Landis claims ex-wife present during exchanges
Earlier this week the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) had been reported as one of two agencies looking into the Floyd Landis accusations of systematic doping leveled at seven-time Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong. The Wall Street Journal reported that Landis has been cooperating with the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) criminal investigations unit, and had met with FDA special agent Jeff Novitzky.
Novitzky is significant because he was the lead investigator for the BALCO case that involved several professional athletes, including baseball players Jason Grimsley and Barry Bonds as well as Olympic track sprinter Marion Jones.
Journalist David Walsh from the Sunday Times has reported that he understands Armstrong’s former wife Kristen is also cooperating with the investigation headed up by Novitzky. In his email to a US cycling official, Landis mentioned her as being present when Armstrong personally handed him a box of testosterone patches in 2001 and Eprex brand EPO in 2003.
Armstrong has denied the allegations, stating that Landis has no credibility. “We have nothing to hide. We have nothing to run from. It’s our word against his word,” Armstrong said. “I like our word. We like our credibility.”
His RadioShack team later released a statement saying, “Wednesday evening, after not getting what he demanded when no one in cycling capitulated to his numerous but persistent false threats, demands and rants, Floyd Landis publicly aired the false and incredible concoctions he has been privately making for years.”
It went on to point out events leading up to Landis’ admission: “Publicly indicating everything he has said over the last four years, including under oath, were lies, the author of a book aptly called “Positively False” and a man who has apparently decided that since he cannot be in professional racing then no one else should, Landis accused at least 16 professional cycling individuals and organizations of activity that is baseless and quite simply untrue.”
Pierre Bordry, the president of the French Anti-Doping Agency (AFLD), has spoken out about the recent events in French newspaper Le Parisien. He argued that the International Cycling Union (UCI), who Landis accused of hiding a positive EPO test of Armstrong’s for money, should not be the sole organization responsible for the anti-doping controls during the Tour de France. Bodry said that the suspicions surrounding Armstrong should be clarified before allowing the presence of the American RadioShack team in the race.
The AFLD has a history of conflict with both Armstrong and the UCI.
The dispute with the UCI dates back to the 2009 Tour de France, where the AFLD and the UCI worked in together to collect doping controls during the race. The French agency was critical of the UCI in a report published in October last year. Among other things, the AFLD accused the UCI of preferential treatment of the Astana team of race winner Alberto Contador and seven-time-winner Armstrong, who finished third.
Armstrong has had several clashes with the AFLD, including a complaint about delaying a doping control for 20 minutes while team manager Johan Bruyneel checked the sample-taker’s credentials with the relevant authorities. Armstrong left the room to take a shower, which was the agency’s main bone of contention.
Bordry said that Landis has been “very courageous” in his confession about past doping, but stopped short of judging the others accused. “We can not enter such serious things without proof,” he said.