Doubt about Landis tests

2006-08-08 23:33

Wilhelm de Swardt

Pretoria - Controversial Tour de France winner Floyd Landis may still be found innocent on charges of using illegal substances.

Phil Liggett, a well-known cycling commentator, has pointed out that the legal team representing Landis have never lost a case in which an athlete was accused of having testosterone levels that were too high.

"Of course I want Landis to be innocent, but if it is proved that he did take illegal substances he should be banned from cycling," said Liggett on Tuesday.

"There is no place in cycling, in any sport, for cheats."

However, Liggett is sceptical about the tests done on the American.

They were done by the same French laboratory that tried to prove that Lance Armstrong had used an illegal substance in 1999. Armstrong won the resulting court case.

"The way the tests were handled and the information that was leaked to the New York Times make me wonder whether everything was done according to the rules," said Liggett.

Medical experts differ

An English doctor had told him that the high levels of testosterone in Landis's body may well be natural.

"But then, a doctor rang me from Canada and said Landis's testosterone levels were much too high; he must have used something.

"This proves to me that medical experts are also uncertain about what the normal testosterone levels should be.

"Something I do not understand is that 18 of the 22 cyclists who were allegedly involved in the Spanish doping scandal have been found innocent.

"Yet, the news media ignore this. Is it because the news is not sensational enough?

"A leading female cyclist has told me how a top Russian rider said to an Italian team manager that if they offered her a professional contract, she would be able to arrange for cheap EPO from Russia.

"But, these things do not happen only in cycling. Almost 200 athletes have been treated by the Spanish doctor, of whom only about 60 were cyclists.

"Why have only the cyclists' names been disclosed"

Athletes will go elsewhere

"The French soccer star Zinedine Zidane told in an interview how he had gone to a Swiss clinic for blood treatment. How can that be allowed," asked Liggett.

"I anticipate that if Spain adopts legislation to criminalise drug abuse in sport, athletes who want to break the rules will go to South America.

"It (abuse) is already illegal in France, Italy and the UK," said the man known as the Voice of Cycling.

- Beeld