Landis "retires", done with cycle racing

[Colm.Murphy]

http://sports.espn.go.com/oly/cycling/news/story?id=6032431

Takes some jabs at hypocrisy of the system, and the corruption of the UCI.

Hammers home the fact of the "Blacklist"

 

[skidmark]

http://sports.espn.go.com/oly/cycling/news/story?id=6032431

Takes some jabs at hypocrisy of the system, and the corruption of the UCI.

Hammers home the fact of the "Blacklist"

Damn. I was hoping he'd join Christina Watches.

edit: I actually do find it sad that the guy never got a real ride again. But I guess he couldn't expect much after last May.

 

[jae2460]

Maybe he can start a Master's cycling team with Greg Lemond. They could ride for "Bitter Beer" I'm sure there are a lot of other retired pro riders who could / should join such a team...

 

[Granville57]

I was curious to see if a now "unburdened" Landis would start winning some races this year. He made it to the podium of number of times in 2010 but, as far as I know (with the exception of the ITT at the 2010 Tour of the Bahamas ), never won a race since his return in 2009.

I was hoping to see him return to Battenkill.

Let's see how many times the term "disgraced cyclist" turns up in the ensuing reports of this story. The ignorant vitriol should start streaming over on VN in 4...3...2...(oh wait, first give them time to catch up on this news).

 

[SC1990]

Damn. I was hoping he'd join Christina Watches.

edit: I actually do find it sad that the guy never got a real ride again. But I guess he couldn't expect much after last May.

Er...don't you mean July 2006? Pretty sure testing postive then creating an extremely elaborate scientific defence and leaching off fans to pay for it before saying it was all nonsense is a better reason, not that he suddenly changed his story and said, suprise suprise, he'd been on the juice.

 

[Roland Rat]

But he added that he is disillusioned with what he termed systemic corruption and hypocrisy in cycling and said he is pessimistic that real progress can be made in changing its doping culture.

"I'm relatively sure this sport cannot be fixed, but that's not my job, that's not my fight,"

Very sad. With this and the SI article being pulled, this is the most disillusioned I've felt with pro cycling since it all kicked off last May.

 

[Michielveedeebee]

Very sad. With this and the SI article being pulled, this is the most disillusioned I've felt with pro cycling since it all kicked off last May.

What's this sports illustrated article?
And Landis was the chosen one, he was the one to clean up pro cycling This is his fight and he should keep going, I'm dissapointed

 

[frenchfry]

Very sad. With this and the SI article being pulled, this is the most disillusioned I've felt with pro cycling since it all kicked off last May.

I admit I share your disillusion. So many wasted opportunities to cure the disease.

 

[Cloxxki]

Too bad, I'd loved to have seen him kick some pro tour azz.

On the other hand though, might he not have been a super responder like texas to some degree? Great top capacity to be utilized by the right doping regime, but otherwise not quite attainable through honest hard work.
Perhaps no clean TdF winner was lost on him, even if I did believe so for a long time. Doesn't make him less of a man to me now though, the way he's been putting his life on the line for the sport he loves, even broke.

 

[Benotti69]

wise decision for Floyd. He was never gonna get offered a contract at the level he wanted.

he needs to get on with his life and plan for his future and it is probably not in cycling.

the saddest thing in this is that no one took the opportunity to come out and support Landis and help to clean up the doping and corruption. he led from the front but when he looked around to see who made the break with him, an empty road lay behind.

it does not mean he is finished with Feds and Uniballer. he still has his part to play, he has retired from competitive cycling.

 

[sniper]

wise decision for Floyd. He was never gonna get offered a contract at the level he wanted.

he needs to get on with his life and plan for his future and it is probably not in cycling.

the saddest thing in this is that no one took the opportunity to come out and support Landis and help to clean up the doping and corruption. he led from the front but when he looked around to see who made the break with him, an empty road lay behind.

it does not mean he is finished with Feds and Uniballer. he still has his part to play, he has retired from competitive cycling.

Well, Kimmage, Andreu, Lemond, but that was it.
In large you are right.

 

[craig1985]

Probably not the most surprising of news. Landis was pretty much racing for nothing anyway, if you're at that point, then it's time to retire IMO. At least he can finally sleep at night,

 

[thehog]

He already knew that once he went Postal there was no riding in the Pro-anything ever again.

For one thing it releases him from the legal stipulations of being under the UCI. Hopefully he can talk more freely now.

Its not his job to clean up cycling. He's got the ball rolling now its for others to finish the fight.

Thanks Floyd.

 

[delbified]

i have a feeling floyd is telling more truths these days than some of his nemeses, but he is coming off such a low credibility base that he just confuses the issue more than anything.

he's guy who was clean, then he got caught doping, then he denied it and said he was clean, then eventually admitted he doped and claimed everyone else did too. "no really, this time i'm telling the truth!" i actually suspect he is, but it's not convincing.

the public looks at floyd and thinks "these pro cyclists are either taking drugs or they're crazy liars". it's not a good look for the sport.

 

[Benotti69]

Well, Kimmage, Andreu, Lemond, but that was it.
In large you are right.

nah he needed people to jump out of today's peloton and back him, guys like Vaughters, Wigans, Brailsford, Millar etc those who proclaim to be clean and anti doping....

What he done has taken great guts and i respect him for doing that. I hope he finds a better road than the last one he's just been down.

 

[Roland Rat]

He already knew that once he went Postal there was no riding in the Pro-anything ever again.

For one thing it releases him from the legal stipulations of being under the UCI. Hopefully he can talk more freely now.

