning the Tour in the first place – although it was a goal – you can imagine it all you want, but it’s not the same until it really happens. Then I basically had two days to think about it and in those two days even if you win or just finish you feel awful for awhile. So I got through those two days and I really didn’t get a chance to think about, and little did I know those were my only two days to enjoy it, and then this whole doping thing started.

    “Right there that eliminated any thought of winning the Tour from my mind. It’s always been dealing with this – and I didn’t know anything. I didn’t know how the process worked, how the testing worked, and for that matter I didn’t even know what the accusation was against me. I didn’t have any paperwork or anything. It took about two months for me to get it. So everything I thought about and learned was just about what I needed to do and how to deal with the press, and obviously, I had very little idea.”

    The whole doping thing has been Landis’ life since he stepped off the victory podium in Paris last July. His life, to this point, has been spent learning the intricacies of science and legal world, with equal parts circus thrown in. Along the way, Landis has become not only the biggest pariah in sports outside of baseball players Barry Bonds and Mark McGwire, but also one of the pioneers in the battle for athletes’ rights as he fights to retain his 2006 Tour de France championship that could be stripped from him for an alleged positive test for testosterone following the 17th stage of the race.

    Never mind the fact that Landis has not tested positive for anything before or after the now infamous Stage 17, there is a pretty good chance that he could be a banned doper despite the mountains of evidence accumulated that indicate otherwise.

    And what if the United States Anti-Doping Agency’s (USADA) arbitration panel rules against Landis?

    “If they rule against me, they are going to have to fabricate something,” said Landis, who could face a two-year ban and become the first ever rider to be stripped of his Tour de France victory if he is convicted.

    Man on a mission
    It would be very difficult these days to find any one in America who hasn’t heard of Floyd Landis, the recovering Mennonite from little old Farmersville, Pa. in bucolic Lancaster County. Winning one of the biggest sporting events in the world has a way of making anonymity disappear. Everybody knows Floyd Landis now. His story has been told and re-told over and over again amongst friends and acquaintances like it was the latest episode of a favorite TV show or a crazy snap of the weather.

    Be that as it may, here’s a quick recap:

    Before he won the Tour de France last summer and his world was turned into fodder for the gossip and science realm of the sports pages, Floyd Landis was the cult hero in professional cycling. In fact, there was not an aspect of Landis’ life that wasn’t legendary. His training methods were renowned for being grueling and insatiable.

    "There's only one rule: The guy who trains the hardest, the most, wins. Period. Because you won't die,” he famously said in a pre-Tour de France Outside Magazine profile last year. “Even though you feel like you'll die, you don't actually die. Like when you're training, you can always do one more. Always. As tired as you might think you are, you can always, always do one more.”

    You can always do one more. That is the line that personifies Floyd Landis.

    Meanwhile, his on-again-off-again relationship with the sport’s biggest star, Lance Armstrong, was something every cyclist talked about. So too was Landis’ background and Lancaster County/Mennonite roots. Growing up in Farmersville, more dusty crossroads than rural hamlet, Landis didn’t have a television.

    But mostly the stories about Landis amongst cyclists start out with, “Remember the time when Floyd… ” and end with some oddball feat like, “…drank 15 cappuccinos in one sitting.” Or, “rode in the Tour de France nine weeks after having hip surgery.” Or, “ate 28 bags of peanuts during a trans-Atlantic flight.”

    Floyd Landis stories are the ones that involve a person pushing himself to extreme limits and taking silly risks that sometimes end with everyone smiling about what they had just witnessed.

    The story should have ended after Stage 17 of the ’06 Tour. That’s where the Legend of Floyd reached epic proportions following his legendary ride to bounce back from an equally monumental collapse just the day before. It was over just 24 hours that Landis lost the leader’s Yellow Jersey in the Tour when he “bonked” and lost nearly nine minutes off his overall lead and dropped to 11th place. But in the very next stage Landis attacked the peloton from the very beginning of the 111-mile stage to amazingly regain all the time he had lost.

    A few days later he was standing all alone in Paris. Floyd Landis, the kid from Farmersville, Pa., was the winner of the Tour de France.

    That’s where it was supposed to end.

    Instead, he became Floyd Landis the professional defendant because a urine test after that epic Stage 17 had come back positive, revealing an unusually high ratio of the hormone testosterone to the hormone epitestosterone (T/E ratio), according to a test conducted by the French government's anti-doping clinical laboratory, the National Laboratory for Doping Detection. The lab is accredited by the Tour de France, the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and USADA.

    An arbitration hearing led by USADA took place in Malibu, Calif. in May and Landis is still waiting on a ruling from a three-member panel.

    But in the months leading up to the arbitration hearing, Landis became a trailblazer of sorts. Just as he attacked during Stage 17, Landis attacked USADA with mountains of evidence culled from his positive test to make the case that, as he says, never should have tested positive. Some of the evidence Landis collected included forged documents, faulty testing procedures, erroneously contaminated urine samples, and claims that the positive finding on one of the urine samples came from a sample number not assigned to Landis.

    But the real innovation came in what Landis did with the information he had gathered. Instead of waiting for the arbitration hearing and hiding out behind lawyers and legalese, he took his case to the people. Like the online encyclopedia Wikipedia which allows users to add information to an entry when new findings are made, Landis mounted a “Wiki Defense” in which he posted all of the information released by USADA and the French lab and allowed experts to help him mount his case and find errors in the opposition’s stance.

    He also went on “The Floyd Fairness Tour” in which he raised money for his defense, made detailed presentations regarding his case and talked to anyone who would listen regarding the French lab’s findings and USADA’s case against him.

    In a sense, Landis took his fight to the streets and claims that USADA has never once disputed any of his findings. In fact, USADA never disputed any of Landis’ arguments in the arbitration hearing, nor have they answered the claims he made in his new book, such as USADA offered a more lenient penalty if he could help the agency mount a doping case against Lance Armstrong.

    USADA, an agency that receives some of its funding from U.S. taxpayers, did not return phone calls or e-mails for comment in this story.

    Said Landis about USADA not disputing his testimony: “They don’t have anything to say.”

    In the interim, Landis has become the leading advocate for non-union athlete’s rights against the national and world agencies. In fact, in facing new allegations from Irish investigative reporter David Walsh in a newly released book called, From Lance to Landis: Inside the American Doping Controversy at the Tour de France, Armstrong has copied some of Landis’ moves by releasing all of the legal findings from his cases on the Internet.

    So just like that Landis goes from winning the Tour de France to legal innovator? How does a guy who grew up in a home without a TV set create a “Wiki Defense” on the World Wide Web?

    “That wasn’t even in the back of my mind, and honestly, I didn’t realize the jeopardy that athletes are in because it never crossed my mind. I had no problem giving a urine sample because I did it all the time and I assumed that the people testing it were legitimate and out to do the right thing. It never crossed my mind that it could be the way it is,” Landis explained. “And it’s hard for people to believe when I say it really is that bad. They think, ‘Yeah, he’s guilty. That’s why he’s trying to accuse them.’ But, even a guilty person deserves to have the evidence against him provided to him without having to spend $1 million in a year.”

    Landis is mounting his legal case against the doping agencies, his information tour, and his book tour without the aid of a cycling union. In fact, if player in the NFL or Major League Baseball faced the same accusations as Landis, the players’ union would have his back. There is no such union to represent Landis.

    So if Landis were a defensive lineman attacking the quarterback instead of a bicyclist attacking Alpe d’Huez would he have even tested positive?

    “Of course not,” he said. “None of this should have ever happened. Look, if you’re going to enforce ethics then you have to hold yourself to the absolute highest standard. You can’t have a lab that’s doing the testing forging documents and doing just random things wrong, and when they do just write it off as, ‘Well, it’s just a mistake we’ll just write it off and ignore it.’”

