*** SPOILER *** Interesting facts from Landis' book - Page 4

Originally Posted by musette

Unless one is LA, one does not get one's requests readily fulfilled. Landis wanted a time trial bike at home for practice, and was repeatedly denied. One of the excuses given to explain why Landis couldn't have that was that even George didn't have one.

Originally Posted by musette

Other juicy tidbits:

The first year Landis was on the USPS Tour squad, he was in debt, and his share of the team's Tour earnings was $50K. LA gave Landis a "Lance bonus" of $40K.

Originally Posted by Bro Deal

Just goes to show that Armstrong is an asshole, Hincapie is a putz for staying, and Landis was the only domestique with balls.

Originally Posted by musette

I think keeping a tight hold on one's domestiques, even ones that are strong climbers or otherwise strong themselves, is an art for a team leader and DS. There has to be a certain level, in my book, of combination of carrots and sticks -- a blend of a desire to do well for one's team leader, as well as a certain fear of consequences if one disappoints or tries to have personal ambitions. At least that's necessary in my mind for a team that tries to win the Tour.

see the 2007 Astana Kloden/Vino situation (before the team was pulled)
see the various T-Mobile situations

It is not being a bad person to have developed, along with one's DS (who is very much like oneself) an effective system to induce domestiques to only think of one's well-being (team ownership participation and the team leader also being the boss of the European peloton also help).

Bruyneel has not made it a secret that he picks domestiques not only for "pure" ability, but also for fit. In the case of a domestique, that requires a certain selfless type.

Originally Posted by musette

I think keeping a tight hold on one's domestiques, even ones that are strong climbers or otherwise strong themselves, is an art for a team leader and DS. There has to be a certain level, in my book, of combination of carrots and sticks -- a blend of a desire to do well for one's team leader, as well as a certain fear of consequences if one disappoints or tries to have personal ambitions. At least that's necessary in my mind for a team that tries to win the Tour.

see the 2007 Astana Kloden/Vino situation (before the team was pulled)
see the various T-Mobile situations

It is not being a bad person to have developed, along with one's DS (who is very much like oneself) an effective system to induce domestiques to only think of one's well-being (team ownership participation and the team leader also being the boss of the European peloton also help).

Bruyneel has not made it a secret that he picks domestiques not only for "pure" ability, but also for fit. In the case of a domestique, that requires a certain selfless type.

Originally Posted by musette

Other juicy tidbits:

The first year Landis was on the USPS Tour squad, he was in debt, and his share of the team's Tour earnings was $50K. LA gave Landis a "Lance bonus" of $40K.

One year when Landis couldn't pace LA up a climb and Chechu had to do it instead (during one of the earlier years Landis rode the Tour), both LA and Bruyneel were pretty stern with him afterwards. Bruyneel said something like "this is unacceptable".

Landis writes that LA is a paranoid, detail-oriented person.

Landis makes it sound like Bruyneel didn't really care too much whether Landis' hip was injured, in terms of Landis' personal well-being. It sounded like Bruyneel was focused on getting good domestiques for LA.

Unless one is LA, one does not get one's requests readily fulfilled. Landis wanted a time trial bike at home for practice, and was repeatedly denied. One of the excuses given to explain why Landis couldn't have that was that even George didn't have one.

The domestiques, except for Landis, are all very deferential to Bruyneel and LA.

Originally Posted by donrhummy

You misread the "Lance Bonus." He gave him the 50K AND the 40K on top of it. He says he got 90K and that the 40K was from lance's own pocket.

Originally Posted by wolfix

Agreed. I'm amazed more teams do not see this. This was the winning formula for Eddy M, Hinault,Indurain, and LA. Total of 22 TDFs. Then we looka t peter Post's team of Ti-Raleigh and it could be argued that it was the most dominant team of the past 40 years. It had a problem with winning the Tour de France.

Originally Posted by helmutRoole2

Think about it. Do you think Landis would co-author a book that didn't support his innocence?

Originally Posted by saluki

Doesn't matter who wrote the book.

Originally Posted by Bro Deal

Landis sure is not going to write a book that says his defense is largely spin control and misrepresentation. The testing issues are complex and it is easy to distort if you only present one side of the case.

Originally Posted by saluki

Hi again BB brain. What part of "samples mislabled 3 times" don't you understand? What part of "200% variation in test results" don't you understand. These are verifiable facts. Do you understand the difference between facts and spin; or have you been spinning so long that it's no longer possible. What the hell do you think "the other side" of 200% variation is - "Close enough for government work"? What the hell do you think the other side of "samples mislabled 3 times is"? "Tom, ****, Harry, what the hell, it had to belong to Landis"? Sometimes I think that you've exposed yourself as the biggest moron in the world, and then the next day you top yourself.

Originally Posted by saluki

That's completely irrelevant emotionalism. Either the lab did screw up the labeling three times or it didn't. Either they did have a 200% test variation or they didn't. Doesn't matter who wrote the book.

The lab has to follow standards. And whether Landis doped or not, if their rules were not followed, then they don't have a positive.