From Lance to Landis

Well, I finished the Walsh book. He makes a very compelling circumstantial case that Lance was doping. A few things stood out for me:

First is hCG. hCG is a hormone that stimulates the production of testosterone in males (oddly, it's also the hormone whose presence indicates that a woman is pregnant). In most males, its concentration is about 1 or 2 nanograms per milliliter of blood and it's almost always below 5 nanograms/ml. Synthetic hCG is also used after a round of steroids because the steriods suppress production of testosterone. As such, agencies test for hCG because higher levels of hCG point to steroid usage. A positive result for hCG will get you a 2-year suspension in the biking world.

Males with testicular cancer have much higher concentrations of hCG and a few cyclists have failed drug tests and have been found to have testicular cancer and have subsequently been cured of the cancer and, of course, cleared of doping.

When Lance was diagnosed with cancer, his level of hCG was over 50,000 nanograms/ml. The question is then, how did he not fail a test? He was tested numerous times during the year. What happened? Neither he nor the UCI has commented on how it happened.

Second is the weight loss (or lack thereof). The conventional story is that Lance lost 20 lbs. when he had cancer and being 20 lbs. lighter was a prime reason why he could suddenly climb. As it turns out, he may have only been 2-3 lbs. lighter. His racing weight prior to cancer was about 75 kg, and he's quoted as saying that he was happy starting his TdF's in the low 74 kg range. Strange, because he looked much different pre and post-cancer, but the numbers show that he may not have lost much body weight at all come race time.

Third is the re-testing of his old samples and having them come up positive for EPO (this was the big scandal from last year).

All in all, it's a pretty damning book for Lance, but I'd be much more comfortable if Walsh could tell us how he did it, and how current cyclists are doing it. How did Lance not test positive? It's apparent that doping is rampant in the peleton these days, how are all of the riders getting away with it?

The rest of the book tells a sordid tale too - George Hincapie is alleged to have received testosterone, there is a whole chapter that skewers Tyler Hamilton and another that puts the fork in Floyd Landis.

If you want to have your enthusiasm for the sport of cycling dampened right before the TdF, read this book.

I've been losing my enthusiasm for professional cycling for a while now and this may put the final nail in the coffin. I may have to switch 100% of my fandom to Formula 1 and America's Cup sail racing.

Or, there's always this.