- HOT TOPICS:
- The new VeloNews.com (BETA)
Landis poised to bring his case to the public
Floyd Landis, who may well become the first Tour de France champion to be stripped of the title over a doping charge, will release an online presentation outlining his defense, USA Today has reported.Landis told the newspaper he would post the presentation and documentation from his case on his personalwebsite this week.In a story first posted on its website at the weekend, USA Today's Sal Ruibal outlined documents from a preliminary version of the presentation that included "many elements" of Landis's planned defense. Landis is expected to post both a PowerPoint slide show and upwards of 300 pages of documents on his site later this week.Some of the documents purportedly show that urine sample numbers on some of the testing forms in the case did not match Landis's rider sample number. Furthermore, Landis attorney Howard Jacobs points out that once the error was discovered, the incorrect number was covered over with correction fluid and Landis's number written in, which constitutes a violation of World Anti-Doping Agency procedures that call for corrections to be made with a line through the original notation with the person making the correction initialing to confirm the change.Landis' motion to dismiss the case on those and other grounds has already been rejected by a U.S. Anti-Doping Agency Review Board.The American is facing being stripped of his crown after tests showed an abnormal testosterone/epitestosterone ratio in his body following his stunning victoryon stage 17 which allowed him to re-launch his bid for the coveted Tour crown.Since learning USADA planned to go ahead with the case, Landis has said he will request an open arbitration hearing.Landis spokesman Michael Henson said in September that the rider's appeal would use "fact-based science" to support his case.In the motion for dismissal of the case, Jacobs argued that the analysis in Landis' case is filled with errors, including inconsistent testosterone and epitestosterone levels from testing on the "A" sample as well as multiple mismatched sample code numbers that do not belong to Landis.
