Landis+Floyd

Landis Floyd: Hero or not?

=Those who kept faith in fallen hero Floyd Landis react to 'refund'= Sunday News Updated Sep 15, 2012 By JON RUTTER Staff Writer

Five years ago, fans of Floyd Landis gave his Floyd Fairness Fund hundreds of thousands of dollars to help the discredited 2006 Tour de France champion fight doping allegations.Rob Wolfe recalls paying about $75 to join Landis on a May 2007 "Keep the Faith" bike ride benefiting the fund.After a 20-mile spin in the countryside around Ephrata, riders shared picnic food and snapped pictures with the world-class athlete from Farmersville."My wife got her helmet signed by him," Wolfe recalled. "It was cool." There was a slight pause over the phone from Millersville. "He sort of fell out of grace with a lot of people" since then.Landis vehemently denied cheating after a 2006 Tour test for synthetic testosterone came back positive.He spent his life savings battling the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency for nearly four years, holding town hall-style meetings here and elsewhere and co-authoring a 2007 book proclaiming his innocence. Then, in 2010, he confessed that he had often used performance-enhancing drugs.He accused former U.S. Postal Service teammate Lance Armstrong and other top riders of doing the same.The FFF was established in 2006 to help Landis raise money to clear his name. It was closed out in late 2007.In August, a federal magistrate in San Diego, Calif., agreed to dismiss the wire fraud case against Landis –– and excuse him from jail –– if he pays back FFF donors within three years.Landis, who is divorced and reportedly living in the small mountain town of Idyllwild, near Palm Springs, Calif., told ESPN.com at the time that he welcomed a "concrete procedure for repayment."I can never undo what happened," Landis said, "but to the extent that there are ways such as this that I can try to rectify things, I'll be more able to focus on the future and living an honest life after having done them."The 36-year-old Landis last raced professionally in 2010.His attorney, Leo Cunningham of Palo Alto, Calif., could not immediately be reached for comment.Some local contributors say they aren't expecting a check in the mail."As far as [giving] the money back," said an employee of East Earl-based Shirk's Bike Shop, who asked to remain anonymous, "I'm not sure how they're going to do it."Donors' addresses often were not recorded, he explained."I'm not really worried about it," the employee added. "It wasn't that much. ... It is what it is."According to news reports, about 1,500 FFF donors, who gave a total of $478,354, were identified through financial records describing their contributions by check and PayPal accounts.The court will allow Landis to reduce his debt if donors waive what they're owed.All of which makes for a tender topic in Lancaster County.Several of Landis' earlier supporters did not return phone calls or could not be reached for comment last week.Among them were Dan Garrett, Landis' former economics teacher at Conestoga Valley High School. Garrett traveled with Landis' parents, Paul and Arlene Landis, to the cyclist's 2007 doping hearing in California.Mike Farrington, owner of Green Mountain Cyclery in Ephrata and a longtime friend and mentor of Landis, did not respond to a message after the purpose of the call was explained to an employee.Landis followers who could be persuaded to talk offered differing views, some harsh.But Landis also retains some empathy capital here, particularly after other cycling icons toppled this summer:In August, the USADA said it would impose on Lance Armstrong a lifetime racing ban and strip him of his record seven Tour de France titles after he announced he'd quit fighting doping charges.Also that month, admitted doper Tyler Hamilton was relieved of his 2004 Olympic cycling gold.Two weeks ago, Hamilton and co-writer Daniel Coyle came out with a tell-all autobiography, "The Secret Race," accusing Armstrong of helping to engineer an elaborate, years-long doping scam."Who knows if he doped or not," Wolfe said.Armstrong remains a hero to Wolfe because of his cancer-fighting charity work. Landis does not."I guess you could say I was a fan," said Wolfe, who once waited two hours in line to get autographed copies of Landis' book, "Positively False: The Real Story of How I Won the Tour de France."Wolfe concedes that Landis is gifted, as is any other top-level cyclist."When we went on that ride," Wolfe recalled, "he's going along at a 20 mph pace and he isn't even huffing.""But Floyd, I think he wronged too many people," Wolfe added. Had he immediately owned up, "I think everyone would have forgotten about it."Still, Wolfe said he feels for Landis' family and, to a degree, Landis himself."Hopefully, he can go on with his life," Wolfe said.Greg Kreider, owner of Era Ski & Bike, said he believes the court agreement is "admirable" and "part of the healing process" for Landis.Robert Allen, who said he knows Landis casually from races, was of the same mind."I believe him" when he said he confessed so he could start setting his life straight, said the Orange Street Velo owner in Lancaster.Landis is arguably a more sympathetic figure now that the cycling scandal has "been blown open so wide," Allen said."He took the fall for a lot of people," surmised Allen, who said he thinks Landis was long under pressure from the cycling industry to keep mum about doping."He was a young guy from Lancaster County that really tried to make something happen." He went down the doping road too far to easily come back, Allen said. "I don't feel he's a bad guy."

