What Does Floyd Landis Owe Oscar Pereiro?

Let me tell you story about a bicycle race:

In 2006, professional cycling had reached the pinnacle of its popularity. Lance Armstrong had left the sport having amazingly won his seventh straight Tour de France. The Tour de France became the centerpiece of the Outdoor Life Network. Cycling was almost considered "mainstream." It was definitely considered cool.

Nothing could have made it cooler than the jaw-dropping performance in the 2006 race by an American rider name Floyd Landis on Stage 17 of the 20 stage race.

Spaniard Oscar Pereiro, once a teammate of Landis's, held a lead of more than eight minutes going into Stage 17 when Landis stunned the cycling world with a 120 km solo breakaway attack that at the time was called "one of the most epic days of cycling ever seen." At one point, Landis was 9 minutes 4 seconds clear of Pereiro. Landis ultimately won the stage by nearly six minutes, taking more than seven minutes out of Pereiro's lead. The near-miraculous performance spurred Landis onto a Tour de France victory. Pereiro finished 57 seconds behind Landis in the final standings.

Landis celebrated for three days before learning he had tested positive for suspicious levels of testosterone. The Swiss-based International Cycling Union (UCI) released the positive results of Landis's "A" sample from his Stage 17 drug test, one of several tests Landis took during the Tour. The "A" test showed a testosterone to epitestosterone ratio of 11-1; the permissible level is 4-1.

Two weeks later, UCI announced that the second, "B" sample of Landis's urine showed an abnormally high ratio of testosterone to epitestosterone, just as the first sample had.

Landis would be the first cyclist to forfeit a Tour title because of doping. It would also be the first time in the 105-year history of the race that a winner has been stripped of the title.

The Outdoor Life Network canceled its planned recap show, calling it "no longer relevant."

Landis immediately issued a denial. "We will explain to the world why this is not a doping case, but a natural occurrence" -- that the testosterone in his body was "natural and produced by my own organism." Subsequently, Landis and his spokespeople put forth a variety of reasons, at various times, for his positive drug test: naturally high testosterone, drinking alcohol, dehydration, thyroid medication, and a conspiracy against him. His formal defense ultimately criticized testing methodology and execution.

The variety of explanations offered up by Landis provided fodder for satirists such as David Letterman, who presented the "Top 10 Floyd Landis Excuses" on his show.

But Oscar Pereiro wasn't laughing. He had to endure months and months of soap-opera like hearings, which included the sordid affair of Landis's camp threatening Greg LeMond that if he testified against Landis they would publicly disclose that LeMond had been sexually molested as a child; something LeMond once shared in confidence with Landis.

Finally, almost a year later, Pereiro stood on the top step of a podium with his winner's jersey, not along the Champs-Elysees as a normal champion would but in the staid offices of Spain's Sport Ministry.

A bereft Pereiro tried to come to grips with it all:

"These emotions, it is impossible to feel them in a ceremony like this one, which is organized so that everyone understands and sees that Oscar Pereiro is the winner of the Tour [...] The moment I received the profit of my work, I had mixed feelings, something between satisfaction and regret for what we were deprived of. [...] The day on the podium could have been the best day of my life. I would have liked to have lived that day."

But Floyd Landis still wouldn't let Pererio have his day. He raised money, raised a stink and appealed his conviction to the highest court of sports. Yesterday, after another year gone by and millions of dollars spent on both sides of the argument, a three-person panel at the Court of Arbitration for Sport upheld a previous panel's decision, ruling Landis's positive doping test during the Tour two years ago was, indeed, valid. In a scathing rebuke, the court ordered Landis to pay $100,000 toward the legal fees of the United States Anti-Doping Agency. It was the most expensive anti-doping case in history.

Yet Landis remains unrepentant:

"I am saddened by today's decision. I am looking into my legal options and deciding on the best way to proceed."

And Oscar Pereiro remains forever denied. What must have gone through his mind as he watched Landis super-humanly overtake him on Stage 17? What strange despair has been uniquely his these past two years? What kind of queasy, mixed feelings must have been his about finally receiving the yellow jacket so long after the race? Above all, how he must lament the irretrievable loss of not experiencing that championship moment for which he had worked so hard -- which he had earned. Indeed, what does is feel like to know you were the best man in the biggest race but nobody really knows it? They never mention your name but for two years they can't stop mentioning his.