    It’s not the science, it’s the circus
    Despite Landis’ piles of evidence and USADA not refuting them, the cyclist's credibility was what the anti-doping agency attacked during the arbitration hearing. That’s because three-time Tour de France champion Greg LeMond testified that Landis’ former business manager threatened him in a crank phone call that he was going to go public with LeMond’s secret that he had been sexually abused as a child.

    The manager, Will Geoghegan, was fired immediately, according to Landis, and the cyclist admits he was in the room when the call was made.

    But in retrospect, Landis says LeMond’s testimony as well as the attacks against his credibility are irrelevant because LeMond and a former professional cyclist named Joe Papp were brought in to testify for USADA for no real reason.

    “Either it’s science or something else. If it’s not science than what is it? Take, for instance, at the hearing where they brought in Greg LeMond and Joe Papp, neither of whom said anything,” Landis explained. “They didn’t say anything and they had no relevance. For example, Joe Papp told us that he took a bunch of drugs and apparently they didn’t help him and then he left. I didn’t know the guy, I never raced the guy – what that had to do with science is beyond me.”

    Because of the LeMond controversy, the real point of the hearings was lost for headline writers and the general public, says Landis. The fact is, he says, the French lab didn’t even test him for the substance that he is accused of using.

    “What really got lost and I have been trying to tell people this: when they got to the point where they had to identify the substance and they had to measure it, they identified the wrong thing. And that got lost in the whole big mess because there were so many arguments, but if you just look at that there’s no point in even talking about the rest of it. The other 200 things they did wrong don’t even matter because they didn’t even test testosterone,” Landis said.

    Then, he paused, leaned forward on the couch and raised his voice beyond a normal conversational tone:

    “And I don’t know how they are going to get around that! What are they going to say, ‘Well, it was something close to testosterone so we’ll just call him guilty.’ How is that going to work? I don’t know, but believe me, I’ve seen them do some pretty strange things to this point.”

    An uncertain future
    The Floyd Landis story has been nothing but strange. Nothing has been ordinary and nothing has come easy. Listening to Landis speak after reading his book, as well as Daniel Coyle’s Lance Armstrong's War: One Man's Battle Against Fate, Fame, Love, Death, Scandal, and a Few Other Rivals on the Road to the Tour de France, makes anyone want to stage a riot or a march proclaiming the man’s innocence. It’s very difficult not to believe him simply because he is fighting. Oftentimes people are baffled that those who claim they are wrongly accused don’t display anger and choose to hide in the legal system of behind the words of an attorney.

    But Landis isn’t doing that. Instead of cashing in as every other Tour de France champion has, Landis faces the reality of personal bankruptcy. He very well could lose his home and his daughter could lose money once earmarked for her education simply because Floyd Landis believes he has been wronged and has chosen to stand up for himself.

    He isn’t in France living a cushy life that years of putting in the hard work on the saddle have earned him, but instead is talking to everyone who will listen, signing every autograph requested and making sure that everyone who wants to have a book signed gets it.

    Very certainly Landis could mail it in. He could give pat answers in a detached way, but chooses not to. Instead he engages everyone and has a conversation when no one has forced him to.

    One of the biggest pariahs in sports has decided he has to fight. Actually, he doesn’t see any other choice.

    And that leaves us with one more question… will Landis still be fighting next year at this time or will he be relaxing after a ride through the Pyrenees near his training base in Girona, Spain in preparation for another ride down the Champs Elysées?

    “I hope so. I really hope so and I think so,” he said excitedly. “The longer this thing goes on the more I think things are going to work out because we put on a case that was never refuted even in the hearing.”

    That, after all, was the way it was supposed to be.

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    It's On!

    From now on there is no more kidding around. Whether I’m racing in the Steamtown Marathon on Oct. 7 or going back to Harrisburg on Nov. 10, I’m in full training mode starting Monday.

    Then again, it wasn’t like I wasn’t training during the last two months. Though the aim was to get in shape in order to be able to handle the schedule I set up for myself. In other words, I guess I was training for my training.

    So what do I have in store for myself? Funny I should ask… check this out:

    Week 1
    July 2-8

    20 miles in 2:10

    4 miles easy +
    5 x 1 mile @ 5:10/mile +
    5 miles easy

    or Ephrata Firecracker Five Miler @ 8:30 a.m. on July 4

    Week 2
    July 9-15

    20 miles in 2:15

    2 miles easy +
    10 miles in 58
    2 miles easy

    Week 3
    July 16-22

    4 miles easy +
    8 miles in 48 +
    1 mile in 5:35 +
    6 miles in 36 +
    1 mile in 5:35 +
    2 miles easy

    knockdown in 33, 32, 31

    or Bon-Ton 5 Miler, York Galleria, York, Pa. @ 7:30 a.m. on July 22

    Week 4
    July 23-29

    22 miles with 5 miles in 28

    knockdown in 32, 31, 30

    Week 5
    July 30- August 5

    22 miles in 2:28

    2 miles easy +
    10 miles in 58 +
    2 miles easy

    Week 6
    August 6-12

    20 miles with 12 in 72

    knockdown in 32, 30, 29

    or Ox Trot 5 Miler, Bowmansville, Pa. @ 8 a.m. on Aug. 11

    Week 7
    August 13-19

    22 miles with 5 in 28, 10 easy, and 5 in 28

    knockdown in 31, 30, 28

    Week 8
    August 20-26

    22 miles in 2:27

    4 easy +
    10 in 57
    1 mile cool down

    or York 10 miler, York, Pa. @ 8 a.m. on Aug. 25

    Week 9
    August 27- September 2

    23 miles with 12 in 72

    knockdown in 31, 31, 27

    Week 10
    September 3-9

    22 miles with 5 in 28

    knockdown in 32, 30, 29

    Week 11
    September 10-16

    22 miles easy

    4 miles easy +
    5 x 1 mile @ 5:10/mile +
    5 miles easy

    Week 12
    September 17-23

    BLAST WEEK

    Week 13
    September 24-30

    22 miles easy

    5k or 10k race
    Hands on House Half Marathon/5k @ 9 a.m.

    Week 14
    October 1-7

    * 13 easy
    * 10 easy
    * 4 miles warm up and cool down + 3 in 16
    * 6 miles easy
    * 4-5 miles easy
    * 3 miles easy
    * 4 miles easy

    How it works is I do two “quality” workouts a week and the other five days are spent racking up the mileage. Of course a lot of what I do will depend on what happens when the baby comes in the middle of August. That’s the monkey wrench, but I think it will be OK.

    Here’s the week of June 25- July 1.

    Monday – 20 miles in 2:13:03
    It was super-humid and I didn't get out until later in the day. Either way, I did OK until around the 17th mile where I started to tie up a bit. I stopped at 15 miles to drink, which may have been too late. Either way, I got another 20-mile run in and it felt pretty good.

    splits:
    1st 5: 33:31
    2nd 5: 32:23
    3rd 5: 33:17
    4th 5: 33:51

    Tuesday – 15 miles in 1:40:04
    This was the hottest and most humid day of the year, but that fact that I did this workout says something... like I'm crazy. Either way, I stuck it out thanks to having my Gatorade mixture with me on the route and the fact that I'm pretty strong. I also have adapted the theory that there is no such thing as overtraining, just under-resting. I picked that up from Floyd Landis' book and so far it seems like it's right on the money.

    On another note, I have started to soak my feet in the ice-cold tub after runs... so far so good.

    splits:
    1st 5: 33:38
    2nd 5: 32:45
    3rd 5: 33:40

    Wednesday – 15 miles in 1:41:55
    The fact that I did this run under the conditions proves that I am either a badass or more than a little crazy... I'm going with the latter. It was hazy, hot and humid, and when the sun was out it was more than miserable. Running on the field was nearly unbearable, so I went home, got a drink, got out the garden hose and started up again with the hope of adding another 20 to 30 minutes. Somehow, though, I was able to go for eight more miles.

