Don't jump to conclusions

Before Thursday, Tour de France champion Floyd Landis was being compared to Lance Armstrong and Greg Lemond. Now he's being linked to Ben Johnson and Rafael Palmeiro. That's not a good trade.

When I learned that Landis may have flunked a drug test, I had flashbacks to Johnson losing his 100-meter dash gold medal after failing a drug test at the 1988 Seoul Olympics, and Palmeiro getting busted for steroids shortly after wagging his finger before Congress and insisting that he had never taken illicit drugs.

The sad part is that the news about Landis really wasn't that shocking.

Nine of the top cyclists were thrown out before this year's Tour due to drug allegations. And drug charges have long swirled around Tour cyclists, even seven-time winner, Armstrong.

But before rushing to condemn Landis, we should remember that drug tests can come back with false positives. Even though Landis' A urine sample came back positive, we have to wait until we get the results back from the B urine sample before we know for sure whether Landis was guilty.

Cycling fans had to wait three weeks before they were able to crown Landis as the Tour de France champion.

Can't we wait a few more days for the facts before we convict Landis in the court of public opinion?