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=Landis admits doping, accuses Lance= Updated: May 21, 2010, 12:59 AM ET By Bonnie D. Ford | ESPN.com Nearly four years after he began waging a costly, draining and ultimately losing battle to discredit his positive test for synthetic testosterone at the 2006 Tour de France, Floyd Landis told ESPN.com on Wednesday he used performance-enhancing drugs for most of his career as a professional road cyclist, including the race whose title he briefly held. In a lengthy telephone interview from California, Landis detailed extensive, consistent use of the red blood cell booster erythropoietin (commonly known as EPO), testosterone, human growth hormone and frequent blood transfusions, along with female hormones and a one-time experiment with insulin, during the years he rode for the U.S. Postal Service and Switzerland-based Phonak teams. Landis confirmed he sent e-mails to cycling and anti-doping officials over the past few weeks, implicating dozens of other athletes including seven-time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong, team management and owners, and officials of the sport's national and international governing bodies. ESPN.com is in the process of seeking comment from those individuals. Armstrong has long been dogged by accusations that he used performance-enhancing drugs, but no anti-doping authority has ever confirmed that he tested positive. "I have nothing to hide ... history speaks for itself here," Armstrong told reporters before the Tour of California on Thursday. "It's his word versus ours ... we like our word, we like our credibility." Later Thursday, Armstrong crashed in the stage near Visalia, Calif., abandoning the race and needing stitches and X-rays, which were negative. It did not seem the wreck would impact plans for the Tour de France and challenging rival-turned-teammate-turned-rival Alberto Contador, the defending champion of the race the Texan once dominated with relative ease. "I will take a few days to recover and be on the bike as soon as possible," Armstrong said. Armstrong said he would not pursue legal action against Landis. He said it would take too much money and effort and he wants to focus on his team, his family and his foundation, Livestrong. "This is a man that's been under oath several times and had a very different version," Armstrong said. "This is a man that wrote a book for profit that had a completely different version. This is somebody that took, some would say, close to $1 million from innocent people for his defense under a different premise. Now when it's all run out, the story changes." Landis also accused American riders Levi Leipheimer and Dave Zabriskie and Armstrong's longtime coach, Johan Bruyneel, of involvement in doping. The World Anti-Doping Agency said in a statement Thursday that it would open an investigation into Landis' allegations. "WADA is aware of the serious allegations made by Mr Landis. We are very interested in learning more about this matter and we will liaise with the United States Anti-Doping Agency [USADA] and any other authorities with appropriate jurisdiction to get to the heart of the issues raised. WADA looks forward to these further investigations and enquiries by those responsible." International Cycling Union (UCI) president Pat McQuaid said Landis' allegations were "scandalous and mischievous.

