Floyd Landis Vindicated!

ryanspeer

In a recent issue of Bicycling Magazine they have a relatively in-depth interview with him. In it they ask him for an explanation of how he could have performed so incredibly the day after that legendary stage 16 where he performed so poorly. His explanation makes sense. He said that with his power meter he was able to estimate how much more he could give on climbs considering the distance remaining in the stage, and could pace himself accordingly because of it. He then pointed out clearly that his climbing pace (feet per minute?) was actually LESS than that of prior stages, and that on at least one climb during stage 17, at least one other rider was performing better than him in terms of feet per minute. He also pointed out that the reason he looked so incredible that day wasn't so much because he was riding so incredibly, but that the other riders were riding so poorly for a chunk of the stage.

Think about it: Landis bombs on stage 16. He comes back on stage 17 and starts going extremely hard and begins regaining the 9 minutes lost - in relation to the other riders. He's watching his power meter, knowing what his max output is and paces himself accordingly. The other riders, knowing how badly he bombed in the prior stage don't take him too seriously, thinking there's no way he can maintain the pace he is going at and unintentionally allow him to gain the momentum he needed to come back. He's not necessarily riding stronger than he did in prior stages, but looks incredible when comparing himself against the other riders based on his solid performance in stage 17 in contrast to the previous stage, and when compared to the un-wise riding of the others in stage 17.

The media is pathetic much of the time in the spin they put on stories. Thanks largely to them, he's had to go through "trial by media" instead of a proper investigation first.

I just finished reading a book on the history of the TdF and it's FULL of story-book finishes to individual stages and the Tour as a whole from the very inception of the Tour through today. Is it possible he doped? Obviously it's "possible". Did he do it? None of us have any way of knowing the ACTUAL truth other than what the press feeds to us. The ACTUAL truth is guaranteed to be different at LEAST to some degree from what you'll read in standard headlines.

Personally, I'm willing to give the buy the benefit of the doubt first. "Innocent until proven guilty."