    Thursday – 15 miles in 1:42:24
    The temperature wasn't as bad, but it was still unbearably humid. Plus, if I'm not mistaken, I bonked a bit... or maybe it has something to do with the fact that I had a big-assed diet coke instead of coffee. If I'm ever drug tested, the only thing they will find is that I'm hopped up on coffee and ibuprofen. Other than that, I'm clean.

    Regardless, I struggled in the humidity and went slow. Maybe it's the mileage... who knows. Still, I'm pleased about getting in the miles.
    splits:
    1st 5: 33:47
    2nd: 33:59
    3rd: 34:39

    Friday – 16 miles in 1:45:18
    Finally! A good day to run. It was overcast and much cooler, even though it was still humid. Nevertheless, I kept a solid pace the entire time and even picked up a little at the end, though I didn't have enough energy to run a solid, six-minute pace.

    It's been a busy week and it's just beginning. I talked to Floyd Landis for a story today and that was a blast. Hopefully the story comes off well.

    splits:
    1st 5: 33:14
    2nd 5: 33:04
    3rd 5: 31:54

    Saturday – 15 miles in 1:37:43
    Another excellent day to run... the weather was great and the humidity even broke. In fact, I didn't even feel tight or sore or need much warm up time at the start. I just went out and got into it even though I was sitting on my ass at home and writing all day.

    splits:
    1st 5: 32:44
    2nd 5: 32:45
    3rd 5: 32:14

    Sunday – 6 miles in 39:42
    Went out "naked" today, which is a term I stole from the baseball players I typically write about. To play naked, as they say, is to play a game without taking a "greenie." A greenie, of course, is amphetamines. Running naked in my instance has nothing to do with greenies. Instead, I ran without having coffee or ibuprofen this morning.

    Needless to say, I felt a little bit of a difference, but that was fine. Today was an easy day and I treated it as such -- I even ran with my iPod today and the weather was spectacular. Too bad such a nice day came on an easy day... I could have hammered.

    But there will be time for that. Sometimes a guy just needs to go light.

    1st 5 split: 32:44

    There’s 102 miles… Kind of tough at times this week with the heat and humidity, but I hung tough.

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    All done

    The Landis story is up. In the meantime, here's a Q&A with the 2006 Tour de France champion:

    Are you still going to race at Leadville? Yeah, it seemed like a good idea back when I was training more… that’s going to be painful. I’ve been riding a little more since the hearing ending – I’ve been trying to get some more miles in. If I can just get a few decent weeks of training in I’ll be alright. I don’t particularly like to race at altitude and this one is at 10,000-feet, but I’ll be fine.

    I don’t like altitude at all. I hate it. I did that thing a few weeks ago in Vail (Colorado) at the Teva Mountain Games for a fund raiser and that was a problem. The problem there was that I sat in that hearing for 10 days and I didn’t do [anything]. I didn’t even move. It wasn’t like I even exercised, I just sat there. Then I got on my bike a week later and tried to race and it was painful. Hopefully I can get some time up at altitude somewhere.

    When you train, do you usually go to altitude? When I really care and I want to be in shape and I’m training for the Tour or something, I go to altitude. It helps. It helps if you’re going to race at sea level, but if race at altitude you have to train there. You can’t just show up.

    Is training in the Northestern U.S. humidity as difficult as training at altitude? It’s not the same. It’s equally as hard, but (humidity) doesn’t help you adapt to altitude. It’s very difficult if you aren’t used to altitude. Riding around here is hard if you aren’t used to humidity. Those little hills that go up and down – you get tired fast riding around here [in Lancaster County]. You don’t ride 100 miles around here. In California, for example, you can ride along the coast and do 100 miles and not climb a whole lot and be alright. There’s nothing like that here.

    How good are the riding conditions in this part of the country? This is one of the best. If you want to win the Tour or are at the level I was at, you need big mountains. You need to be able to climb for an hour or an hour-and-a-half at a time. But as far as just riding goes and training and you want nice roads, it doesn’t get any better than this.

    Last year at this time... what were you doing? I wasn’t doing this. When does the Tour start? (told July 7) Right about now I was flying from California to France to start the Tour and I was in the best shape of my life. I’m not so much now, but I’m into some other stuff.

    At some levels it seems like forever and other levels it went very quickly. The whole thing was a strange experience. Winning the Tour in the first place – although it was a goal – you can’t imagine it all you want, but it’s not the same until it really happens. Then I basically had two days to think about it and in those two days you win or just finish you feel awful for awhile. So I got through those two days and I really didn’t get a chance to think about, and little did know those were my only two days enjoy it and then this whole doping thing started.

    Right there that eliminated any thought of winning the Tour from my mind. It’s always been dealing with this – and I didn’t know anything. I didn’t know how the process worked, how the testing worked, and for that matter I didn’t even know what the accusation was against me. I didn’t have any paperwork or anything. It took about two months for me to get it. So everything I thought about and learned was just about what I needed to do and how to deal with the press, and obviously, I had very little idea.

    So I had very little thought about actually winning the tour.

    Since then you've become a one of the leading advocate for athletes’ rights, I assume you never expected that was part of the deal of winning the Tour de France? That wasn’t even in the back of my mind, and honestly, I didn’t realize the jeopardy that athletes are in because it never crossed my mind. I had no problem giving a urine sample because I did it all the time and I assumed that the people testing it were legitimate and out to do the right thing. It never crossed my mind that it could be the way it is.

    And it’s hard for people to believe when I say it really is that bad. They think, ‘Yeah, he’s guilty that’s why he’s trying to accuse them.’ But, even a guilty person deserves to have the evidence against him provided to him without having to spend $1 million in a year.

    Ultimately, an arbitration hearing can’t handle a criminal prosecution and that’s what it is.

    If you were a baseball player or a football player, would you have tested positive? Of course not. None of this should have ever happened. Look, if you’re going to enforce ethics then you have to hold yourself to the absolute highest standard. You can’t have a lab that’s doing the testing forging documents and doing just random things wrong, and when they do just write it off as, ‘Well, it’s just a mistake we’ll just right it off and ignore it.’

    Either it’s science or something else. If it’s not science than what is it? Take, for instance, at the hearing where they brought in Greg LeMond and Joe Papp, neither of whom said anything. They didn’t say anything and they had no relevance. For example, Joe Papp told us that he took a bunch of drugs and apparently they didn’t help him and then he left. I didn’t know the guy, I never raced the guy – what that had to do with science is beyond me.

    No disputes from USADA? They don’t have anything to say.

    Why is there a disconnect between the public/press on the issues? Is it because they are “doped” on the issue of dope? It’s a lot of things and that tops it all off. The subject of sports is all about doping and people have had enough. So whenever the subject comes up and someone is accused, they just write it off as, ‘Yeah, he didn’t do it, I’ve heard it all before.’ That’s all fine and USADA and WADA say that [its] tests are perfect and people believe them because why would they say it if it wasn’t true? You can’t imagine that an anti-doping agency would want to do anything other than find the truth.

    But the problem is they have this lab and it’s not a very good lab and they made all of these mistakes. And when they realized they had made these mistakes and made a huge public scene and Dick Pound [president of WADA] says that, ‘Everyone says he’s guilty.’ Well, if they back down from that then they lost all credibility. They just can’t all of a sudden say, “we’re sorry.’

    What if they rule against you? If they rule against me, they are going to have to fabricate something.

    What really got lost and I have been trying to tell people this: when they got to the point where they had to identify the substance and they had to measure it, they identified the wrong thing. And that got lost in the whole big mess because there were so many arguments, but if you just look at that there’s no point in even talking about the rest of it. The other 200 things they did wrong don’t even matter because they didn’t even test testosterone.

    And I don't know how they are going to get around that! What are they going to say, ‘Well, it was something close to testosterone so we’ll just call him guilty.’ How is that going to work? I don’t know, but believe me, I’ve seen them do some pretty strange things to this point.

    There’s a reason why they hide behind that gag order and it’s because they have nothing to say.

