Sunday brought the news that Tour De France winner Floyd Landis had been dreading: his B-sample test came back positive for testosterone. The lab that did the testing is not without suspicion itself, having claimed unsuccessfully that Lance Armstrong was doping. If it were a case of Landis alone triggering doping allegations, I might be inclined to believe he cheated. However, this same lab went round and round with Lance in what could very well be called a smear campaign. Suspicions are raised about the lab’s motives when it blatantly leaks (ha!) testing information to the press before the backup sample has even been tested. The athlete confidentiality rules somehow have gone out the window.
The climb Landis has to regain his credibility is taller than any peak he’s faced in the Alps. Yet he may be telling the truth. From what I understand about testosterone doping, he would have had to have done it far longer than one stage alone in order to gain any benefit from it. He was tested multiple times before Stage 17 and multiple times afterward yet only one sample tested positive. If he was doping it should have been readily apparent long before the first allegation. He’s either telling the truth or he’s incredibly inept at doping. Frankly, I have a harder time believing he could be that stupid.
In spite of this week’s sanctions against Landis, and until he says it himself, I’m still not ready to call him a cheat.