FLandis in Fresno ...

So, after the CVC's Tower Crit ~ we're plopped down in the Sequoia Brewery enjoying ourselves with some food n' beverages, glancing up at the digi-screen where Damian Gonzalez film-taking of the weekend's racing is already being pumped through for us to vid and giggle over.

We're scrunched into a table, away from the cover band dueting it up in the corner, giving us a decent amount of quiet to talk amongst ourselves and goof-off in anonymity. As we're joking around, every once in awhile someone will sneak a look at the big screen and catch a glimpse of riders we recognize, or maybe a silly podium shot to smile at ... it's like instant replay of the weekend.

... damn ~ Gonzalez is doing something hip with that camera crew of his. (hope he's finding some way to make bank on all that fine work)

Anyway, we're crunching through some food dipped deep in beer fried batter and sipping down a few microbrews, when the couple next to me asks sheepishly if i know Floyd Landis.

me: "uh ... no. but we've exchanged chamois in the past"

them: "oh, ok (obviously having no clue and churning the big gear forward like a blind cat4) ... so, did he do it? did he take drugs?"


oh, sweet jesus ... one of those.

- - -

And so begins a sotto voce with an utterly non-cycling couple next to our table as my 'mates happily ignore us and continue on with their eatings and merry making. I tell the couple - one a long-haired in-T-lectual ... probably a music teacher or maybe sells videos at Blockbuster, and his companion, a lovely european creature with the slighty crooked teeth, casually unkept hair, and (undoubtedly) hairy armpits that i find so frickin sexy - I tell them that I have no idea if FLandis actually took performance enhancers.

And he says with a slight swish of the ponytail, 'but, they tested him for it.'

yeah, and it's likely the breakdown in protocol of the test will be grounds for throwing out the results. (insert 5 minute description of chain of custody errors by lab and why we need to have confidence in the testing ... and yes, the tests still look as though they revealed doping).

"So, he'll get off on a ... technicality, no?" from the beautifully crooked faced euro-girl.

Likely, yes. And I love your necklace darling, where ever did you get it?

Ponytail's hackles slightly rising, "So, do you think he did it? Do you think he took drugs?"


Do I think he did it? Hell man, i don't know. All i can tell you is that it's a fukkal hard sport and these riders, the ones up on that screen, are all suffering like you could never imagine, suffering mon' amie ... for little reward. They dedicate their lives to it, they bleed for it, they get up off the ground scarred and shaken ... over and over again, to give themselves fully to it. And do you know that rider's name? Will you remember how hard that woman rode to defend her lead today?

Did FLandis do it? I don't know, and frankly, i don't care anymore. Because you see that goofy guy in green up on the screen, taking the leaders jersey in his hands and smiling in satisfaction? That's the guy who deserves the attention right now.

Because he keeps getting up.