    I assume you have heard about the Walsh book? People have told me about it…

    Are you going to sell more books than him? Oh for sure. First of all, his book is in the fiction section so if people are looking for some entertainment, there you go.

    His problem is that he just hates Lance. It’s clear. He’s not anti-doping, he’s anti-Lance. That serves no purpose.

    It's his third time writing the same book... How many times can you write a book in different languages? It’s still the same book.

    What can you tell people about Lance that no one else knows? I don’t think I know anything that anyone else knows. People have perceptions of him that might not be very accurate, but I don’t know any details that they wouldn’t know. The guy is obsessed. With whatever he does he is obsessed, and whatever he does he wants to be the best at it. Ultimately, he doesn’t have a lot of close friends because of it and he winds up not being the nicest guy. But that doesn’t make him a doper. That doesn’t make him a cheater. It might make him someone you don’t want to be around, but that doesn’t mean he took advantage of anyone else or that he deserves the harassment some people are giving him, like in the Walsh book.

    Next year at this time will you be in France? I hope so. I really hope so and I think so. The longer this thing goes on the more I think things are going to work out because we put on a case that was never refuted even in the hearing.

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    Floyd interview excerpt

    I finally transcribed my entire interview with Floyd Landis, which was much longer than I thought. In fact, the entire transcription is four-typed pages and 1,613 words long. Needless to say, some of it will not appear in the story I'm writing for tomorrow. However, when the story is finished (I'm still waiting for another comment from USADA... they won't return calls or e-mails), I will post the full transcription here. In the meantime, here's a snippet I'll pass along to tide everyone over:

    Are you still going to race at Leadville?
    Yeah, it seemed like a good idea back when I was training more… that’s going to be painful. I’ve been riding a little more since the hearing ending – I’ve been trying to get some more miles in. If I can just get a few decent weeks of training in I’ll be alright. I don’t particularly like to race at altitude and this one is at 10,000-feet, but I’ll be fine.

    I don’t like altitude at all. I hate it. I did that thing a few weeks ago in Vail (Colorado) at the Teva Mountain Games for a fund raiser and that was a problem. The problem there was that I sat in that hearing for 10 days and I didn’t do [anything]. I didn’t even move. It wasn’t like I even exercised, I just sat there. Then I got on my bike a week later and tried to race and it was painful. Hopefully I can get some time up at altitude somewhere.

    When you train, do you usually go to altitude?
    When I really care and I want to be in shape and I’m training for the Tour or something, I go to altitude. It helps. It helps if you’re going to race at sea level, but if race at altitude you have to train there. You can’t just show up.

    Is training in the Northestern U.S. humidity as difficult as training at altitude?
    It’s not the same. It’s equally as hard, but (humidity) doesn’t help you adapt to altitude. It’s very difficult if you aren’t used to altitude. Riding around here is hard if you aren’t used to humidity. Those little hills that go up and down – you get tired fast riding around here [in Lancaster County]. You don’t ride 100 miles around here. In California, for example, you can ride along the coast and do 100 miles and not climb a whole lot and be alright. There’s nothing like that here.

    How good are the riding conditions in this part of the country?
    This is one of the best. If you want to win the Tour or are at the level I was at, you need big mountains. You need to be able to climb for an hour or an hour-and-a-half at a time. But as far as just riding goes and training and you want nice roads, it doesn’t get any better than this.

    What can you tell people about Lance Armstrong that no one else knows?
    I don’t think I know anything that anyone else knows. People have perceptions of him that might not be very accurate, but I don’t know any details that they wouldn’t know. The guy is obsessed. With whatever he does he is obsessed, and whatever he does he wants to be the best at it. Ultimately, he doesn’t have a lot of close friends because of it and he winds up not being the nicest guy. But that doesn’t make him a doper. That doesn’t make him a cheater. It might make him someone you don’t want to be around, but that doesn’t mean he took advantage of anyone else or that he deserves the harassment some people are giving him, like in the Walsh book.

    Next year at this time will you be in France?
    I hope so. I really hope so and I think so. The longer this thing goes on the more I think things are going to work out because we put on a case that was never refuted even in the hearing.

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    Spread around the dirt

    It's hard to explain "real" athletics to the mainstream sporting media and fans, and by "real athletics" I mean sports that take athleticism like running, cycling (you thought I'd say golf) and basketball. Athletes often chide media types because "they don't play" or "they never played..." and to a large degree they are correct. When it comes to really knowing sports and what it takes to be an athlete, sportswriters and fans know nothing.

    That's especially the case when it comes to cycling. The conventional appraoch by well-known columnists and sports media is to simply put the sport off by saying, "Well, cycling is dirty and no one can take it seriously..."

    Yes, cycling appears to be dirty. But to say cycling is more dirty than football or baseball is just plain stupid. Actually, it's really, really stupid and the people who write and spew that crap should know better.

    The problem cycling writers are having right now is the same one baseball writers had five to 10 years ago when the sport was at the apex of its so-called "Steroid Era," which is "how could we not know." Baseball writers really dropped the ball and now writers covering other sports are repeating those mistakes.

    Joe Lindsay, in his Boulder Report blog, nails it much better than I ever could. For people interested in sizing up the true sports landscape and the media's place in it, Lindsay post is as right on as there is...

    Perhaps some day it will all be about the game and/or race again.

    More: Looking for the exit.

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    Floyd Landis on Tour to Clear His Name

    EPHRATA, Pa. – It wasn’t supposed to be this way. Not here. Not now. In any other era or any other point of history, Floyd Landis should be relaxing after a ride through the Pyrenees near his training base in Girona, Spain, or perhaps even trekking his way from France to London ahead of the prologue of the Tour de France, which is set to begin next Saturday.

    Perhaps even he would be preparing for a ceremonial role in the 2007 Tour de France after undergoing hip-replacement surgery last November. Instead of leading his team through the heat of the French lowlands and the brutal climbs up the Pyrenees and Alps every day for three weeks, Landis could have been like the Grand Marshal in the race he won quite dramatically just a year ago. It could have been like a victory lap around the entire country and a way for the American rider from Lancaster County, Pa. to say thanks to the fans for witnessing the culmination of a lot of blood and sweat to make a dream come true.

    Better yet, he could simply be watching it all from a top-floor suite at Le Meridien with sweeping views of the elegant City of Lights and an unobstructed look at the Eiffel Tower. That is if he had not chosen to grind it up Alpe d’Huez or Col du Galibier in an attempt to bring home two in a row.

    Yeah, that’s how it was supposed be.

    Landis speaks...
    Why is there a disconnect between the public/press on the issues? Is it because they are “doped” on the issue of dope?
    "It’s a lot of things and that tops it all off. The subject of sports is all about doping and people have had enough. So whenever the subject comes up and someone is accused, they just write it off as, ‘Yeah, he didn’t do it, I’ve heard it all before.’ That’s all fine and USADA and WADA say that [its] tests are perfect and people believe them because why would they say it if it wasn’t true? You can’t imagine that an anti-doping agency would want to do anything other than find the truth.

    "But the problem is they have this lab and it’s not a very good lab and they made all of these mistakes. And when they realized they had made these mistakes and made a huge public scene and Dick Pound [president of World Anti-Doping Agency] says that, ‘Everyone says he’s guilty.’ Well, if they back down from that then they lost all credibility. They just can’t all of a sudden say, 'we’re sorry.’"

    I assume you have heard about the Walsh book?
    "People have told me about it… "

    Are you going to sell more books than him?
    "Oh for sure. First of all, his book is in the fiction section so if people are looking for some entertainment, there you go.

    "His problem is that he just hates Lance. It’s clear. He’s not anti-doping, he’s anti-Lance. That serves no purpose."

    It's his third time writing the same book...
    "How many times can you write a book in different languages? It’s still the same book."

    What can you tell people about Lance Armstrong that no one else knows?
    "I don’t think I know anything that anyone else knows. People have perceptions of him that might not be very accurate, but I don’t know any details that they wouldn’t know. The guy is obsessed. With whatever he does he is obsessed, and whatever he does he wants to be the best at it.

