Landis takes to the Web to defend himself

CHICAGO – Taking the case to the public with a power-point presentation and hundreds of pages of documents posted Thursday on his Web site, 2006 Tour de France winner Floyd Landis claimed his positive drug test actually was negative for scientific and secretarial reasons.

Confronted with the same evidence and a related motion for dismissal from Landis’ lawyer, the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency’s review board still decided Sept. 18 to charge the cyclist with doping based on a positive test for the banned steroid testosterone after the 17th stage of the race.

Landis’ attorney, Howard Jacobs, wrote off the USADA review as the equivalent of a kangaroo court, challenging its diligence and willingness to defy the higher authority of the World Anti-Doping Agency.

“Ask the review board how long they spent (on) it; I’m guessing it wasn’t a lot,” Jacobs said. “When (WADA chairman) Dick Pound says ‘If USADA doesn’t proceed, we will,’ of course they (will) proceed.”

Christiane Ayotte, director of the Montreal anti-doping lab, disputed those accusations. Ayotte also insisted Landis’ defense team was inclined to have selected, without context, only pieces of evidence that could support their case from the files of the French laboratory that analyzed Landis’ sample.

“WADA and USADA cannot act in a foolish manner,” Ayotte said. “They have rules and lawyers. These cases must be based on scientific and legal matters, not political pressure.”

The case is headed for an arbitration hearing early next year. Jacobs has asked the hearing be open.

“We are, obviously, not going to participate in a circus, but we have no objection to an open hearing,” said USADA general counsel Travis Tygart.

Tygart declined to comment on specifics of the case. WADA spokesman Frederic Donze also declined comment.