Floyd's Bonfire Of The Vanities

Floyd Landis leaving the testing facility after the last stage of the Tour de France.
(Benoit Tessier/Reuters)

Floyd Landis being checked out in Strasbourg, France, two days before the Tour began.
(Friedemann Vogel/Bongarts/Getty Images)

I guess this is the face of cycling now: Floyd Landis all plugged in, tested, scrutinized, doubted, chastised, defensive, shamed.
It all reminds me of Tom Wolfe's "Bonfires of the Vanities." When you come under this degree of media scrutiny, you become the issue and the issue becomes you -- owns you.

Good column by the New York Times' William Rhoden: "In This Steroids Era, Every Feat is Suspect."