It's been two bloody years. I'd like to know: What does Floyd Landis owe Oscar Pereiro?

Comments

[LarryBB]

Dave -

To understand what happened to Pereiro, you need to look at what happened to the competitive field in the 2006 Tour de France. It was carnage. Lance Armstrong retired, and the Operacion Puerto blood doping scandal knocked out the other top-5 finishers from 2005. Alberto Contador, the 2007 Tour winner, was also caught up in Operacion Puerto and was unable to race. Danilo Di Luca, Iban Mayo, Oscar Freire, Joseba Beloki, Jorg Jaksch and Andrey Kashechkin all fell from the race due to injury or disease. All of these riders were arguably better riders in 2006 than Oscar Pereiro.

Oscar Pereiro was clearly not the best rider in the peloton. He was not even the best rider on his own team. Alejandro Valverde was the team leader, a rider who Lance Armstrong had identified as the next big thing in cycling. So under ordinary circumstances, Pereiro would have been expected to ride in support of Valverde, and would have had no chance for a spot on the podium. But Valverde broke his collarbone early in the Tour - a bad break for Valverde, a good break for Pereiro.

Pereiro's second place finish on the road in 2006 was an almost unbelievable stroke of luck. NO rider in the history of the Tour has ever had his path to the podium cleared of competitors, the way Pereiro's path was cleared for him in 2006.

I'm limited by the word count limit here from saying more for the moment.

[dbrower]

Landis owes Pereiro zip. This premise is throughly repudiated in detail at http://rant-your-head-off.com/WordPress/?p=650 .

Oscar has Landis to thank for not finishing in about 30th place. Ceremony and endorsements or not, he got the prize money. For his merits, he got to defend last year, and we saw how well he did.

-dB

[Dave Hollander - Huffpost Blogger]

"This premise is throughly repudiated in detail ..."

Hardly.

To say that Pereiro was only in the position he was in at Stage 17 is because of a tactical move my Landis's team neglects, among other things, that Landis may very well have been relying on using a boost from his performance enhancing drugs at Stage 17. In any case he was using performance enhancing drugs. Landis was cheating. So if you want to say Pereiro wouldn't have come in second and somebody else would've, then fine. But you can't tell me that by cheating to win the race, Landis does not owe whoever would've won cleanly. The person who could've been the 2006 Tour de France champion lost out on all kinds of monetary rewards because of Landis.

And to be clear, I didn't say Landis wasn't entitled to defend himself and seek appeals as far as the process permits. He did what he was absolutely entitled do to do. And, he was found guilty. He owes for it now. And to my mind, no one lost more than the person who would've have won but for Landis's cheating. That's who Landis should pay.

The referenced blogger writes:

"Yes, Oscar didn’t get to celebrate his “victory” in Paris, like most Tour winners do, but them’s the breaks. "

Wow. Pretty dickish attitude. That ain't "the breaks", friend. That's harm willfully perpetrated by a cheater on a cheated. Damages must now be assessed.

[HeevenSteven]

I've some to suspect that all the top contenders were using some kind of illegal substance. Cycling is the most dope ridden sport on earth.

[jaf]

Dave you have made a great point. Although I have been suspicious of the French press, police, drug testing labs,et al when it comes to American cyclists. I eventually had to surrender to the overwhelming evidence that Landis is guilty. In addition to the emotional cost to Pereiro, what of the income in endorsements lost? Unfortunately, I think that Landis is now bankrupt and will never have to settle up in more than a token fashion for the monetary cost to Oscar Pereiro.

[Dave Hollander - Huffpost Blogger]

Lost endorsements are a major part of what any of these cheaters owe the second place finishers. It's especially critical to cyclists who depend almost entirely on sponsors. I'd love to see a smart law professor film a cause of action on behalf of those athletes who lost out on all kinds of monetary gains due to a cheater who stole their rightful titles.