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Tuesday, August 01, 2006
Pages: Drugs? No! Beer and JD? Cheers?
By John Pages
Matchpoint
Floyd Landis loves a roller-coaster ride.
On the Prologue (Stage 1) of the Tour de France, he finished a dismal ninth.
Later, in stages 12 and 13, he zoomed to the top. The next day, he was down. After Stage 15, he was on top. The day after, he was down again, falling from first to 11th place. In Stage 17, he revved up the engine beneath that Phonak jersey and pedaled back into contention. On Stage 19 and in the final lap the next day, he raised both arms atop the podium in Paris.
Landis stood as hero. Millions proclaimed the 5-foot-10, 150-lb. cyclist as “the best thing to have happened after Lance Armstrong.”
He’s a roller-coaster rider, remember?
Up, down, up, down, up...
Well, sad to say, while Landis thought the roller-coaster ride finished when he won the race last July 23, it’s only just begun. Like any roller-coaster whirlwind, just when you think the end is in sight and you can relax and heave that sigh of relief, another wave swoops you down and up. And so Landis, on top as TdF champ eight days ago, has crashed down to the cement road.
How could it be? Landis? Drugs?
On Stage 17? Considered by many one of Le Tour’s epic days? Was he “up” when he was “down” that day?
Only Floyd knows.
LEAK. But this is what we know. Sometime last week, word leaked out that a cyclist had tested positive for a performance-enhancing drug. No name was spelled out. The same day, Landis failed to show up at an event. Speculation arose. Was that man first-named Floyd? Impossible, his fans thought.
It wasn’t. His “A sample” tested positive for an unusually high ratio of the hormone testosterone to epitestosterone.
Drugs. Landis. Stage 17. What!?
The sports world shook. Writers who typed the story sat fronting their laptops shaking their brains in disbelief. It couldn’t be.
Not Landis.
A few days ago, I watched Larry King Live with Landis as guest. His personal physician, Dr. Brent Kay, sat with Larry; Armstrong phoned in to give encouragement; while Landis sat somewhere in Madrid to plead his innocence.
What do I hope from all this?
I hope Floyd Landis is innocent. Watching him speak and listening to his words, it’s hard to believe he was lying. He’s such a nice, simple, down-to-earth guy, almost like an anti-Lance, so opposite to his mentor who (whether he likes it or not) always seeks attention. Landis is shy, soft-spoken. Married to Amber Basile, they have a daughter, Ryan, and live in San Diego, California.
Floyd was raised in a very strict upbringing. He grew up without the TV, radio and computer. The value espoused most by his parents? Hard-work.
Consider this: Because he was given so much work during the day, he’d sneak out at 1 in the morning (in the freezing cold) to train on a bike. He grew up in a conservative Christian home. Until today. The day he won the TdF, in his parents’ front yard were signs posted: “To God Be The Glory” and “God Bless Floyd.”
Drugs? No way.
“Hard-work” and “Love of God” were the correct terms.
I hope Floyd is innocent. I wish it for cycling. With endless drug allegations against Armstrong, with the mass “capture” of Jan Ullrich and Ivan Basso and many other big stars before Le Tour’s start, with the word “cycling” almost synonymous to “drugs,”
I hope Landis will be proven innocent.
If he’s guilty, who isn’t?
Is Armstrong innocent? To be honest, while I’m a lifelong LA fan, I’m having doubts. Why? Numbers. Just study the numbers. If Landis and Basso and Ullrich and Pantani and Tyler Hamilton (remember him, the Olympic gold medalist?) are guilty, who isn’t?
Think about it.
“Cycling” and “drugs,” it seems, are like the front and rear tires of a bike. They’re like the left and right pedals. You can’t pedal forward unless both are attached. Front, back. Left, right.
Cycling, drugs?
I hope they’re no team.
Landis admitted taking “two beers and at least four shots of Jack Daniels.” He devoured these the night of Stage 16, after his disastrous day and before his epic Stage 17 win. It has also been reported that alcohol increases a man’s testosterone level.
Could it have been the beer and the Jack Daniels that propelled him to victory and increased his testosterone level? This is funny, I know—and yes I laughed when I first read it—but may be true. I hope it’s true. Beer. Jack Daniels. Hard to believe?
Supposing it’s true, wow, I think this would make a lot of bikers happy. On a Saturday night here, bikers will drink before they do the Sunday morning climb up the famed “Bu-ak” (at the foot of Tops, in Busay).
Floyd Landis, for the sake of your sport—and of all sports and athletes and the children watching—I hope you’re innocent.
(john@brightacademy.edu.ph)
For Bisaya stories from Cebu. Click here. (August 1, 2006 issue)
Write letter to the editor.Click here.
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