Westhampton - The steroid era is not behind us as Major League Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig would like us to believe.

And recently, good 'ol Floyd Landis stirred things up again in the cycling world! And American 'hero?' Lance Armstrong is in the hot seat.

Reporters who cover cycling say that professional cyclists can't compete without doping. It's a sad commentary on the sport, but probably true.

Floyd Landis. (jkmckenna.wordpress.com.)

How many people really believe that the seven-time Tour de France winner is innocent? Then again, Landis lied for years about his own use of performance-enhancing drugs. This guy spent over $2 million dollars to try to convince everybody that he was innocent, after testing positive for synthetic testosterone which stripped him of his 2006 Tour de France title. And suddenly, Landis decides to 'clear his conscience' and rat on 17 other cyclists. As ugly as this entire Landis episode appears, he could very well become the 'Jose Canseco' of the cycling world.

What a lovely state of affairs. Don't you want your kid to grow up to be a cyclist?

And look who is leading the investigation - none other than Jeff Novitzky, the chief investigator in the Bay Area Laboratory Cooperative (BALCO) case. (What ever happened with the BALCO case, anyway? That investigation has been on-going for years!).

Landis is saying that he and his former teammate Lance Armstrong, along with other members of the U.S. Postal Service Professional Cycling Team, were involved in a systematic doping scheme to use banned drugs and avoid getting caught. Landis also said that Armstrong bribed an official to hide a positive doping test in 2002 and used banned drugs and techniques to hide detection while winning the Tour de France seven consecutive times. Landis also alleges that he and Armstrong discussed ways to use EPO without detection.

Doping allegations have dogged Armstrong for years. Frankly, how he has managed to maintain his innocence and protect his name, in the midst of the on-going doping scandal in cycling and the doping allegations that have been thrown in his direction through the years is beyond me. Armstrong has maintained that he has never taken performance enhancing drugs. He has spent a fortune with lawsuits, trying to protect himself. Part of me, my Midwestern values and over-all optimism, wants to believe that Armstrong is innocent. But the realities of what it takes to win these grueling cycling races and the fact that so many cyclists have tested positive for PEDs, tell me otherwise.

When one thinks of Lance Armstrong, beyond his unprecedented seven Tour de France victories, one thinks of his miraculous recovery from several cancers. In 1996, he was diagnosed with testicular cancer, which metastasized to his brain, abdomen and lungs. After surgery, his doctor gave him a less than 40 per cent chance of survival.

In 1997, Armstrong founded the Lance Armstrong Foundation. The Foundation fights for people affected by cancer. According to their website, since the Foundation's inception, they have raised $325 million dollars for the fight against cancer. Of that money raised, 81 percent has gone directly to support their programs and services for survivors. What an amazing effort. And quite outstanding work when you think about it - helping thousands of cancer patients and inspiring them, based on his own battle with the disease, overcoming it and accomplishing so much in the process.

But has all of his goodwill in this area perhaps 'masked' the realities of the cycling world and the most recent accusations from Landis?

Only time will tell. But knowing Lance Armstrong, he'll put up one heck of a fight!

Dr. Michele Ferrari. dailytelegraph.com)

Other Landis Allegations

 • The team had strong ties to Italian doctor Michele Ferrari, who Landis says often extracted blood from him and his teammates for later reinjection at races. Ferrari also showed the team how to store the blood in refrigerators, Landis wrote. Landis claims that Armstrong had him stay at his Girona, Spain apartment while Armstrong and his wife were away in case there was a power failure that would endanger blood stored in a refrigerator hidden in a closet.

 • Blood extraction for later transfusion was extracted by a team doctor at Armstrong's apartment in 2003. Landis says on two occasions the entire team met there for blood transfusions. Later that year, he claims, "I was instructed to go to Lance's place by [team director] Johan Bruyneel and get some EPO from him. The first EPO I ever used was then handed to me in the entryway to his building."

 • In 2004, Landis claims, the team was becoming more cautious about their program and began flying to Belgium for blood work. He also says the team began doing blood work on its team bus: "The second ... was performed on the team bus on the ride from the finish of a stage to the hotel during which the driver pretended to have engine trouble and stopped on a remote mountain road for an hour or so, so the entire team could have half a liter of blood added. This was the only time that I ever saw the entire team being transfused in plain view of all the other riders and bus driver."