Landis doping ban upheld by CAS

Raam

Surprise surprise...

http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/30062008/58/landis-doping-ban-upheld-cas.html

The 32-year-old American, who was stripped of his 2006 Tour de France title after failing a dope test, was ordered to pay $100,000 towards the cost of arbitration over the ban, which started on Jan. 30, 2007.

"Justice was served, as it was in the first case," Travis Tygart, CEO of the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency which imposed the ban, told Reuters.

"The decision sends a strong reminder that no athlete is above the rules and that USADA and WADA (World Anti-Doping Agency) will do everything within its authority to protect the rights of clean athletes to compete."

Landis told reporters he was "saddened" by the ruling.

"I am looking into my legal options and deciding on the best way to proceed," he said.

USADA banned Landis after he tested positive for synthetic testosterone on the 17th and penultimate stage of the 2006 Tour.

The American denied wrongdoing and blamed procedural mistakes by the French laboratory for his positive test.

Landis's attorney Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher partner Maurice Suh maintained that stance when giving his reaction to the decision.

"We are very disappointed in the result," Suh told Reuters. "The evidence strongly supports Floyd's innocence.

"We maintain that the French laboratory's work violated proper procedures and that these violations were not simply technical in nature. They resulted in the inaccurate findings at the heart of this case.

"CAS's decision, which does not give credence to these violations, does little to require that laboratories and anti-doping agencies are held to the same high standards as are athletes."

CAS's announcement followed a five-day hearing in New York in March. The body's three-lawyer panel heard 35 hours of testimony that included 14 witnesses and written testimony from 10 others.

The decision to uphold the sanction means Spaniard Oscar Pereiro will retain the title handed to him after Landis's ban.

Gavin

http://quickrelease.tv/?p=516

Raam

Verb wrote: »

http://quickrelease.tv/?p=516

Might be an interesting read. It's hard to know who to believe in these things.

Chips Lovell

I found the Landis defence pretty tedious to deal with. The impression I came away with was that they just put out so much data that few people would be willing to wade through it all and compare it to the officials' testimony. They certainly made the most of some things. For example, they said that computer files had been overwritten or deleted, but didn't make it very obvious that these files related to the calibration of the machine and not the test itself.

I feel sorry for Landis in some ways. I kind of like the guy. He's down to earth, funny and on the bike seemed to have real guts. He totally made a mess of the dope bust though. He should have copped to it early on, took his punishment and tried to come back a clean rider. Look at Basso. Even with his mealy mouthed confession he's still welcomed back with open arms, will be racing with Liquigas again come October and Pat McQuaid has made him some sort of UCI anti-doping ambassador.

Instead he went down the Tyler Hamilton, deny it to the end, route and look where it's gotten him. By all accounts he's practically broke and I don't think he'll find it easy getting a team when he does come back next year.

He also surrounded himself with some real pieces of work. That stuff about his manager making anonymous phone calls to LeMond during the original hearing was just horrendous.

You can see why he denied it to the end though. He knows well that half the guys he was racing against we're also doing it. For example, most of the guys who were being treated by Dr Fuentes of Operation Puerto fame are still racing. It's easy to see how he'd feel sore about that. Still, it was the wrong thing to do.

dave2pvd

Ah well. I'd imagine the ink on the Rock Racing contract isn't even dry yet.