What a difference eight days makes. Eight days ago, Floyd Landis rode himself out of this year's Tour de France. Everyone, even himself, was already looking toward next year. Landis announced earlier this month that he would have to go through hip replacement surgery because of his years of cycling.
Seven days ago, Landis had his best day as a professional cyclist. He won that day's race stage and set himself up to win the entire Tour -- which he did five days ago. Since then, he has been enjoying the spotlight. That is, until yesterday.
On Wednesday, the international cyclist union announced that one rider returned a positive test. The union president said, "The credibilty of the sport is at stake. The rider, his federation and his team have been informed of the situation.”
Speculation started that Landis may be the rider. Today, Phonak, Landis' team, made the confirmation that he had an "unusual level of testosterone" in the test following his stage win.
I'm so upset now, I can't even stand it! I didn't even know what the Tour de France was until Greg Lemond was the first American to win the race twenty years ago. Then, Lance Armstrong made me and a lot of other Americans fall in love with the sport of cycling. The year before Armstrong began his winning streak, the Tour was rocked by a drug scandal, which really put cycling in a negative light. Armstrong (who has his own drug allegations) helped to increase cycling's popularity.
The night before this year's Tour started, more than a few top riders were suspended and not allowed to start because of drug allegations. We should have known that this was a sign of things to come.
I've decided. I'm done with cycling. I just can't take it anymore! I stopped watching baseball because of Barry Bonds. I'm also done with football and basketball. Olympics - yeah right! Definitely not the summer games. Maybe my beloved golf is the last bastion of honor in all of sport. Unfortunately, I betcha that they'll start drug testing Tiger Woods and Annika Sorenstam in the near future.