Flandis should sue not appeal

There seems to be a growing cry that Flandis should appeal to CAS over the Arbitration Panels finding that the 2nd test produced a WADA-standard valid positive dope control.

He shouldn't.

CAS, unless I completely misunderstand their mandate, will produce the same ruling because they are only ruling on whether the doping protocols met WADA's standards. They will likely find the initial test did not, but the 2nd did*

If Flandis really cares about rider's rights he will instead take this to a real court of law wear the validity of the test itself can be questioned.

This is very unlikely, as circumstantial evidence, seems to indicate that Flandis probably did not take the Testosterone he is accused of, but has doped plenty in his career. Any lawsuit that vindicates him will likely also include the detruction of his reputation as well as forcing many of his friends, specifically JV and FA, to testify.

In otherwards, like Hamilton, the best (and probably most noble) path to vindication on the specific doping charge probably will not be worth it.

*I've noticed a lot of letter writters to Velonews and Cyclingnews seem to think the arbitration ruling threw out the first test's a sample but upheld the b sample. Again, it's hard to read carefully with 2 kids crawling on me but.. I believe the arbitration panel threw out the first test completely and did not consider the subsequent "retests" that the lab did.

Rather, the positive finding is based on the different 2nd test which specifically (supposedly) tested for synthetic testosterone. The legitimate issue many more technically minded people have is that this test has not been validated for this use meaning it should work, but maybe not.