How Cycling Pros Defeat Anti-Doping Part II

Has someone been watching too many movies?

Hey, do some of you still want to know the astonishing success secrets of Floyd Landis' Tour de France victory? I guess not, not now.

I had that funny feeling that the list of methods athletes and their cohorts use to fight anti-doping authorities was incomplete. Shortly after Joe Papp helped write the popular Part I of this post, we learnt of a guerrilla attack on a van carrying a pro cyclist's sample somewhere in Guatemala. In that ambush, the athlete's test samples were destroyed. What irony, eh?

Did you also wonder what else could be in the bag of dirty tricks?

Here's the headlines and a little snippet from today's NYTimes.

"Arrest Warrant Issued for Cyclist Floyd Landis

PARIS (Reuters) - A French judge has issued an international arrest warrant against American rider Floyd Landis for suspected hacking into an anti-doping laboratory computer, French anti-doping agency head Pierre Bordry told Reuters on Monday."

So is Floyd the real ringleader of this operation? Or is it the person shown in the photo on the top, one Mr. Arnie Baker - ex bicycle racer, ex-doctor, writer and Landis' coach.

I'm not sure if this is common knowledge to a lot of people, but a poster chimed the following on the CyclingNews Forum :

"Dr. Arnie Baker hired a hacker to break into LNDD and steal documents. Baker then modified the documents and distributed them in an attempt to discredit the lab.

The French wanted Floyd Landis to answer questions months ago. At that time the possibility of an arrest warrant was threatened. Floyd Landis should have taken the opportunity to deal with the problem last year."

What next? Will these guys storm into a doping laboratory with RDX explosives and AK 47's? Should labs now convert to Apple Macs instead of Windows? Should anti-doping control now have anti-hackers on their staff payroll? Should vans carrying samples be bulletproofed, led by a motorcade?

Sadly, I respected Mr. Baker a lot and have read some of his books. They're still sitting on my shelf. Gosh its time to lose some of it. The French judge in question, Thomas Cassuto of the Tribunal de Grande, has issued an international arrest warrant for him as well.




CONNECTED READINGS :

Arrest Warrant Issued For Landis In France
How Cycling Pro's Defeat Anti-Doping Control Part I
8 Things On Lance Armstrong From The Other Side Of The Grass
NYTIMES : Cyclist Floyd Landis Says Anti-Doping Agency Offered Deal to Implicate Lance Armstrong

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