‘Why Do They Do It?’

I would like to clear up several points about the recent article about cheating and Floyd Landis [Oped, “Why Do They Do It?” June 8, 2007].

1) The Tour takes place during 21 days and Floyd was in first place for four days, 19% of the race; placed in the top 10 on six individual stages; and was in the top 20 for the whole race, which takes place over 21 days. Mr. Landis’ performance compares well against the three Lemonds wins and other typical Tour de France victories. Landis also won the Paris-Nice Stage Race, the Tour de Georgia, and a Stage in the Tour de California so I would say his performance in the Tour was to be expected since he did not come from nowhere to win the Tour like known dopers have such as Hans Ulrich and Barne Riis.

2) On stage 16, Mr. Landis had a weak team and a bad day in the mountains, which caused him to drop 20 minutes from his competitors, all mountain specialists, and relinquish the Yellow Jersey.

3) The results of mountain stages are often volatile where leaders can take and relinquish minutes of time because the terrain is difficult to overcome. Mr. Landis’ performance on stages 16 and 17, given the lack of top riders in the tour last year due to doping, is not so out of the ordinary.

4) These drug tests and the tests performed by the tour’s lab in France, which is owned by L’Equipe newspaper, which also owns the Tour, are inherently inaccurate, and the lab has a poor track record of following its own protocols. Riding 200 kilometers uphill tends to change your body chemistry, and these tests produce false positives under the best conditions as a result. In this case, the governing body of cycle racing, Union Cycliste Internationale, by its own admission did not follow its own procedures. And this has happened before to Lance Armstrong in the now refuted L’Equipe-Armstrong allegations. So I would give Mr. Landis the benefit of the doubt at this time since this is the only test out of the dozens he took last year that he failed.

5) The real story is Mr. Landis won the Tour de France with a dislocated hip and France has not placed a Frenchman on the podium since 1999 and that racer would test positive for Erythropoietin, or EPO. A couple of months following thirdplace performance of Richard Virenque, his French Festina banned from cycling and convicted of distributing illegal drugs and steroids.

6) I agree with the point that Mr. Klein makes about cheating, but it is also unethical to manipulate facts, opinions, and have truths to make a point about ethics.

7) I also believe science and humans can make mistakes, and during these times it is important to be fair and just. I just think Mr. Landis should be commended by his performance until he is proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.

RICHARD TULLO
Cranford, N.J.