I suspect Floyd Landis is not in the running for the 'worlds most lovely person award.' There are plenty for cycling dopers, but when Floyd was trying to dodge the bullet he did a few not very nice things. Asking the public to donate to a defence fund when he knew he was guilty anyone? However I find the ruling of a Swiss court against him both depressing and hilarious.
Depressing first. Basically it was a libel case brought by the UCI because of nasty things Floyd said about Pat McQuaid (Current UCI top banana) and Hein Verbruggen (previous top of the bunch). They are a thin skinned bunch the UCI and seem to have a tigerish litigious attitude to anyone who says things they don't like. It would have been nice if they had shown the same vigour 15 years ago in tackling doping. We as lovers of the sport may have been spared seeing hero after hero modelling feet of clay.
The hilarious bit is what Floyd is NOT allowed to say. Remember these are things the court has ruled Floyd must not say;
'The UCI.....accepted money from Lance Armstrong to conceal a doping case'
The UCI 'are clowns'
The UCI are 'no different to Colonel Muammar Gaddafi.'
I have an image in my mind of Swiss judges weighing the arguments as to whether the UCI were or were not clowns.
'While you do appear to have a large red nose, the lack of creepy face paint and oversize shoes has led me to conclude on balance that you are not in fact a clown.'
I guess the Gaddafi one was easy. He is dead.
Next on the messenger shooting conveyor belt is Paul Kimmage.
No comments:
Post a Comment