    "Ultimately, he doesn’t have a lot of close friends because of it and he winds up not being the nicest guy. But that doesn’t make him a doper. That doesn’t make him a cheater. It might make him someone you don’t want to be around, but that doesn’t mean he took advantage of anyone else or that he deserves the harassment some people are giving him, like in the Walsh book."

    Are you still going to race at Leadville (in August)?
    "Yeah, it seemed like a good idea back when I was training more… that’s going to be painful. I’ve been riding a little more since the hearing ending – I’ve been trying to get some more miles in. If I can just get a few decent weeks of training in I’ll be alright. I don’t particularly like to race at altitude and this one is at 10,000-feet, but I’ll be fine.

    "I don’t like altitude at all. I hate it. I did that thing a few weeks ago in Vail (Colorado) at the Teva Mountain Games for a fund raiser and that was a problem. The problem there was that I sat in that hearing for 10 days and I didn’t do [anything]. I didn’t even move. It wasn’t like I even exercised, I just sat there. Then I got on my bike a week later and tried to race and it was painful. Hopefully I can get some time up at altitude somewhere."

    When you train, do you usually go to altitude?
    "When I really care and I want to be in shape and I’m training for the Tour or something, I go to altitude. It helps. It helps if you’re going to race at sea level, but if race at altitude you have to train there. You can’t just show up."

    Is training in the Northestern U.S. humidity as difficult as training at altitude?
    "It’s not the same. It’s equally as hard, but (humidity) doesn’t help you adapt to altitude. It’s very difficult if you aren’t used to altitude. Riding around here is hard if you aren’t used to humidity. Those little hills that go up and down – you get tired fast riding around here [in Lancaster County]. You don’t ride 100 miles around here. In California, for example, you can ride along the coast and do 100 miles and not climb a whole lot and be alright. There’s nothing like that here."

    How good are the riding conditions in this part of the country?
    "This is one of the best. If you want to win the Tour or are at the level I was at, you need big mountains. You need to be able to climb for an hour or an hour-and-a-half at a time. But as far as just riding goes and training and you want nice roads, it doesn’t get any better than this."

    Who is going to win the 2007 Tour de France?
    "Not me."

    -- John R. Finger

    Instead, Landis was sitting on a soft couch in a dimly lit but comfortable room atop of a bicycle shop near his old stomping grounds in Ephrata, Pa. answering a reporter’s questions. And he’s trying to figure out the fastest way down Route 222 in order to get from Ephrata to Lancaster for an appearance at a Barnes & Noble. From there it was figuring out how to negotiate the Schuylkill Expressway for another media outing. Instead of stages on the tour like Mazamet to Plateau-de-Beille, Landis will be attempting to get from West Chester, Pa. to Washington, D.C. to Wheaton, Ill.

    Instead, Landis has lost a potential $10 million in earnings and has spent more than $1 million of his own money to clear his name.

    What a difference a year makes, huh?

    “I wasn’t doing this (last year),” Landis said. “Right about now I was flying from California to France to start the Tour and I was in the best shape of my life. I’m not so much now, but I’m into some other stuff.”

    That other stuff is a different type of tour. Call it the Tour de Book or the Tour de Plead-thy-Case. Landis was relaxing after an afternoon ride in Souderton, Pa. to help promote the Univest Grand Prix race that will take place on Sept. 8. While relaxing, he multitasked by taking a phone call from a reporter before entertaining questions from another reporter from a Lancaster TV station and newspaper. After that, it was off to the Barnes & Noble in Lancaster where he would sign copies of his new book, Positively False: The Real Story of How I Won the Tour de France until late into the evening.

    That’s what his life is like these days – another city; another stage; more books to sign; and more reporters asking questions leading to the same theme of, “Did you do it?” Or “How can they get away with it?” It’s a different kind of preparation with more grueling jagged mountains to climb. But unlike the Tour de France, this tour doesn’t have an end in sight.

    And when it does end, it could end badly.

    Needless to say, Landis hasn’t thought much about his victory in the Tour de France and it’s no wonder that he was a bit unsure of when the world’s biggest cycling race was going to begin this year. In a sense it’s like he never really won it behind the cursory pomp and celebration, but then it didn’t really mean anything yet.

    “At some levels it seems like forever and other levels it went very quickly,” he said. “The whole thing was a strange experience. Winning the Tour in the first place – although it was a goal – you can imagine it all you want, but it’s not the same until it really happens. Then I basically had two days to think about it and in those two days even if you win or just finish you feel awful for awhile. So I got through those two days and I really didn’t get a chance to think about, and little did I know those were my only two days to enjoy it, and then this whole doping thing started.

    “Right there that eliminated any thought of winning the Tour from my mind. It’s always been dealing with this – and I didn’t know anything. I didn’t know how the process worked, how the testing worked, and for that matter I didn’t even know what the accusation was against me. I didn’t have any paperwork or anything. It took about two months for me to get it. So everything I thought about and learned was just about what I needed to do and how to deal with the press, and obviously, I had very little idea.”

    The whole doping thing has been Landis’ life since he stepped off the victory podium in Paris last July. His life, to this point, has been spent learning the intricacies of science and legal world, with equal parts circus thrown in. Along the way, Landis has become not only the biggest pariah in sports outside of baseball players Barry Bonds and Mark McGwire, but also one of the pioneers in the battle for athletes’ rights as he fights to retain his 2006 Tour de France championship that could be stripped from him for an alleged positive test for testosterone following the 17th stage of the race.

    Never mind the fact that Landis has not tested positive for anything before or after the now infamous Stage 17, there is a pretty good chance that he could be a banned doper despite the mountains of evidence accumulated that indicate otherwise.

    And what if the United States Anti-Doping Agency’s (USADA) arbitration panel rules against Landis?

    “If they rule against me, they are going to have to fabricate something,” said Landis, who could face a two-year ban and become the first ever rider to be stripped of his Tour de France victory if he is convicted.

    Man on a mission
    It would be very difficult these days to find any one in America who hasn’t heard of Floyd Landis, the recovering Mennonite from little old Farmersville, Pa. in bucolic Lancaster County. Winning one of the biggest sporting events in the world has a way of making anonymity disappear. Everybody knows Floyd Landis now. His story has been told and re-told over and over again amongst friends and acquaintances like it was the latest episode of a favorite TV show or a crazy snap of the weather.

    Be that as it may, here’s a quick recap:

    Before he won the Tour de France last summer and his world was turned into fodder for the gossip and science realm of the sports pages, Floyd Landis was the cult hero in professional cycling. In fact, there was not an aspect of Landis’ life that wasn’t legendary. His training methods were renowned for being grueling and insatiable.

    "There's only one rule: The guy who trains the hardest, the most, wins. Period. Because you won't die,” he famously said in a pre-Tour de France Outside Magazine profile last year. “Even though you feel like you'll die, you don't actually die. Like when you're training, you can always do one more. Always. As tired as you might think you are, you can always, always do one more.”

    You can always do one more. That is the line that personifies Floyd Landis.

    Meanwhile, his on-again-off-again relationship with the sport’s biggest star, Lance Armstrong, was something every cyclist talked about. So too was Landis’ background and Lancaster County/Mennonite roots. Growing up in Farmersville, more dusty crossroads than rural hamlet, Landis didn’t have a television.

    But mostly the stories about Landis amongst cyclists start out with, “Remember the time when Floyd… ” and end with some oddball feat like, “…drank 15 cappuccinos in one sitting.” Or, “rode in the Tour de France nine weeks after having hip surgery.” Or, “ate 28 bags of peanuts during a trans-Atlantic flight.”

    Floyd Landis stories are the ones that involve a person pushing himself to extreme limits and taking silly risks that sometimes end with everyone smiling about what they had just witnessed.