"These guys coming out now with things like this from the past is only damaging the sport," McQuaid told The Associated Press in a telephone interview Thursday. "If they've any love for the sport they wouldn't do it." The governing body said it regretted that Landis accused former teammates without allowing U.S. cycling and anti-doping authorities time to investigate. "An impartial investigation is a fundamental right as Mr. Landis will understand having contested, for two years, the evidence of his breach of the anti-doping rules in 2006," UCI said in a statement. McQuaid said it was up to USA Cycling and the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency to look into the allegations. Greg LeMond, who was the first American to win the Tour de France, issued this statement on his website: "I believe most of Floyd Landis' statements regarding the systemic corruption in professional cycling. I imagine from my own experiences that today he is paying a heavy price for his honesty and I support Floyd in his attempt to free himself from his past. I hope that others -- fans, riders and sponsors embrace this as an opportunity to bring about positive change in the sport." In a statement released Thursday, USADA said it does "not comment on the substance of any doping investigation." In an e-mail to USA Cycling president Steve Johnson dated April 30, Landis related a number of anecdotes he said were representative of his time in the European peloton. However, as Landis told ESPN.com, no one ever coerced him into doping. "I take responsibility for all the stuff I did," Landis said in the interview. "No one gave me something and said, 'Don't ask what this is, just take it.' I would never have done that. The things I took, I knew what they were, and I spent the time researching what the risks were, and the decisions I made were mine. The whole entire process of doping in the entire sport and the evolution of it all wasn't my fault, but when it came down to it, me being there, I made the decision to do it. It wasn't anyone else telling me to do it. I'm not blaming anyone for that. It was my decision. Every time." In the e-mail to Johnson, Landis said Bruyneel, the longtime sports director of the U.S. Postal Service, Discovery Channel, Astana and RadioShack teams who guided Armstrong and Spain's Alberto Contador to a combined nine Tour de France victories, "instructed" Landis on how to use testosterone patches when he was riding for Postal in 2002. Landis added that he first used EPO on Bruyneel's advice the following summer while training for the Tour of Spain, that he obtained the drug directly from Armstrong, and that he started using HGH that he bought from a team trainer in Valencia during that same training period. Doug Pensinger/Getty Images

In the same e-mail, Landis said he worked with Armstrong's personal trainer, Dr. Michele Ferrari of Italy, who consulted with several riders on the Postal team at the height of Armstrong's career. Ferrari helped Landis with the extraction and re-transfusion of his own blood during one session in St. Moritz, Switzerland, in 2002, according to Landis. "I paid [Ferrari] $10,000 [that season]," Landis told ESPN.com. "He only accepted cash. His normal fee is 10 percent of your salary." "I mean, he's one of the best references," Landis said of Ferrari, who worked with numerous top cyclists. In 2004, Ferrari was convicted of sporting fraud and abusing his medical license by an Italian court, but later succeeded in having that judgment reversed on appeal. "I didn't wish to take the risks on my own and especially since it was fairly clear that his advice was endorsed by Lance himself," Landis said in the ESPN.com interview. "And therefore Johan and the other guys that knew of it and were involved -- working with him, they'd understand the risks that I was taking as well and therefore trust me." Landis also said he and Armstrong discussed the efficacy of the then-newly developed test for EPO in 2002. In the e-mail to Johnson, Landis said he had blood extracted in 2003 inside the apartment Armstrong owned in the historic center of Girona, Spain, and that it was stored in a refrigerator there along with blood extracted from Armstrong and teammate George Hincapie. Landis said Armstrong asked him to stay in the apartment on one occasion while Armstrong was away in order to make sure the refrigerator did not malfunction.

He also said in the e-mail that a team doctor gave him and Hincapie, who he said was his roommate during the 2003 Tour de France, syringes filled with olive oil in which andriol, a form of testosterone that can be taken orally, had been dissolved.

Hincapie said he was disappointed to hear Landis' accusations. "I have been a professional on the circuit for 17 years -- which is one of the longest careers in the peloton. During that time, I have earned the respect of my peers and a reputation for working hard, honestly and honorably," he said in a statement. Landis further described personally seeing other riders receive transfused blood, including once on the team bus after a stage of the 2004 Tour de France. The bus driver stopped on a "remote mountain road" for an hour, pretending the bus had engine trouble while the entire team received transfusions, Landis said in the e-mail. Landis, seeking his own chance to become a team leader, signed with the Phonak team before the 2005 season. In the e-mail to Johnson, the rider claimed that he negotiated with team owner Andy Rihs for extra money to cover the expenses of a doping program. Phonak was stung by several high-profile doping cases from 2004 to '06, including that of Landis' fellow American Tyler Hamilton, who was convicted of using banned transfusions. Rihs issued a statement saying Landis' claims were "lies" and a "last, tragic attempt" to get publicity. "Floyd Landis personally signed that he would uphold our code and use no illegal practices when he joined our former racing group," Rihs said. The whole team was convinced that he was upholding this until his doping was revealed at the 2006 Tour. "Neither I, nor the leadership of the team, knew that Floyd Landis doped," Rihs said. The timing of the Landis allegations -- right in the middle of the Tour of California -- did not go unnoticed. Bruyneel suggested the reason the dethroned 2006 Tour champion made his allegations now is because his team was not allowed to ride in the Tour of California. "He saw all the doors are closed . . . His timing is obviously not a coincidence."

