Lance Armstrong spoke to the press prior to Thursday’s Stage 5 at the Amgen Tour of California, responding to allegations by Floyd Landis against himself and other riders in the professional peloton. “Obviously everyone has questions about Floyd Landis and his allegations. I would say that I’m a little surprised, but I am not. In all honesty, this has been going on for a long time. The harassment and threats from Floyd started a few years ago and really, at that time, we largely ignored him. Johan can speak more to what Floyd exactly wanted from us and the team. A year ago, I told him, ‘listen, you do what you have to do.’ We have nothing to say and nothing to hide.”
“They started again with some consistency and with some energy about a month ago before this race when Floyd continued to email, text and harass myself, Johan, Dave Zabriskie, Levi (Leipheimer), Andrew Messick, the CEO of Amgen, right around the time that they were trying to get into this race. Floyd made pointed threats to Messick and to the leadership of Amgen that if he wasn’t let in the race he was going to say X, Y and Z about their product.
“I would remind everyone that this is a man that, first of all, from our perspective and from what’s gone on at US Postal and Discovery and all of those Tours, we have nothing to hide. We have nothing to run from and if anybody has any questions we would be more than happy to answer them.
“I would remind everyone that this is a man that has been under oath several times with a very different version. This is a man that wrote a book for profit that had a completely different version. This is somebody that took close to a million dollars from innocent people for his defense under a different premise and now when it’s all run out the story changes. So we are a little confused. Maybe just as confused as you guys.
Read the rest on TeamRadioshack.com
Also read “Johan Bruyneel Comments on Landis Situation” on TeamRadioshack.com
I, for some reason, believe what Landis has too say – just because he has lied in the past doesn’t mean he’s lying now. Also if JB or LA were to say it was dark outside I would check to see.
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It’s sad that Landis wants to damage others as he further damages himself. He obviously has some problems in that he does not care how he hurts the sport that has given him his living. I would suggest that “me” who commented earlier do some research into the record of Lance’s drug test results before spouting such nonsense. (Or perhaps “me” is FL?)
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Just a sad state of affairs for floyd, remember this was an old team mate after all. I have some choice words for him.
Lets move on from this quick, and not give it air time.
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I heard that the Radio Shack – team has published Landis’ blackmail e-mails on this site. Cannot find them… Where are they?
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Good news for Floyd! – yesterday his proctologist found his head!
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Just because he got his tour title taken away from him dosent mean he has to try and take away and take away Lance’s seven titles away as well through false accustaions.
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Floyd’s decision to “come clean” at this point suggest to me that he might be doing some other type of doping, i.e., he traded performance enhancing dope for mind altering dope! But who am I to say, I love cycling but only follow it casually.
So much to consider; it sure makes cycling interesting, almost like a soap-opera. “As the Bicycle Wheel Turns”; or “So are the Tours of a Cyclist’s life”!
My hope and faith is still in LA.
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Just watched an old clip of Floyd talking to Harry on the CBS morning show when promoting his book “Positively False.” Wow! Will the real Floyd Landis please stand up? And if so, how would anyone really know?
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Granting without accepting that the “peloton” was on PED. So, isn’t it logical and safe to say that the riders are on equal footing? So, really no one is cheating anyone. Let’s just say 80% of the riders are on PED, the 20% are really not in contention for a GC or a stage win or even a sprint or mountain points because they are only there to support the main rider or leader of the team, as long as they are being paid they’re ok . They won’t need to be envious of other fellow riders who are on PED’s. Again let’s grant without accepting that the main rider or team leaders of every team are on PED, we have to remember that hard work, technologically fast bikes and extensive training( which in my mind is LA) wins the TDF . You have to admit that cycling is the most grueling sport there is. You cannot just win the tour by waking up from bed and injecting yourself with PED. So really, no one is cheating anybody. If…. I say again…. if Armstrong was on PED he was 2 or 3 steps ahead of the testing system. But we have to admit he lifted cycling in general to another higher, much-much higher level than anyone else.
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