News & Notes
Landis Attorneys Question Lab's Methods at Hearing
Wednesday, May 16, 2007; Page E02
Attorneys for Floyd Landis began trying to paint a picture yesterday of incompetence at the French laboratory where the cyclist's urine was tested.
Using computer logs from the lab, Landis's attorneys tried to prove lab workers manipulated the calibration of the machine that performed tests on the cyclist's backup samples -- and claimed a U.S. Anti-Doping Agency scientist tried to prevent the Landis camp from seeing the logs.
TOUR DE FRANCE Floyd Landis's second drug test confirms inappropriate levels of testosterone, setting him up to become the first Tour de France champion to be stripped of his title for doping.
Essay: Driven to win, Landis may lose it all.
If Landis is stripped of the title, runner-up Oscar Pereiro is the likely new winner.
Former riders and cycling fans react to the news about Landis.
QUOTE SHEET"I have never taken any banned substance, including testosterone. I was the strongest man at the Tour de France, and that is why I am the champion." -- Landis, in a statement.
"It goes without saying that for us Floyd Landis is no longer the winner of the 2006 Tour de France." -- Tour de France director Christian Prudhomme.
"Now I consider myself the winner." -- Spanish cyclist Oscar Pereiro, who likely will be named the Tour winner if Landis is stripped of the title.
"God Bless, Went Camping." -- Sign posted in the front yard of Landis' parents, Paul and Arlene, in Farmersville, Pa.
"It'll cause the folks trying to explain this to have to shift their ground from it being due to natural causes or beer or Jack Daniels. There's the usual parade of explanations. I think probably they wish they hadn't made some of them." -- Dick Pound, chairman of the World Anti-Doping Agency.
"Obviously, the credibility has been tested for many years. Cycling does have the most stringent testing, it's still not enough for me. There's a code of silence that needs to change. There's a change in Europe with UCI in a positive way. Unfortunately, it took something of this stature to wake people up, with the Tour winner to lose the title." -- Greg LeMond, three-time Tour winner.
"One of the most critical issues facing sport at every level is the issue of doping. Our position on this is unequivocal: If you dope, you are absolutely not welcome on the United States Olympic Team." -- Darryl Seibel, U.S. Olympic Committee spokesman.
"It's awful. It's ugly. It harms the Tour de France and sports in general. In any event, it's all just a circus, and the circus will carry on." -- Jean-Louis Cailhol of Nancy, France.
PHOTOS Photos: Check out the scenes from the start of the race in Strasbourg to the finish line in Paris.
ON OUR SITEFLASHBACK Lance Armstrong wins his seventh consecutive Tour de France and bids goodbye to competitive cycling.
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"Because without these log files, we wouldn't know about the data that was deleted," Landis attorney Maurice Suh said at the second day of an arbitration hearing in Malibu, Calif.
Suh showed instances where calibration tests were performed, then rerun, and the first records of those tests were erased by the new results.
Landis is accused of using banned synthetic testosterone during his Tour de France victory last year. A three-man panel will decide whether to uphold his positive doping test. If it does, Landis could face a two-year ban from cycling and become the first person in the 104-year history of the race to have his title stripped.
The Landis camp is trying to prove the abnormal testosterone levels found in his urine samples are the result of mishandled tests.
· FOOTBALL: Cleveland Browns wide receiver Braylon Edwards pledged $1 million to fund scholarships for Cleveland students.
Through Edwards's program, 100 eighth-graders from the Cleveland Municipal School District will be offered scholarships for college tuition upon their graduation from high school, the NFL said in a news release.
The participating students, who will be mentored and tutored, must keep at least a 2.5 grade point average and accumulate at least 15 hours of community service each year. They will not be allowed any unexcused absences from school.
Last year, Edwards, 24, announced a $500,000 scholarship endowment fund to the University of Michigan, his alma mater, for team members who wear the school's No. 1 football jersey. . . .
Baltimore Ravens return specialist B.J. Sams was acquitted of driving under the influence and negligent driving charges in district court in Towson, Md.
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