Tim Sprinkle

Floyd Landis. C’mon man.

Of course this isn't exactly a surprise, but way to take the rest of the sport down with you, Floyd.

Landis seems to belong to that clinical breed of sociopath who doesn't feel guilt and whose vast reservoir of competitive willpower let him keep lying through a long and remarkable public relations campaigns to clear his name. For those who have forgotten, he went on a tear after testing positive for elevated levels of testosterone at the 2006 Tour de France, accusing the drug testers who nabbed him of being corrupt, taking on an entire system that is built on the premise that athletes who test positive are guilty unless they can prove otherwise. He wrapped himself in the Constitution and the American flag, claiming to be fighting for all "falsely accused" athletes. (As it turns out, his beef is that they were pursuing him for the wrong thing; he still insists he wasn't taking testosterone but was hopped up on HGH.)

There were seeds of honor in that fight, and Landis cannily exploited a boy-next-door image to use them for his own purposes. Since the episode came on the heels of another say-it-ain't so cycling story -- anyone remember Tyler Hamilton? -- American race fans genuinely ached to believe Floyd. In February 2007, an MSNBC poll of 35,000 people found that 68 percent thought he was "totally innocent of doping."

Again, I think the cycling world knew this was coming (but bravo on the spotlight stealing, what's-in-those-emails way of going about it, Mr. Landis) but it just makes the whole sport look bad all over again. Either way, this has to be a good day for Greg LeMond (who was painted as something of an out of touch old man at the trail) and I guess we can expect a class action lawsuit any day now for all those folks who donated to the Floyd Fairness Fund? What was the final figure on that? $2 million spent on his defense?

I'm pretty sure we haven't heard the last of this.