    The story should have ended after Stage 17 of the ’06 Tour. That’s where the Legend of Floyd reached epic proportions following his legendary ride to bounce back from an equally monumental collapse just the day before. It was over just 24 hours that Landis lost the leader’s Yellow Jersey in the Tour when he “bonked” and lost nearly nine minutes off his overall lead and dropped to 11th place. But in the very next stage Landis attacked the peloton from the very beginning of the 111-mile stage to amazingly regain all the time he had lost.

    A few days later he was standing all alone in Paris. Floyd Landis, the kid from Farmersville, Pa., was the winner of the Tour de France.

    That’s where it was supposed to end.

    Instead, he became Floyd Landis the professional defendant because a urine test after that epic Stage 17 had come back positive, revealing an unusually high ratio of the hormone testosterone to the hormone epitestosterone (T/E ratio), according to a test conducted by the French government's anti-doping clinical laboratory, the National Laboratory for Doping Detection. The lab is accredited by the Tour de France, the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and USADA.

    An arbitration hearing led by USADA took place in Malibu, Calif. in May and Landis is still waiting on a ruling from a three-member panel.

    But in the months leading up to the arbitration hearing, Landis became a trailblazer of sorts. Just as he attacked during Stage 17, Landis attacked USADA with mountains of evidence culled from his positive test to make the case that, as he says, never should have tested positive. Some of the evidence Landis collected included forged documents, faulty testing procedures, erroneously contaminated urine samples, and claims that the positive finding on one of the urine samples came from a sample number not assigned to Landis.

    But the real innovation came in what Landis did with the information he had gathered. Instead of waiting for the arbitration hearing and hiding out behind lawyers and legalese, he took his case to the people. Like the online encyclopedia Wikipedia which allows users to add information to an entry when new findings are made, Landis mounted a “Wiki Defense” in which he posted all of the information released by USADA and the French lab and allowed experts to help him mount his case and find errors in the opposition’s stance.

    He also went on “The Floyd Fairness Tour” in which he raised money for his defense, made detailed presentations regarding his case and talked to anyone who would listen regarding the French lab’s findings and USADA’s case against him.

    In a sense, Landis took his fight to the streets and claims that USADA has never once disputed any of his findings. In fact, USADA never disputed any of Landis’ arguments in the arbitration hearing, nor have they answered the claims he made in his new book, such as USADA offered a more lenient penalty if he could help the agency mount a doping case against Lance Armstrong.

    USADA, an agency that receives some of its funding from U.S. taxpayers, did not return phone calls or e-mails for comment in this story.

    Said Landis about USADA not disputing his testimony: “They don’t have anything to say.”

    In the interim, Landis has become the leading advocate for non-union athlete’s rights against the national and world agencies. In fact, in facing new allegations from Irish investigative reporter David Walsh in a newly released book called, From Lance to Landis: Inside the American Doping Controversy at the Tour de France, Armstrong has copied some of Landis’ moves by releasing all of the legal findings from his cases on the Internet.

    So just like that Landis goes from winning the Tour de France to legal innovator? How does a guy who grew up in a home without a TV set create a “Wiki Defense” on the World Wide Web?

    “That wasn’t even in the back of my mind, and honestly, I didn’t realize the jeopardy that athletes are in because it never crossed my mind. I had no problem giving a urine sample because I did it all the time and I assumed that the people testing it were legitimate and out to do the right thing. It never crossed my mind that it could be the way it is,” Landis explained. “And it’s hard for people to believe when I say it really is that bad. They think, ‘Yeah, he’s guilty. That’s why he’s trying to accuse them.’ But, even a guilty person deserves to have the evidence against him provided to him without having to spend $1 million in a year.”

    Landis is mounting his legal case against the doping agencies, his information tour, and his book tour without the aid of a cycling union. In fact, if player in the NFL or Major League Baseball faced the same accusations as Landis, the players’ union would have his back. There is no such union to represent Landis.

    So if Landis were a defensive lineman attacking the quarterback instead of a bicyclist attacking Alpe d’Huez would he have even tested positive?

    “Of course not,” he said. “None of this should have ever happened. Look, if you’re going to enforce ethics then you have to hold yourself to the absolute highest standard. You can’t have a lab that’s doing the testing forging documents and doing just random things wrong, and when they do just write it off as, ‘Well, it’s just a mistake we’ll just write it off and ignore it.’”

    It’s not the science, it’s the circus
    Despite Landis’ piles of evidence and USADA not refuting them, the cyclist's credibility was what the anti-doping agency attacked during the arbitration hearing. That’s because three-time Tour de France champion Greg LeMond testified that Landis’ former business manager threatened him in a crank phone call that he was going to go public with LeMond’s secret that he had been sexually abused as a child.

    The manager, Will Geoghegan, was fired immediately, according to Landis, and the cyclist admits he was in the room when the call was made.

    But in retrospect, Landis says LeMond’s testimony as well as the attacks against his credibility are irrelevant because LeMond and a former professional cyclist named Joe Papp were brought in to testify for USADA for no real reason.

    “Either it’s science or something else. If it’s not science than what is it? Take, for instance, at the hearing where they brought in Greg LeMond and Joe Papp, neither of whom said anything,” Landis explained. “They didn’t say anything and they had no relevance. For example, Joe Papp told us that he took a bunch of drugs and apparently they didn’t help him and then he left. I didn’t know the guy, I never raced the guy – what that had to do with science is beyond me.”

    Because of the LeMond controversy, the real point of the hearings was lost for headline writers and the general public, says Landis. The fact is, he says, the French lab didn’t even test him for the substance that he is accused of using.

    “What really got lost and I have been trying to tell people this: when they got to the point where they had to identify the substance and they had to measure it, they identified the wrong thing. And that got lost in the whole big mess because there were so many arguments, but if you just look at that there’s no point in even talking about the rest of it. The other 200 things they did wrong don’t even matter because they didn’t even test testosterone,” Landis said.

    Then, he paused, leaned forward on the couch and raised his voice beyond a normal conversational tone:

    “And I don’t know how they are going to get around that! What are they going to say, ‘Well, it was something close to testosterone so we’ll just call him guilty.’ How is that going to work? I don’t know, but believe me, I’ve seen them do some pretty strange things to this point.”

    An uncertain future
    The Floyd Landis story has been nothing but strange. Nothing has been ordinary and nothing has come easy. Listening to Landis speak after reading his book, as well as Daniel Coyle’s Lance Armstrong's War: One Man's Battle Against Fate, Fame, Love, Death, Scandal, and a Few Other Rivals on the Road to the Tour de France, makes anyone want to stage a riot or a march proclaiming the man’s innocence. It’s very difficult not to believe him simply because he is fighting. Oftentimes people are baffled that those who claim they are wrongly accused don’t display anger and choose to hide in the legal system of behind the words of an attorney.

    But Landis isn’t doing that. Instead of cashing in as every other Tour de France champion has, Landis faces the reality of personal bankruptcy. He very well could lose his home and his daughter could lose money once earmarked for her education simply because Floyd Landis believes he has been wronged and has chosen to stand up for himself.

    He isn’t in France living a cushy life that years of putting in the hard work on the saddle have earned him, but instead is talking to everyone who will listen, signing every autograph requested and making sure that everyone who wants to have a book signed gets it.

    Very certainly Landis could mail it in. He could give pat answers in a detached way, but chooses not to. Instead he engages everyone and has a conversation when no one has forced him to.

    One of the biggest pariahs in sports has decided he has to fight. Actually, he doesn’t see any other choice.

    And that leaves us with one more question… will Landis still be fighting next year at this time or will he be relaxing after a ride through the Pyrenees near his training base in Girona, Spain in preparation for another ride down the Champs Elysées?

    “I hope so. I really hope so and I think so,” he said excitedly. “The longer this thing goes on the more I think things are going to work out because we put on a case that was never refuted even in the hearing.”

    That, after all, was the way it was supposed to be.

