Saturday, July 29, 2006

It Comes On Cycles Part Doo*

"Dick Pound, chairman of the World Anti-Doping Agency, was dubious about Landis' claim of his naturally high levels of testosterone - which is measured based on the body's ratio between testosterone and epitestosterone. Most people have a 1:1 ratio; to test positive, the ratio must be 4:1. Said Pound, "The natural variations would be minute, compared to what it would be to get you over a 4:1 ratio."

Few years back my GP walked into the examining room with the results of some tests.

Good news is your bloodwork came back terrific.

Bad news is, you can't enter the Olympics.

Lots of healthy males show a 4:1 ratio, and this is the reason the standards are being changed to 6:1, but since the current ratio still stands Landis will likely be stripped of his victory and banned from cycling.

The only way around this is to live in Europe for a time, eat their food, read their newspapers, consort with their women, and maybe, just maybe an American would be weakened enough to pass such drug tests.

*French for the number 2.

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