Why can't I just hate Floyd Landis?

Why can't I just hate Floyd Landis?

Because I don't.  But that doesn't make much sense.

This is a pretty average doper, cheater,  liar, in the same spirit as Lance Armstrong, Tom Danielson, Ryder Hesjedal, Tyler Hamilton, and on and on and on.  All cheaters. And somehow - Floyd is even worse - despite all of that - he's on the cusp of enormous financial gain because of his role in the whistleblower lawsuit against Lance Armstrong, as if he was only a tangential part of the problem when it was happening to USPS back in the early 2000s.  A victim.  A witness.

Plus, slap in the face number 7 or 8, I've lost count, Floyd went on to race MTB's in the 100 mile local scene after he got tossed from the Road, thus sullying the waters, once again, for honest guys like Jeremiah Bishop, Todd Wells, and other domestic pros who didn't take drugs and turn pro on the road back in the 90s.

And now he owns a headshop, funded, at least in part, by the Floyd Freedom Fund, which also turned out to be a farce.  If you donated to the FFF, do you at least get free pot when you're in Leadville? Pretty soon, the Federal Government will, despite their best intentions, play a large role in funding Floyd's drug store as well.

The irony of it all, Floyd.

No bullshit, your target market is the same people you cheated back in 2007 when you raced 100 mile MTB's after years of PED use and all of the implied, longterm benefits you gained from EPO, Testosterone, blood doping, and now you want sell them...drugs?

I don't see this working out, Floyd.  But somehow, still, here you are.  And more to the point, here WE are.  The same people you lied to and cheated.  We are buying your product, and we love your stoned, hillbilly smile.


FREEZE YOUR BLOOD AND THEN STAB IT INTO ME...

One can ask this question on a larger scale of course...why do we, cycling fans, buy the brands founded by the same athletes who lied to us about how clean they were and then embarrassed us on a global stage?  See DZ nuts.  See also, Hincapie Sportswear.  I think the answer, if you can find it, probably gets right to the core of our complicated sentiments for the American riders who used drugs but also put cycling on the map for us.

Something about Floyd, though, I don't know.  Despite all the same transgressions, no one seems to despise him quite like they do Lance, or Ryder, or Tom Danielson.  Maybe it's the new look - some kind of fratboy, budweiser swilling, hillbilly harmless appeal, who is clearly stoned well past the point of giving a shit what we think about him.

Is he too stoned to realize that I want to dislike him but I can't?  Neither of us could explain why, I don't guess, but clearly I'm the only one that cares.

Eat the world, Floyd.

Up, Up, Up.