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    Just hangin' out on a Friday night

    Just a couple of things this afternoon/evening before I fade into working my tip-tap-tapping fingers away writing the night away…

    Could a doubleheader sweep by the Mets be the beginning of the end for the Phillies? The notion that the Phillies could have moved into first place by beating up on the New Yorkers was a bit far-fetched, but it wasn’t out of the realm of possibility. But as it stands at this precise moment (top of the eighth inning), John Maine is dealing and the Mets appear as if they are about to push the lead in the NL East to five games.

    Regardless, it was nice to see that Chris Coste announced his presence with the Phillies with authority. In his first AB since being called up from Reading late last night, Coste went deep by smashing a pinch homer into the seats.

    On another note, could Cole Hamels be a little tired? He seems to have hit a bit of a wall as the mathematical first half comes to a close and he really hasn’t had the same zip on his change the last handful of outings…

    Dead arm?

    ***
    I had a nice chat this afternoon with 2006 Tour de France champion Floyd Landis up in his old stomping grounds of Ephrata, Pa. My stories about Floyd will appear on CSN on Sunday and will be promoted very heavily by the crack marketing staff at CSN all day Monday.

    Additionally, Floyd will appear on CSN on Daily News Live from 5-to-5:30 p.m. on Monday uninterrupted, where we will talk about all the details of his case, cycling, the book tour, his future and everything else.

    Anyway, look for the stories on Sunday. I will post the links here when everything is finished as well as a few snippets of the actual interview that I recorded with my trusty iPod.

    Meanwhile, I’ll give my knee-jerk impression of Floyd… if charm and class are part of his defense then he wins. He’s definitely a top-notch dude all the way. Having had the chance to talk to hundreds of professional athletes over the past decade, Floyd is at the top of the list as far as interesting and engaging guys. He very definitely could have mailed it in with me after going through thousands of questions and other crap over the past year, but he was intent on having a real conversation and taking me seriously.

    It’s too bad he doesn’t play for the Phillies.

    I’d definitely put Floyd up there with Scott Rolen, Doug Glanville, Randy Wolf and Mark Grace as far as the absolute best guys to talk to… a top-notch and classy dude all the way.

    For some reason I was surprised at how fit Floyd still was. Though he hasn’t been training and didn’t touch a bike at all over the 10 days of his arbitration hearing, Floyd looked ready to go though he admitted that he has some work to do if he wants to ride better in the Leadville 100 in August in comparison to how he rode in the Teva Mountain Games earlier this month.

    Regarding his rough ride in the Teva Mountain Games, Floyd said, “I got beat by a girl. Not just one girl, but two. There’s nothing wrong with that, but it’s not something I’m used to.”

    I don’t know what I was expecting him to look like, but was definitely looked much more fit than me and I run 15 miles every day.

    Oh yeah... minutes after I left, Floyd's wife was in an accident. Fortunately, everyone was OK.

    ***
    I had the chance to meet Dave Pidgeon of the Lancaster Intelligencer Journal while waiting for Floyd this afternoon. Dave is the keeper of a stellar outdoors blog on his papers’ site, but politics is his main beat. Still, it's pretty clear that Dave knows his sports as evidenced by his work.

    ***
    My friend Andy is an analyst for The Motley Fool in the D.C. 'burbs, and was quoted in an Associated Press story about Blockbuster shutting down 280-plus shops. That's certainly not big news, but his quote in the story is something else.

    Check this out:

    "Traffic is just not what it used to be when Blockbuster was the big rooster in the hen house," said Andy Cross, senior analyst with The Motley Fool.

    Rooster in the hen house? What kind of hillbilly stuff is that?

    I guess it beats, "We just take 'em one day at a time... "

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    Coste to Coast

    It was hard not to smile when Charlie Manuel announced that the Phillies had recalled Chris Coste from Double-A Reading after last night’s rainy, soggy, humid, sloppy and long game against the Cincinnati Reds at the Bank. For one thing, Coste’s arrival back to Philadelphia (for the third time) will be a move the fans will applaud. Even cynical media-types like me have a hard time not getting a little weak in the knees when hearing Coste’s story and perseverance.

    Aside from that, I truly believe Coste was shafted by the Phillies.

    No, it wasn’t anything sinister or conspiratorial or anything like that, but the Phillies had no qualms about sending Coste out on all of the team’s winter caravan stops at all of the distant outposts to get the fans excited, and the manager was saying all sorts of laudatory things about his hitting. But all along the general manager was looking for someone else to fill Coste’s spot. Where Manuel talked up Coste, Pat Gillick threw a wet blanket on everyone’s good time and then went out and spent $3 million on Rod Barajas.

    Let’s see: $3 million for Rod Barajas or the league minimum for Chris Coste… money well spent?

    No.

    Certainly Barajas has a better Major League pedigree than Coste, but when the movie comes out on everyone’s favorite backup catcher, Barajas ain’t gonna be in it. Besides, Coste didn’t do anything to warrant a trip back to the minors aside from hit .328 with seven home runs in a pennant race. Anything close to that would be a career year for Barajas.

    ***
    Let’s leave the bullpen and Pat Burrell alone today… chances are he’ll be below the Mendoza Line by the holiday. That is, of course, if he plays -- Burrell is not in the lineup for Friday afternoon's opening game. That's the fifth game in a row in which Burrell is on the bench and eighth game in the last 11.

    ***
    Is anyone else looking forward to Cole Hamels facing Paul Lo Duca in tonight’s nightcap? That is, of course, if there is one.

    Lo Duca and David Wright of the Mets are the Matthew Barnaby and Danny Ainge of baseball… fun guys.

    Nevertheless, the Phillies-Mets rivalry is turning into a pretty good one. It really seems as if the teams don't particularly care for each other and that is pretty entertaining.

    ***
    For the gang in the press box...

    [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hMebclpHbo4]

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    Oh what a relief it is

    To be fair, it wasn’t an ideal situation for Phillies reliever Geoff Geary. With no outs in the seventh inning and nursing a three-run lead, Geary was brought into the game with the bases loaded and nowhere else to go for help.

    A little more than an hour later, the three-run lead was a three-run deficit, and Geary was bounced from the game and credited with a blown save while his ERA jumped 69 points. For Geary the outing personified his troubles at home where his ERA 7.71 and opponents are hitting a lusty .333 off him.

    But the troubles get deeper for Geary. In his last eight appearances, the right-hander has a 12.27 ERA, which comes on the heels of seven straight outings in which he didn’t allow a single run.

    But here comes the really troublesome part for Geary – he has inherited 35 runners this season, which is the second most in the National League. That means when Geary gets into a game, chances are there are already runners on base for him. The fact that he has allowed just nine of those 35 to score is not so bad considering that all three of his inherited runners scored last night.

    “I think one of the biggest things that shows up is that we don't give up one, two or three runs,” manager Charlie Manuel said after last night’s game about his relievers. “We give up five, six, seven, eight. I think that's what's showing up. In the seventh inning there, even if they take the lead at 4-3, we've still got plenty of time to win the game.”

    No, the 3-for-3 is actually quite awful and it would be difficult to categorize Geary’s season as “good” at this point. But there is a reason why Geary has been in 36 games this season and could top 80 appearances for the second year in a row, and it’s not simply because Manuel doesn’t have any other options.

    Pitchers don’t rack up 80-plus outings by being the only choice for certain situations.

    ***
    During his career, Geoff Geary has only contributed four losses to the Phillies’ 9,992 lifetime defeats. That many losses are definitely way too many for just one generation to achieve.

    Regardless, the stories to mark the Phillies’ milestone 10,000 lifetime loss are beginning to trickle out in anticipation for the big day, which has even piqued the interest of the national media. In the latest issue of Sports Illustrated a pithy chronicling of some of the more interesting quotes that were delivered after a handful of losses through the years.

    I particularly enjoyed the story related from Rex Hudler on former manager Terry Francona.

    ***
    Remember Wally Backman? He played briefly for the Phillies in the early 1990s after making his name with the Mets during the 1980s.

