By Amy Shipley
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, July 29, 2006; E01
U.S. cyclist Floyd Landis received supportive telephone calls yesterday from Lance Armstrong and various teammates, lined up interviews with news outlets and vehemently denied using performance-enhancing drugs for a second straight day.
More than two days after having learned he produced an abnormal test for the steroid testosterone that has jeopardized his Tour de France victory and cycling career, Landis said he was "worried about his future" but professed ignorance about the specifics of his test result and drug testing in general.
Landis, who claimed the Tour title on Sunday, said during a conference call with reporters that he knew he had produced a urine sample last Thursday that showed an elevated ratio of testosterone to epitestosterone (more than 4 to 1 is considered high), but knew nothing further about his result and hadn't asked for specifics because he had been too busy dealing with personal matters such as talking to his mother.
"I am not an expert in this," said Landis, 30. "I know the numbers vary from day to day and hour to hour. That's the whole point of this. The tests we are going to construct will prove this is some sort of anomaly."
Christiane Ayotte, the director of the World Anti-Doping Agency-accredited lab in Montreal, disputed Landis's remark, saying her lab had studied T/E ratios in more than 55,000 athletes and found little variation in individuals' results.
"This is not the experience we have," she said. "In my 20 years of experience . . . I have found the T/E value is stable in a given individual. . . . It's not varying by more than 20 to 30 percent from the mean value."
Landis and his personal doctor, Brent Kay of San Diego, said they did not know whether Landis's natural T/E ratio was elevated, which could provide an explanation for the positive result. Kay also expressed outrage at what he called "hysteria" over the situation. The analysis of Landis's sample has not been completed, so even though he has been suspended, he has not been charged with any doping violation.
"It's almost like when we rounded up Japanese Americans and put them in concentration camps during World War II," Kay said. "It's almost like a medieval witch hunt now."
Landis said he was in the process of submitting a request to have the second half of his sample analyzed to ensure that the first was not flawed. He said he expected that analysis to come back with the same abnormality. His team, Phonak Cycling Team, has said it will fire him if the second test confirms the first.
Just one elevated testosterone-to-epitestosterone ratio test is not considered proof of a doping positive by WADA. To prove a doping violation, WADA demands that the charging agency examine other samples to ensure that the elevation is not the result of a naturally elevated T/E ratio.
Such follow-up analysis can be avoided if the sample is examined using what is known as the carbon isotope ratio test to distinguish natural from artificial testosterone.
Mario Zorzoli, chief medical officer for the International Cycling Union [UCI], said the French lab that analyzed Landis's sample was known to use the carbon isotope ratio test as part of its standard testing procedure, suggesting it was likely used in this case. The Paris lab director, however, could not be reached for comment.
Landis said he did not know whether the test had been used on his sample, and he had not asked.
Ayotte noted that elevated testosterone cases legitimately due to naturally high T/E ratios are usually dismissed quickly, as it is easy for a sport's governing body to review various drug tests previously administered to determine if there is a pattern to the abnormal result. If the case against Landis were without merit, she speculated, "we would have heard from UCI on that subject" by now.
Landis said he was tested eight times during this year's Tour, meaning if he has a naturally high T/E ratio, there would be a body of evidence available to support that. This, however, is the first time he has produced an abnormal result, which indicates no previous sample surpassed the 4 to 1 threshold.
Kay and Landis criticized the T/E ratio test, with Landis saying, "We've been unable to find anywhere else in the world a case someone has lost who defended himself against something like this."
There have been several. U.S. runner Mary Slaney blamed her lone elevated result in 1997 on a change in birth control pills and menstruation. U.S. sprinter Dennis Mitchell blamed two sleepless nights, the consumption of eight beers and several episodes of lovemaking for his elevated ratio in 1998. Both were banned from the sport by the international track federation (IAAF).
Several drug-testing officials said some people had naturally elevated T/E ratios, but that it was not physiologically possible to spike significantly from one test to the next.
"This one-time spike, in my experience in 20 years, is impossible," Ayotte said.
Landis said he knew nothing about his natural T/E ratio because he had never looked at it.