I’ve always liked Floyd. I think he is a pretty genuine guy. Upbeat, fun. I almost missed the start of the race the night before the Pro Criterium Championships one year because I ran into Floyd in the coffeeshop before the race and we lost track of time talking about the Tour and him switching to Phonak. I obviously don’t approve of lots of shit the guy has done, but that doesn’t mean I wouldn’t enjoy having a beer with him and catching up.
I was up in Idyllwild, CA a few week ago and should have made an effort to track him down. I’m sure if I could have, it would have been a most interesting time. Next time I’m up there I’m going to make it a point of trying to catch up with him. Idyllwild isn’t that big of a town, so it couldn’t be that hard.
Anyway, I saw this article last night about how WADA’s current director general said that the allegations that were made by Floyd, that the UCI and the Swiss Lab that tested Lance were corrupt and were bribed, could be true. It is pretty unbelievable the guy would say that. He must have some information that isn’t public.
I haven’t been following the Floyd thing that closely. Maybe nothing new has happened, so I’m up to date. But this is new news. Important news. The UCI, etc. is so fucked up. I can understand weird stuff happening under the radar. Times change and thus, the environment surrounding things that were once overlooked and now aren’t accepted, is much different. But when you get caught with your hand in the cookie jar, don’t lie. You don’t necessarily have to blab your guts out, but you look so stupid and so much more dishonest/corrupt if you lie.
I’d like to know where that lawsuit that the UCI is filing against Floyd is right now. Supposedly it was filed months ago, but the last I heard, Floyd couldn’t find any lawsuit filed against him. Another good rule, don’t make a threat when you have no intention of following up on the threat. If you make a threat, be sure you have the goods to enforce it.
Floyd is now going to try to get into driving race cars. He might have a talent in that, he was incredible good handling his bike on and off-road. I’m not sure what it is about guys that win the Tour wanting to drive race cars? I don’t have much desire to do that, but I never even raced the Tour. I wouldn’t mind riding a really fast motorcycle though. From the video, Floyd looks like he is in training to be a Nascar driver!
Below is a long interview with Floyd. It is pretty interesting. I saw it a while ago. He doesn’t sound like he is making shit up. It all sounds pretty true, but I think time will have to sort most of that out. If you have a little time, maybe just watch it for a bit.
Anyway, it is going to be interesting how the UCI responds to this statement by the David Howman,the director general of WADA. Maybe it going to upset them and then they are going to have to do something really rash, like threaten him with a lawsuit. Scary, scary.
Floyd being Floyd in San Fransico. Tim Johnson is the guy in the Saturn jersey to Floyd's left.
http://youtu.be/R6Mj1Us13Yk
the cycling world needs more Floyd, for better or worse
I used to work with a guy that was on a pit crew. When we would talk about the tour and drugs he would say the best cheater always wins any car race and the tour was no different.
I will admit it. I was a fan of Floyd pre and post phonak. I loved his story of some simple amish kid beating the odds i guess…nievely i hoped he didnt dope. Years later, i still find myself rooting for him. Whether he is in cyling or not, I still like the guy and I even rooted for him in his failed comeback to cycling on the domestic scene. I also hope the rest of the corrupt f@#$ers in the UCI and ProTour get whats coming to them. I hope Floyd started the process of ‘burning’ it all down!
Good luck Floyd! Maybe he should have raced Cross instead:)
Hey Steve, unrelated to this post but I remember you posting something a while back about Trebon’s power number and how incredible they were if they were real. Here’s a an article with a good analysis of an actual power file: http://www.cxmagazine.com/training-cyclocross-power-ryan-trebon-wattage-file
I am going to agree with Steve about Floyd. I think he is a stand up guy. His last year racing he did the Joe Martin stage race in Arkansas. On stage two I followed his wheel for 75 miles. He was super friendly. I figured that there was no better wheel tonfollow than the guy who won the Tour. Kinda sucks for him that they took it away from him.
Howman is good for professional athletics.
I have no doubt WADA is tired of IOC-funded sports federations protecting their major assets.
The needlessly complex doping rules and obfuscated adverse analytical findings (Pat/UCI have 5 pending) are there to protect doping in the name of a great show.
Good for him and WADA!
We all hate doping, but PFloyd holds a special place in my heart.
Hmmmm….I thought you hated cheaters. Why the special words for this cheater?
Steve-Hate is a pretty powerful word. And I do have powerful feeling about people doping in sports. But, I can’t really say I hate them as a person, for this huge character flaw. Floyd really is a good guy. Most the guys I know that have been caught doping seem pretty nice. That is one of the big problems with the whole thing. They just have extremely different morals than I.
I hope you dont live in a glass house E CARTER….surely u are not being bitter because Floyd is exposing Sir Armstrong and his fake persona as Mr. ‘do-gooder’.
…FLOYDSTRONG!
Kris French – “kinda sucks that they took it away from him”???
Are you freakin’ serious?? He cheated!! What if a father beats his kids and DFACS takes them away from him? Should I blame the agency?
There’s some seriously skewed thinking out there…..Poor, Tiger, it’s a shame his wife left him.
That was a very genuine and believable interview.
Thanks for posting it.
In summation, Landis says that all of the top finishers in the TdF for the past 25 years have all been doping, that doping was an inescapable part of the sport, and that the victories were won by those who cheated best. It’s no different in cycling than our current corporatocracy where the bi winners, the One Percent, are those people who are best at cheating the 99% out of their money or their lives or both. Steve Jobs made his billions out of the workers at Foxconn, paying them a pittance and selling his products to very willing buyers – myself included – for top dollar. Others make their billions from slave labor, or in the case of the bankers at Goldman Sachs, from outright fraud and corruption. Perhaps Steve can start an Occupy Cycling! movement…