Floyd Landis, the quirky Mennonite winner of the Tour de France, will likely be order to relinquish his yellow jersey. A second test confirmed the presence of synthetic steroids.
Why is this of interest to itsbadbusiness.com? Well, in the first place, we've got at least two sponsors hurt by the deception. Phonak Holding AG (Public, SWF:PHBN) a maker of hearing aids and i-shares, a subsidiary of Barclays Global Investors (nyse: BCS ), who are slated to become Landis' sponsors after the end of this year.
Beyond Landis' sponsors, there are all of the other 'tour' sponsors, who might not be so willing to fork over funding to a sport that faces the scrutiny of scandal. Landis' doping has therefore diminished all Tour de France contenders.
For fans, it was a thrill to watch the humble boy from Pennsylvania farm country take the title. But if Landis was doped, then the fans were duped. In essence, anyone who went to watch the event or spent time reading about it on the net or in the newspaper, wasted their time indulging in something no more credible than professional wresting.
As for the Mennonites, people who follow a religion of peaceful simplicity, I suppose they are now enduring a bit of unwanted attention.
This is what fascinates me about matters of bad ethics; they almost never hurt just a few isolated individuals. Rather, they make us all just a bit more cynical, a bit less innocent and a bit more jaded.
Comment Preview