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It wasn't that long ago that certan Europeans were lauding Tour de France winner Floyd Landis as their kind of kind of (because kind, gentle, and nonthreatening) Americano. Now they no doubt know better -- he's no different from their own bike riders who've found themselves suspended from improper reliance on pedaling enhancers. I suppose we'll know soon enough if they consider the likely sanctions against Landis disproportionate to the crime. Certainly that's a possibility some might consider here. An almost damning "essay" by one Sarah Kaufman in today's Washington Post Style section pulls back late in the piece.

"We're tempted to believe that what is in an athlete's specimen cup reveals what is in his heart. If he's peeing out dope, he must be a bad guy," she writes in a way little girls didn't used to be taught to write. "Yet it may only mean that he's a human being who made a bad mistake."

So here's your penance, Floyd. Go and mistake no more.