It came as quite a shock on Wednesday last week - listening to radio on the way home, news that Floyd Landis had been suspended by his team for failing a doping test. After supporting this guy for the past three weeks, you can imagine the disappointment I felt. I mean, what kind of fool takes performance enhancing substances, when he is the favourite to win the Tour de France. Given the recent events, and the scandal at the start of the Tour, you would have to be some kind of idiot to think that you could get away with something like this. The long and the short of it, is that nothing has been proven yet. There are two samples taken in the tests, and the first sample has shown signs of "elevated levels of testosterone". As the days have gone by, the allegations have dropped from "doping", to more like "cheating" - as there is no substance abuse involved from what I have been able to read. It is widely known that Floyd has a degrading hip, and has been on medication for some time now. Some even speculate that the rise is testosterone can be put down to natural reasons - especially given the physical changes that an athletes body goes through whilst riding a race like the Tour de France.
Nevertheless, there is a cloud hanging over the victory - and whether the rise on testosterone is put down to natural causes, or deliberate cheating - the Tour is once again tainted with controversy.
Check out this useful Tour blog for more detail.
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