Andrew Messick, president of AEG Sports that owns the Tour, said that the ToC welcomed Landis last year when his suspension from cycling ended but that his new team didn't warrant an invite this year. "Floyd thought it was personal. He thought he was being punished. And he did what he did. Whether there is a link there, that's a question to ask Floyd."

Asked whether Landis threatened to go public with his allegations if his team was not invited, Messick said, "He didn't, but we all listen to the chatter. It's other people who call you and tell you stuff. But Floyd never said it."

Landis' doping conviction cost him his Tour title, his career, his life savings and his marriage. He said he knows his credibility is in tatters and that many people will choose not to believe him now. He added that he has no documentation for many of the claims he is making about other riders or officials, and that it will be his word against theirs.

However, Landis said he decided to come forward because he was suffering psychologically and emotionally from years of deceit and he has become a cycling pariah with little to no chance of ever riding for an elite team again. Prior to speaking with ESPN.com, he said he made his most difficult phone call -- to his mother in Pennsylvania to tell her the truth for the first time. "I want to clear my conscience," Landis said. "I don't want to be part of the problem anymore.

"With the benefit of hindsight and a somewhat different perspective, I made some misjudgments. And of course, I can sit here and say all day long, 'If I could do it again I'd do something different,' but I just don't have that choice."

Landis said he takes full responsibility for having doped on every occasion that he did it, and added he was never forced or threatened.

"I don't feel guilty at all about having doped," Landis told ESPN.com. "I did what I did because that's what we [cyclists] did and it was a choice I had to make after 10 years or 12 years of hard work to get there, and that was a decision I had to make to make the next step. My choices were, do it and see if I can win, or don't do it and I tell people I just don't want to do that, and I decided to do it."

According to Landis, his first use of performance-enhancing drugs was in June 2002, when he was a member of the U.S. Postal Service team. The World Anti-Doping Agency's statute of limitations for doping offenses is eight years, and Landis said that, too, is part of his motivation for divulging his inflammatory information.

"Now we've come to the point where the statute of limitations on the things I know is going to run out or start to run out next month," Landis said. "If I don't say something now, then it's pointless to ever say it."

Landis, who began his career as a top mountain biker, had kept detailed training journals since he was a teenager. He said he continued the same methodical record-keeping once he started using banned drugs and techniques. Landis said he spent as much as $90,000 a year on performance-enhancing drugs and on consultants to help him build a training regime. Landis said he has kept all of his journals and diaries and has offered to share them with U.S. anti-doping authorities in recent meetings. He added that he has given officials detailed information on how athletes are beating drug testing.

As for his own positive test, Landis still maintains that result was inaccurate and that he had not used synthetic testosterone during the 2006 season -- although he now admits he used human growth hormone during that time. At this point, he said he does not want to dwell on any of the issues he and his lawyers hammered at during his case.

"There must be some other explanation, whether it was done wrong or I don't know what," he said. "You can try to write it however you want -- the problem I have with even bothering to argue it is [that] I have used testosterone in the past and I have used it in other Tours, and it's going to sound kind of foolish to say I didn't."

Landis exhausted most of his own savings in fighting his case, which cost an estimated $2 million, and also raised funds for his defense in a well-publicized effort. He said he would pay those donors back if he could, but does not have the money to do so. He said he did not level with the people close to him, but declined to say whether he informed his lawyers of his past drug use.

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