Its not his job to clean up cycling. He's got the ball rolling now its for others to finish the fight.

Thanks Floyd.

True, but what is depressing is that he doesn't see it as a fight that can be won. And he will know much more about what is going on in the "fight" than us.

"fight". Pah. Oh well, I suppose the banning of race radios issue IS much more important than the corrupt UCI/doping issue.

 

[thehog]

True, but what is depressing is that he doesn't see it as a fight that can be won. And he will know much more about what is going on in the "fight" than us.

"fight". Pah. Oh well, I suppose the banning of race radios issue IS much more important than the corrupt UCI/doping issue.

One thing is clear from the article. Floyd met with the Feds well before May of last year when the first email was released.

 

[Maxiton]

He'd already passed up two perfect opportunities to retire. The first, of course, was when he lost the Yellow Jersey because of getting busted for doping. There really was no coming back from that. But then you really can't blame a guy, no matter how disgraced, for holding out hope.

The second time was when he blew the lid off the whole pro racing game by coming clean - not about everything, I'm sure, but about enough. If there was any smidgen of hope for coming back after the bust, there wasn't one micron of possibility for getting a ride after this. Not unless Novitzsky & Co decided to sponsor a team - but then they'd never get an invite.

Pro cycling is what it is. Its more flagrant corrupt practices can be ameliorated, and they should be. (It would be great to see the UCI blasted into a million glittering fragments.) But it won't change fundamentally until its fundamental basis changes - from money, to sport. And that won't happen until society changes. And that's that.

 

[sniper]

nah he needed people to jump out of today's peloton and back him, guys like Vaughters, Wigans, Brailsford, Millar etc those who proclaim to be clean and anti doping....

What he done has taken great guts and i respect him for doing that. I hope he finds a better road than the last one he's just been down.

agreed. people involved in today's cycling need to stand up. Kimmage is ofcourse still involved, but apart from that.. it's sad indeed.

 

[forty four]

What's this sports illustrated article?
And Landis was the chosen one, he was the one to clean up pro cycling This is his fight and he should keep going, I'm dissapointed

whats funny is that you all forget that he sent letters back and forth to armstrong saying he would say nothing if allowed a job with there outfit thats whats called black mail. not the actions of some man trying to come clean for moral reasons his blackmail failed and he did what he told armstrong he would do rat everyone out and he did naming names. again clearing your consciounce does not involve naming others in the sport where you made a lot of money your self he came out because of failed blackmail and frustration if you cant see that then you are real dumb for functioning adults. then theres the book the floyd fairness fund and the threats to greg about being molested. yeah swell stand up guy im sure his parents are proud. some of you have short term memory loss your la hatred blinds you to the truth that floyd is a bigger scum bag than la by a large margin. ill be glad when there both gone but at least now i wont see landis at races anymore **** that pos.
any person not involved with cycling in any way that you explain floyd to immediately condemn him as a bad guy. only armstrong haters love floyd its so transparent in nature.

 

[Barrus]

Fortyfour, you have claimed that here and elsewhere, yet shown no substantiating evidence, if you mean the e-mails posted by LA and his website you bare mistaken and have not read these e-mails. There was nothing even alluding to blackmail in those letters. Now as I have stated before, the logical step for Landis would've been blackmail, but since the e-mails to USCycling and others leaked no shred of evidence concerning blackmail has surfaced, something which I find odd and most likely points to the possibility that Landis had not blackmailed anyone. Now if you have evidence or at least something that alluded to him blackmailing anyone I would like to see it, or see where you came up with the notion that he blackmailed anyone

 

[kurtinsc]

While I have little love for Armstrong and am okay with seeing him go down... I have little love for Landis either.

Similarly, I have little love for Joe Papp.

Coming clean after you've been busted for riding dirty and can't find another dirty ride isn't all that great in my book. I suppose it's slightly more moral then a Tyler Hamilton who stays silent even when his career is over... but it's a very slight thing.

I understand it... but I don't think it's worthy of celebration. Someone like Lemond is much more of a worthy figure... he (apparently) didn't engage in the doping culture and is brave enough to speak out about it. I'll never forgive Landis for how he went after Lemond... even if Lemond did.

 

[Andynonomous]

The reaction is depressing.

In baseball, Jose Canseco told the truth, and was excoriated for it. Even though much of what he said has since been proven true, he is still persona non grata in the baseball world. The Omerta exists in baseball today.

In tennis, while still playing, Christophe Rochus went public with his suspicions about doping. He was forced by the tennis authorities to backtrack. When he retired, he repeated his suspicions. He was criticized for being a bitter low ranked player and for not naming names (if he had named names he would have been criticized for that). Agassi received a lot of flack for admitting that the tennis authorities covered up his illegal drug use. The Omerta exists in tennis today.

Landis did a lot of things wrong along the way. Now he does the right thing (nobody seems to be arguing that he is telling the truth now), and everybody jumps all over him. No wonder it is rare that insiders will tell the truth. The Omerta exists in cycling today.

 

[BotanyBay]

the saddest thing in this is that no one took the opportunity to come out and support Landis and help to clean up the doping and corruption. he led from the front but when he looked around to see who made the break with him, an empty road lay behind.

Because he passed so much gas during the early part of the break, no one wanted to ride with him. A blown opportunity to do something.

 

[Black-Balled]

"I've spent five years trying to get back to a place that I can never really go back to..."

I believe that statement speaks volumes...on many levels. Mostly that he sucks now.