After reading more informed followers of cycling, I’m going to believe Floyd Landis when he says he didn’t cheat. As one doctor with the World Anti-Doping Association said in a story I read, if Landis was cheating with testosterone supplements, his levels would have been elevated far in advance of the Stage 17 test he failed. He would have had to have elevated levels for weeks, which would have obviously been caught far in advance.
Landis went drinking after his spectacular collapse on Stage 16. According to the above link, that didn’t elevate his testosterone. Instead it depleted his epitestosterone, which is what threw his ratio out of whack.
This isn’t a case of EPO doping, after all. I’m thinking the UCI is far to quick to smear American riders.
There’s more to this story. Stay tuned.