Embattled 2006 Tour de France winner Floyd Landis is more and
more doubtful of racing professionally this season even if the
American cycling star is cleared of doping charges.
In an interview with the US sports television network ESPN,
Landis said he and his lawyers have become frustrated with
obstacles delaying his chance to make his case to a US Anti-Doping
Agency (USADA) arbitration panel.
"I've pretty much written off this season," Landis said.
Landis, 31, said no hearing date has been set yet and none is
likely before late spring, which would be a late May or June time
frame, so as a result it would be out of the question for him to
defend the Tour title even if allowed.
No matter what the US panel rules, the loser is liekly to press
the case to the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Switzerland. That
would delay a possible Landis comeback even more, likely wiping out
the entire 2007 season.
"Right now I want to believe that the right thing will happen
and we'll get a fair hearing, as long as it takes," Landis
said.
Landis had hip replacement surgery but cannot return to cycling
until his doping case is settled. He tested positive for synthetic
testosterone after stage 17 of last July's Tour, in which he made a
miracle rally to set up a win.
Landis has denied any wrongdoing, instead saying the French
laboratory mishandled his samples and botched the testing to create
a false positive. He had hoped to return for the 2007 Tour, which
begins July 7 and ends July 29.
If Landis loses his appeal, he will be hit with a two-year ban
and lose the Tour de France crown.
While Landis said he wants to make certain he has all the
evidence he needs to make his case, he has asked a French
government probe to delay its work until his USADA case is
complete, something USADA officials want done quickly.
"We're ready to proceed. We want hearings done as soon as
possible," USADA general counsel Travis Tygart told ESPN.
Michael Henson, a Landis spokesman, said the big reason the
hearing date has not been settled is because lawyers are still
trying to obtain documents they consider crucial in preparing a
defense for Landis.
Lawyer Howard Jacobs' request for technical and specific
documents he claimed were vital to the case was denied by
USADA.
"It's a real uphill battle for them to get basic pieces of
information they need to conduct a fair hearing," Henson said.
Members of the three-person arbitration panel have been selected
and the hearing, under USADA rules, should come within three months
of the selection, although Henson said Landis' lawyers asked for an
extension to obtain documents.
"We feel the legal process athletes have to go through is
fundamentally unfair," Henson said. "In order for Floyd to get due
process, it's going to take longer than we originally thought."
Landis is also seeking a public hearing to be staged at
Pepperdine University Law School in Malibu, California. Such a
clause has never been invoked for a USADA doping hearing.
Landis said that while he is fit he rode only about 800 miles
from the day he won the Tour to the end of last year.
"I spend the same amount of time and energy trying to gain
whatever resources are necessary and trying to learn what I need to
learn, trying to solve this problem, as I spent trying to win the
Tour. Every single day."
Landis said USADA is unwilling to admit it made a mistake by
pushing the case based on what he calls the evidence of errors by
the French lab.
"They see it as a competition," Landis said of USADA. "If you're
looking for justice and trying to find out who's cheating, and you
find out you made a mistake, and you drop it, you're not winning or
losing, you're seeking the truth.
"It is a competition. It is to them and it has to be to me."
Landis said he hopes by winning he could create change in World
Anti-Doping Agency testing and judicial procedures. The group is
looking at making changes at its annual meeting next November.
"That is more important than me right now," Landis said. "A lot
of the damage is done whether I win or lose. To my way of thinking,
the only good that can really come out of this is that no one has
to go through this again."
(China Daily via AFP February 1, 2007)