By Anthony Tan Responding to today's announcement from the UCI that confirmed the "adverse...
By Anthony Tan
Responding to today's announcement from the UCI that confirmed the "adverse analytical finding" of Thursday, July 27, four days after Floyd Landis won the 2006 Tour de France, the American's legal counsel has been swift to issue a statement in his defence.
Landis's attorney, Howard Jacobs, has indicated his team will not only challenge the result, which revealed a high testosterone:epitestosterone ratio after Stage 17 of the Tour de France, but also the alleged lack of protocol followed by the UCI - namely, the premature announcement of the A sample finding, and the anonymous UCI source, who confirmed the presence of exogenous testosterone via the Isotope Ratio Mass Spectrometry test (IRMS) to the New York Times.
However, one thing remains unclear: will Floyd Landis and his legal counsel be basing their primary defence on the reliability of the carbon-isotope test, or can they prove that the 2006 Tour winner did not have exogenous testosterone in his urine the day he was tested positive?
When Cyclingnews posed the question to Michael Henson over the telephone today, who is acting as Landis' spokesperson and communications counsel, he replied: "I can't really comment on pending ligitation, but I can say that Floyd and his attorney are preparing their defence."
Henson also indicated his camp are yet to receive the official results: "We were following the news, just as you have," he said. "To my knowledge, we have received no official notification, no official results from the UCI or WADA, so we're assuming that just as [done] on the A sample, the T:E ratio was tested and the carbon-isotope test was done. By at at this stage, as of now, I don't have any official results sitting in front of me."
Asked when Jacobs et al. will begin their defence, Henson said it will be around two to three weeks, but the entire legal proceeding could take at least six months before it's complete.
Get The Leadout Newsletter
The latest race content, interviews, features, reviews and expert buying guides, direct to your inbox!
"I believe there is a timeline that this follows, and I believe in the next three weeks, USADA will be doing its facts-finding, and during that time, Floyd and his lawyer, Howard Jacobs, are going to be preparing their defence to go in front of a review panel.
"I don't think he was hoping, I think he's very realistic," said Henson on Landis' expectations that the B sample would return a false-positive result.
"He was realistic throughout. There's always a glimmer of hope in an athlete who's innocent and wants to be vindicated, rather than go through a process that will involve six months - at the very least - of legal procedures," he said.
The full statement can be read below:
Los Angeles, August 5, 2006 The UCI (International Cycling Union) today announced that the results of the 'B' analysis conducted on Floyd Landis's urine sample of July 20, 2006 are consistent with the findings of the 'A' sample. Both samples were taken following Landis's victory in stage 17 of the Tour de France. The results of the 'A' sample were released on July 26. Landis will pursue the appeal procedures established by the UCI in order to overturn the laboratory results. It is expected that the matter will now be referred to USA Cycling.
