July 29, 2006

Floyd Landis Defends Himself

Tour de France winner Floyd Landis says he will work with doctors to show he has an abnormal level of testosterone in his body. Anti-doping officials determined there was an unusual ratio of testosterone to epitestosterone in the urine sample Landis gave after winning stage 17 in the Alps.

Landis was a guest on Larry King Live Friday night. Not the most eloquent speaker he told the audience he has never used any banned performance-enhancing substances, but saved many medical questions for his doctor who was also a guest.

Seven-time Tour winner Lance Armstrong was a guest via telephone. He supported Landis and mentioned the same lab that tested Landis sample was the one that supposedly found an old sample of Armstrong's that showed he cheated. Neither Armstrong nor Landis would come out and claim an anti-American conspiracy among French anti-doping officials.

C.W. Nevius writes that Landis' and his doctors' work "will not be easy:"

"What he is going to have to do,'' says Testa, who is working with Heiden to start up the new Orthopedic Specialty Hospital in Murray, Utah, "is get into an excellent hospital that has no connection to the Tour with a good department of endocrinology that has a name. Then they need to study him as a subject to prove that something physiologically changed under the stress.''

The problem is, that could take a long time, long enough that even if Landis proves his point, it may be long after the average fan has already given up on him as yet another drug cheater in sports.

"Floyd Landis Proclaims His Innocence"