    Anywho, Backman actually was hired to manage the Arizona Diamondbacks a few years ago before getting relieved of his duties a few days after his hiring when it was revealed that he had spent time in jail for DUI and pleaded guilty to harrassing a female friend of his family in 2001, and accused of spousal abuse by his ex-wife. He had also filed for personal bankruptcy in 2003.

    These days Wally is a long way from the Major Leagues and is managing the South Georgia Peanuts in the independent South Coast League. A few days ago it appears as if Wally had a bit of a problem with the umps and it made the papers…

    ***
    Speaking of making the papers, my Uncle Jim is in pretty good shape. He’s a champion power lifter, was a decent runner and bicyclist, and still is an all-around sharp dude with a personality and sense of humor to match.

    What makes this so notable is that my Uncle Jim is dead…

    Well, not really. But according to the federal government, my uncle, Jim Johnson is a dead man and he’s spent the last four months trying to prove that he is, indeed, alive.

    Check out his story that made the papers and while you’re at it, send him a card to let him know he’s the healthiest dead guy walking around.

    ***
    Finally, an interview with Floyd Landis has been set up for Friday afternoon before his book signing and talk at the Barnes & Noble in Lancaster. Needless to say, it should be a pretty good time…

    Let’s just hope that talking to Floyd is nothing like talking to Barry Bonds.

    ***
    Meanwhile, it didn't take Lance Armstrong too long to answer the charges levied in David Walsh's latest book that was drawn on in a Sports Illustrated piece yesterday. Stealing a page from Landis' "Wiki" defense, Armstrong puts all of his information out there for everyone to see and draw their own conclusions.

    Check it out here.

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    Punching a dead horse in the mouth

    Based on what’s shaking baseball-wise in the local papers, it seems as if the piling on Pat Burrell has begun in earnest. It’s either that, or there really isn’t any new news coming out of the Phillies’ clubhouse these days aside from Jon Lieber potentially heading for season-ending surgery.

    The big news is still a couple days away when the New York Mets come to town for four games in three days.

    It really is hard to believe that even though the Phillies’ pitching staff has been decimated and the bullpen sometimes works with smoke and mirrors, the team very well could alone in first place by the end of the weekend.

    How does that happen?

    Not to punch a dead horse in the mouth as Larry Bowa used to say, but the truly amazing part is that the Phillies are challenging for the lead in the NL East even though the team has just one right-handed hitting threat in Aaron Rowand and Pat Burrell could be the worst player in the National League right now.

    Anyway, here’s my little rip job on the much-maligned left fielder.

    Certainly anything can happen between now and the end of the season, or even until the end of Burrell’s deal following the 2008 season, but as it stands now it’s fair to say that Burrell is nothing more than wasted talent.

    He is wasted talent that isn’t in the lineup again tonight for the third game in a row.

    ***
    Tonight’s starting pitcher Jamie Moyer is one of just seven 40-something pitchers taking the mound, which is the first time that has ever happened in baseball history. Greg Maddux, Roger Clemens, Kenny Rogers, John Smoltz, Tom Glavine and Woody Williams are the other 40-year old hurlers working tonight.

    More impressively, Moyer was named the softest-throwing pitcher in the Majors in an anonymous poll conducted by Sports Illustrated.

    The other soft-tossers? Try Maddux, Glavine, Rogers, etc.

    Not bad company.

    ***
    Speaking of Sports Illustrated, expect writer Austin Murphy to make a little bit of news with his latest story in which Lance Armstrong is, once again, implicated in doping news.

    Here’s the thing about cycling that I don’t think many people understand… USADA, WADA, UCI and the brass of the Tour de France are just as corrupt and power hungry as any other group of bureaucrats or politicians.

    Do you think there is a reason why the commissioners and union presidents of MLB, the NBA and the NFL don’t want those groups anywhere near their sports? Sure, the leagues all have their problems with performance-enhancing drugs, but to call in corrupt, money and power-hungry egomaniacs from the alphabet-soup groups of regulators isn’t going to help.

    Still, it’s pretty explosive stuff from Austin Murphy and it will be interesting to see how Lance Armstrong snuffs out another fire. Plus, we never knew SI was in the business of hyping agenda-driven, insinuation-laden tawdry books that read like bad talk radio... good for them for branching out, I guess.

    Excuse me while I go take a shower.

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    Buying or selling?

    As we enter the last week of June, thoughts typically turn to things like training for a fall marathon, the summer road racing circuit and the Tour de France (me); or the big Fourth of July picnic, the family vacation and which players from the local team will make the All-Star Game (normal people).

    But the start of July also means selling and buying in the chic parlance for certain baseball clubs. In that regard, are the Phillies selling, buying or both? Even though they enter the homestand against the Reds and the hated New York Mets just three games off the pace in the NL East, it seems like a fair question.

    Clearly the Phillies need pitching help and that fact has nothing to do with the statistics or anything else. It has to do with other types of numbers, such as the Phillies only have three starting pitchers with any real Major League experience and that glut in the rotation that once saw Jon Lieber and Brett Myers moved to the bullpen is gone.

    It’s funny how that happens.

    Nevertheless, the Phillies are facing a crucial portion of their schedule with Cole Hamels, Adam Eaton, Jamie Moyer and Kyle Kendrick holding down spots in the rotation. With 13 games in 13 days and just one day off between now and the All-Star Break, the Phillies can probably get by with one of their arms in the minors, but chances are that won’t get them to the playoffs.

    That means if the Phillies are serious about breaking the streak of Octobers spent at home, a trade should be in the offing.

    But there are a lot of other teams looking for the same type of pitching as the Phillies, too. The Mets, for instance, are said to be looking to add an arm or two and will spend what it takes to do so – after all, simply making the playoffs is not an accomplishment for the Mets.

    The Red Sox and Yankees will probably be foraging for some pitching as well, which means that if the Phillies want someone, say, like Mark Buehrle, it will cost them.

    Maybe it will cost them something like Aaron Rowand.

    Trading Rowand for pitching help didn’t seem like that huge of a deal at the beginning of the season, but now things have changed. For one thing it’s hard to say what type of pitcher Rowand could get for the Phillies, and for another thing, the centerfielder is the only right-handed hitting threat the team has.

    If only they could trade Pat Burrell for something like reimbursement on the transportation to get him out of town…

    While Rowand has rated at the top of the list amongst National League outfielders in batting average, on-base percentage and OPS, Burrell has been simply horrible. In 71 games Burrell is hitting .205 and is on pace to hit just 18 homers with 69 RBIs and to strike out 111 times. Since the start of May, Burrell is 21-for-133 (.158) with 13 extra-base hits and 31 strikeouts.

    Worse, against lefties the right-handed Burrell is hitting just .155, so why Charlie Manuel continues to put him in the lineup is simply foolhardy.

    Aside from the $13.25 million salary for this season, Burrell’s nearly non-existent production could end up costing the Phillies someone valuable like Aaron Rowand.

    ***
    If you're looking for the Phillies to go after Rangers' reliever Eric Gagne to shore up the bullpen, stop right now. According to published reports, the Phillies are one a handful of teams on Gagne's do-not-trade list.

    ***
    Our current obsession, Floyd Landis, kicks off his book tour tomorrow with an appearance on the CBS Morning Show and Late Night with David Letterman. From there Floyd stays in Manhattan for a reading/signing at the Bryant Park Reading Room along with one-time CSN.com columnist John Eustice on June 27.

    Also on the 27th, Floyd hits Ridgewood, N.J. before going to Huntington, N.Y. on the 28th.

    Then comes the big stop... Lancaster!

    There is a reason Led Zeppelin never came to Lancaster and it has nothing to do with the fact there wasn’t a venue big enough to accommodate them…

    ***
    Speaking of the Tour, if I was pressed right now I'd predict Alexandre Vinokourov will win, but don't sleep on Montana's Levi Leipheimer.

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