cheeseflavor

Landis doping case prompts Phonak to fold.

roadwarrior

...now we are up to three threads on the same subject...

Check the racing forum and the Tour de France forum...

maximum01

maybe if landis had the guts to own up this wouldn't have happened. now the selfish **** is attempting to discredit the french labs and the uci in the process.

it beggars belief how selfish one individual can be.

CyLowe97

yeah, because Floyd was the first... no second... no third.... no.....NINTH Phonak rider in a doping scandal.

Floyd was the straw that broke Phonak's back. He may get some of the blame, but not all of it.

maximum01

"straw that broke the camel's back"...LOL...the guy was the overall Tour De France winner and was caught doping........make that the 100 ton heavy iron that broke the camel's back.

name me a doping scandal with more impact than that?

stea1thviper

this makes me sad. ive been a phonak fan for a couple years (something to do with my fascination over the swiss) and now im going to have to find another team...

cheeseflavor

Guilty as charged. I searched *this* forum, but found nothing. Should have done a full-site search.

Oh well, no good deed goes unpunished!

Steve

Grasschopper

Actually I believe the number I saw in VeloNews was 10th Phonak rider in the last 2.5 years.

CyLowe97

Well, no arguing this is the biggest, but it is remarkably similar to what happened to Liberty Seguros in the past year.

A certain ex-Postal rider named Heras who won the 2005 Vuelta a Espana was stripped of his title for testing positive in what is arguably the third biggest stage race (well, third among the three grand tours ).

Less than a year later, the sponsor Liberty Seguros drop it's sponsorship mid-season for implicated riders in the OP scandal.

What Phonak is doing looks pretty familiar, no?

CyLowe97

Psimet2001 

Buy a lot of hearing aids??

Grasschopper

Well to correct myself cyclingnews.com has this line in their story...

botto 

+12

botto 

Ben Johnson

kosherdave

not to be nitpicky, but Phonak is not folding, their team is. That's a pretty big distincition ;-)

xerocoma

I'm fairly certain that Phonak had already announced, before the TDF, that they were ending their sponsorship of the team... it was causing shareholder/customer confusion regarding what the company makes & sells.. hearing aids vice cycling gear... Phonak had already decide to put its advertising dollars towards sponsoring concerts and other events much more in step with its products.

don't kill me if I'm wrong about this....

alanbikehouston

The charges against Floyd are bogus. But, it doesn't matter. The press is gullible. Most of our Forum members are gullible. So, there is no need for Floyd to ever have a hearing. If one French lab tech says you are guilty, no proof is necessary. No hearing is necessary. Accused and guilty are the exact same word in French, and so no evidence need be examined.

But, why would any respectible law-abiding corporation want to sponsor ANY professional sports team? Whether the sport is cycling, football, baseball, hockey...it is guaranteed that somehow most of the public will end up unhappy sooner or later. The team will lose most of its games. Or a player will get caught doping. Or a player will be accused of have sex with a stripper. Eventually, every team will have an unhappy public.

But, there are possibilities for sponsorship. The company that makes EPO could sponsor the San Francisco Giants. Or, the Trojan condom company could sponsor the Duke lacrosse team. A company that trains seeing-eye dogs for the blind could sponsor the Houston Astros.

merlinextraligh

now there's a business development plan, promote your brand and create demand for the product at the same time , genius!

merlinextraligh

4 positive tests, and the charges are bogus? Now he may ultimately be cleared after the USADA hearing (although I wouldn't hold my breath) but its absurd to say the charges are bogus.

Grasschopper

Yes Phonak was no longer going to be the title sponsor but now the team is folding not just looking for another sponsor.

azwhelan

I wouldn't say absurd. No court in the US would ever convict Floyd based on the information I've read because there is no motive. Floyd knew he was going to be tested after the stage so he's either a patsy or the dumbest person on the planet. Every expert is saying there is no benefit to taking Testosterone for one day. He tested clean 5 times before and 2 times after but he has one test come back with 11:1 ratio. I'm no expert but I do work in the Pharmaceutical field and drugs just do not leave the system that quickly. Wouldn't some trace show up in later tests? How many people have access to his sample after he makes a deposit? You could make plenty of arguments for their to be a motive to tant his sample from anti-americanisam to gambling.

I'm not a conspiracy type person but there is plenty of reasonable doubt here and if I was siting on a jury I wouldn't convict the guy. Now the courts in France don't work the same way as here so who knows what happens now. But for me I'm not ready to crucify him just yet.

jamiewilson3

It is a great trick developed by the tobacco industry....give out free cigarettes and dip to get them hooked on your product at events that you sponsor. Make the event have proceeds going to charity and get the brownie points for that.

alanbikehouston

Four positive tests? I've seen many cases of folks being reported to have so-called positive tests for drugs. Happens at jobs. Happens when they get arrested for DUI. Happens when they are in child custody disputes.

And, after hearings were conducted, testimony taken, and a detailed look at the lab and its procedures completed, many of these "positive" tests turned out not to be true. The technician didn't follow proper procedures. The equipment was not properly calibrated. Equipment was contaminated. Sample were switched. Samples got contaminated. And, some of these errors occurred at leading "famous" labs, and at well respected hospital labs.

The Houston Police crime lab got audited. Turned out they were making LOTS of mistakes in DNA cases. The mistakes were caused by undertrained techs, mistrained techs, poor supervision, a dirty, messy lab. Poor procedures. Unwillingness to learn and follow correct procedures.

And, in Houston, people went to prison based on bad DNA tests. Lives were ruined. It has taken three years for the lab to clean up the mess, replace the incompetent staff with new staff, and regain certification. It will take much longer before anyone will trust any results from that lab.

But, most Forum members do not need to know anything about the lab that did Floyd's results. They don't need to know that this is the same lab that was the subject of a scathing investigatory report just three months ago for its failure to correctly follow required testing protocols. Forum members don't need evidence. If they read something on the internet, it must be true. Accused and guilty are the exact same word in French. Aren't they the exact same word in English?

Telling a lie four times does not make it true. I can guarantee one thing that will NEVER happen in Floyd's case. The director of the French lab, and the technician that did the analysis will NEVER sit in an American court and swear under oath that Floyd doped.

America has strong perjury laws, and although the director of the French lab has been caught, over and over, lying about American cyclists, and leaking false reports to the press about American cyclists, he is not an idiot. He will use the French press to do his dirty work. He will never set foot in an American courtroom...liars tend to also be cowards.

bormoglot

In some sence it is not bad. Perhaps now teams and sponsors will do more screening themselves to weed out cheaters like Landis. Now it is clear, even if your cheater is going to win, death penalty for the team will follow...

roadwarrior

Yep...spot on.

Even the lowest guy in a company subject to drug testing has his B sample sent to a second lab.

I hadn't thought about the gambling aspect...interesting.

These tests go through so many hands, it's ridiculous. A former racing buddy, now a lawyer, was laughing saying he'd love to get this case.
But in the US...

The big problem is that, since he was at or under the 4:1 ratio, they did not test him for synthetic testosterone, so we don't know...

But if I was his lawyer, I'd damn well find out.