The Mailbag is a regular department on VeloNews.com. If you have a comment, an opinion or observation regarding anything you have read in VeloNews magazine or on VeloNews.com, write to webletters@insideinc.com. Please include your full name, hometown and state or nation. Letters may be edited for length and clarity. Writers are encouraged to limit their submissions to one letter per month. The letters published here contain the opinions of the submitting authors and should not be viewed as reflecting the opinions, policies or positions of VeloNews.com, VeloNews magazine or our parent company, Inside Communications, Inc.

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An environment of suspicion
Dear Velo,
Great article by Neal Rogers with Floyd Landis and Steve Johnson. I admire both men for asking and answering some tough questions so publicly. Unfortunately, this didn’t shed much light on such an important and controversial case.

It’s very troubling to me that the same French lab which found Landis’s urine positive for testosterone and was shown during the arbitration to have a very poor level of competency, also found Iban Mayo positive for EPO while a Belgian lab found Mayo’s sample to be inconclusive.

These tests are so important and have such monumental consequences for the athletes and the sport of cycling that we the public, UCI, USA Cycling and WADA etc., must have absolute confidence that their results are accurate. I for one do not.

The sport may be getting cleaner as more teams implement their own anti-doping programs and as it becomes less acceptable among athletes and their peers to dope, but in my opinion the anti-doping system is still very broken. I would like to see a committee of scientists, athletes, cycling officials and anti-doping officials come up with a plan to make the system more reliable and fair.

Until something changes, the athletes and the labs, will be suspect.
Lenny Katz
Roslyn, New York

That nagging question
Dear Editors,
I have some simple questions for Mr. Johnson based on Neal Rogers' column from January 11. This question also should go to John Fahey, Ralph Hale, Terry Madden and other Anti-Doping officials. These are follow-ups, essentially, to Mr. Landis' question "Should strict liability be applied to the athletes and not the labs?" and Mr. Johnson's answer. I found Mr. Johnson's answer to be vague and
unsatisfactory.

What penalties, if any, do you advocate for an accredited drug testing lab that is shown to have violated their stated testing policies? When, if ever, have those penalties been implemented?
Thank you,
Mike Fischbein
Annandale, Virginia

Difficult topic
Dear Velo,
When I began to get interested in cricket, I knew I was in for a bit of a challenge as I struggled to learn the rules and traditions of the sport. But all of this pales in comparison with what we need to know these days to grok bicycle racing.

Trying to read Neal Rogers piece regarding the dialogue between Landis and Johnson, as well as the suspense filled 44 page WADA rule book, I have determined nothing less than a four-year biochemistry degree is required.
John Rees
Chapel Hill, North Carolina

We'll agree that the issues may be complex, but is there anything more complicated than cricket? - Editor

Keeping score
Dear Velo,
After Round 1, my score card has Steve Johnson ahead on points. It will be interesting to see if Floyd can avoid a TKO in Round 2. However, I am interested to learn how Floyd thinks that his claims of innocence can be taken seriously if he actually does throw his lot in with the quaint anti-establishment types at Rock Racing.

After all, what your Mom taught you is true: you're known by the company you keep.
Dan Cline
Columbia, Maryland

Rock-n-Ball
Dear Velo,
I have to hand it to Neal Rogers. His last few stories on R&R and or Landis have been making the off season far more interesting.

Keep 'em coming.
Michael Martin
Denver, Colorado

Noise with a purpose
Dear Velo,
I just noticed on Wednesday's letters page that race announcers took a hit.

It seems to me that if you are not in the race, then you are there for the entertainment. As a promoter of such “entertainment” we want to put on the best show possible. There seems to be the opportunity in sports to combine flamboyance and knowledge to give the general spectator the most exciting information during the “show.” It also seems that most folks in the U.S. that show up at bike races with their enthusiast friend or family member haven’t been raised around bike racing and really don’t have a clue as to what’s going on. If I were to relate it to another sport arguably more common in the US such as football or basketball, I’d want the likes of John Madden, or Dick Vitale as an announcer to deliver the best “show.” Even what the late Howard Cosell did for boxing was amazing. Shoot, how many of the people in the U.S. know what’s going on in a televised soccer game until the Argentine announcer yells GOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAALLL for 30 seconds.

Here at the Tour de Nez, having hired a professional and knowledgeable, as well as flamboyant, cycling announcer, as we did with Dave Towel for example, really stepped up the quality of the event for at least 80 percent of spectators.

Here’s a glass of Fat Tire beer raised to all the announcers in cycling working hard on sharing their knowledge of the sport to the fans in whatever style they use to do it..
Tim Healion
Reno, Nevada
Tour de Nez promoter

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The Mailbag is a regular department on VeloNews.com. If you have a comment, an opinion or observation regarding anything you have read in VeloNews magazine or on VeloNews.com, write to webletters@insideinc.com. Please include your full name, hometown and state or nation. Letters may be edited for length and clarity. Writers are encouraged to limit their submissions to one letter per month. The letters published here contain the opinions of the submitting authors and should not be viewed as reflecting the opinions, policies or positions of VeloNews.com, VeloNews magazine or our parent company, Inside Communications, Inc.