Enough Is Enough

Cycling became a sick joke when the urine sample Floyd Landis submitted after his "ride for the ages" in stage 17 of the Tour de France tested positive for abnormal levels of testosterone. � "You know what's killing me?" Landis complained to SI's Austin Murphy from a Paris hotel room. "I've never had such a beautiful view of the Champs-�lys�es and the Eiffel Tower. And I can't enjoy it."

Welcome to our world, Floyd.

Everyone--not just cycling fans--wanted to believe that Landis's solo attack over 80 miles and three mountain passes was righteous. Then came the news of the "adverse analytical finding," as the International Cycling Union describes a bust.

That was followed, in short order, by a press release from Justin Gatlin, the reigning Olympic gold medalist and the world champion and co-world-record holder in the 100 meters. Through a New York City public-relations firm Gatlin explained that he, too, tested positive for "testosterone or its precursors" and faces a lifetime ban from competition. He could also be stripped of his world record: He ran a 9.77 in Doha, Qatar, on May 12 to tie the mark set by Asafa Powell of Jamaica.

Gatlin had to be acutely aware of the stakes. He is the biggest name in his drug-embattled sport and thus the athlete most capable of further damaging it. "I understand what it would mean to track and field if I ever tested positive or went down in some scandal," Gatlin told SI's Tim Layden in April. "Not to have an ego about it, but that might be the KO for our sport."

Way to go, Justin.

Gatlin returned a cellphone call to Layden late Saturday afternoon and said, "I've known about this for a few weeks, and we're trying to figure out what happened." A few weeks? What happened?

Gatlin's positive test came at the Kansas Relays on April 22, where he ran a leg on the winning 4�100-meter relay team three days after his interview with SI. According to one of his lawyers, Gatlin was notified on June 15 that his A sample had tested positive and on July 12 that his B sample was positive. Gatlin's specimen was scrutinized using carbon isotope ratio testing, and the results made it all but certain that he had taken synthetic testosterone. On Monday The New York Times reported that the same test found evidence of the illegal substance in Landis's system.

Not that cycling didn't look hypocritical or ridiculous before Landis got busted. Two of his Phonak teammates were among the 13 riders given the boot from the '06 Tour for their alleged involvement in Operaci�n Puerto, a Spanish doping investigation that has ensnared some 58 professional cyclists--and it is hardly reassuring that only five riders were cleared. That same sting led to the expulsion from the Tour of prerace favorites Ivan Basso and Jan Ullrich, who was recently fired by T-Mobile.

SI's Murphy recalls taking copious notes during a phone interview with Landis's ex-- Phonak teammate Tyler Hamilton, who tried to explain how it had come to pass that tests had detected the presence of someone else's blood in his veins during the Vuelta a Espa�a in 2004. Hamilton argued that he was a chimera--someone with two types of blood, the result of having shared his mother's womb with a vanished twin.