- News
- Reviews
- Bikes
- Accessories
- Accessories - misc
- Computer mounts
- Bags
- Bar ends
- Bike bags & cases
- Bottle cages
- Bottles
- Cameras
- Car racks
- Child seats
- Computers
- Glasses
- GPS units
- Helmets
- Lights - front
- Lights - rear
- Lights - sets
- Locks
- Mirrors
- Mudguards
- Racks
- Pumps & CO2 inflators
- Puncture kits
- Reflectives
- Smart watches
- Stands and racks
- Trailers
- Clothing
- Components
- Bar tape & grips
- Bottom brackets
- Brake & gear cables
- Brake & STI levers
- Brake pads & spares
- Brakes
- Cassettes & freewheels
- Chains
- Chainsets & chainrings
- Derailleurs - front
- Derailleurs - rear
- Forks
- Gear levers & shifters
- Groupsets
- Handlebars & extensions
- Headsets
- Hubs
- Inner tubes
- Pedals
- Quick releases & skewers
- Saddles
- Seatposts
- Stems
- Wheels
- Tyres
- Health, fitness and nutrition
- Tools and workshop
- Miscellaneous
- Tubeless valves
- Buyers Guides
- Features
- Forum
- Recommends
- Podcast
news
Floyd Landis (© Photosport International)Updated: Floyd Landis confesses to doping and implicates Lance Armstrong and other US riders too
In a series of emails to media organistions and cycling officials disgraced former Tour de France 'winner' Floyd Landis yesterday admitted to systematic doping and implicated a number of other riders too including arguably cycling's biggest ever star, Lance Armstrong.
Amongst those emailed were the Wall Street Journal, it has been able to confirm to its satisfaction that the emails were genuinely from Landis - the newspaper has taken nearly three weeks to go public on the mails. That Landis doped is not a surprise, that he has finally admitted it is something of a bombshell given the loud and long campaign he waged, and which was waged by many on his behalf in the US media, to proclaim his innocence.
That particuar bombshell pales in to insignificance compared to what Landis has to say about his fellow American and erstwhile team mate, Lance Armstrong. However Armstrong, who has so far seemed to laugh off the accusations in allusions to them on his Twitter page, is not the only American rider that Landis singles out as having doped. He also mentioned George Hincapie (according to Landis, he, and Hincapie stored their blood in Armstrong's fridge during their US postal days). Landis also claims to have to have showed Levi Leipheimer and Dave Zabriskie currently leading the Tour of California how to use EPO before a stage on a previous edition of the race.
All of the cyclists named by Landis have at one time or another ridden for teams managed by Johan Bruyneel and it is he who Landis says in his email organised and orchestrated the doping regimes of the cyclists riding for him.
Landis followed up his emails with a telephone interview with ESPN reporter Bonnie D Ford in which he catalogued his use of of EPO, human growth hormone (HGH), testosterone patches, female hormones, and said he had also experimented with insulin. He also admitted that he has no documentation to back up his claims and that it will be his word against that of the riders and he has named. Given the tattered state of Landis' reputation many may feel that his word may not prove to be a very strong currency should this all go to court and that these allegations are a last desperate throw of the dice by a man whose life and career have been ruined.
According to Landis his motivation for coming clean was twofold. The psychological and emotional burden of living with his deceit was too hard, his fall from grace and his subsequent campaign to clear his name has seen his marriage collapse, ruined his financies and turned him in to such damaged goods in cycling terms that his hopes of riding for a top level team again have disappeared.
"I want to clear my conscience," Landis said. "I don't want to be part of the problem any more," he told Ford.
He also has an eye on the World Anti Doping Authority 8 year statute of limitations for doping offences. He claims that his doping career started in June 2002 and in his interview with ESPN he says:
"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."
He went on to add that he had kept detailed training logs right through his career and these included methodical accounts of the drugs he used and the techniques to avoid detection. In some circles it has been thought that the doping infringement that cost Landis his Tour title may well have been an 'accident' in which he mistakenly transfused a bag of blood which he thought was clean… a practice which is of course illegal itself, but much harder to detect.
----------------------------------
The following is reproduced from a PDF uploaded to the Fight4Truth Scribd account and is claimed to be a copy of Landis' email confession.
FLOYD LANDIS’ LETTER
TO THE UCI AND USA CYCLING
TYPED BETWEEN APRIL 30-MAY 6, 2010
2002: I was instructed on how to use Testosterone patches by Johan Bruyneel during the During the Dauphine Libere in June, after which I flew on a helicopter with Mr Armstrong from the finish, I believe Grenoble, to San Mauritz Switzerland at which point I was personally handed a box of 2.5 mg patches in front of his wife who witnessed the exchange. About a week later, Dr Ferrari performed an extraction of half a liter of blood to be transfused back into me during the Tour de France. Mr Armstrong was not witness to the extraction but he and I had lengthy discussions about it on our training rides during which time he also explained to me the evolution of EPO testing and how transfusions were now necessary due to the inconvenience of the new test. He also divulged to me at that time that in the first year that the EPO test was used he had been told by Mr Ferrari, who had access to the new test, that he should not use EPO anymore but he did not believe Mr Farrari and continued to use it. He later, while winning the Tour de Swiss, the month before the Tour de France, tested positive for EPO at which point he and Mr Bruyneel flew to the UCI headquarters and made a financial agreement with Mr. Vrubrugen to keep the positive test hidden.
2003: After a broken hip in the winter, I flew to Gerona Spain where this time two units (half a liter each) were extracted three weeks apart. This took place in the apartment in which Mr. Armstrong lived and in which I was asked to stay and check the blood temperature every day. It was kept in a small refrigerator in the closet along with the blood of Mr Armstrong and George Hincapie and since Mr. Armstrong was planning on being gone for a few weeks to train he asked me to stay in his place and make sure the electricity didn't turn off or something go wrong with the refrigerator. Then during the Tour de France the entire team, on two different occasions went to the room that we were told and the doctor met us there to do the transfusions. During that Tour de France I personally witnessed George Hincapie, Lance Armstrong, Chechu Rubiera, and myself receiving blood transfusions. Also during that Tour de France the team doctor would give my room mate, George Hincapie and I a small syringe of olive oil in which was dissolved andriol, a form of ingestible testosterone on two out of three nights throughout the duration. I was asked to ride the Vuelta a Espana that year in support of Roberto Heras and in August, between the Tour and the Vuelta, was told to take EPO to raise my hematocrit back up so more blood transfusions could be performed. I was instructed to go to Lances place by Johan Bruyneel and get some EPO from him. The first EPO I ever used was then handed to me in the entry way to his building in full view of his then wife. It was Eprex by brand and it came in six pre measured syringes. I used it intravenously for several weeks before the next blood draw and had no problems with the tests during the Vuelta. Also during this time it was explained to me how to use Human Growth Hormone by Johan Bruyneel and I bought what I needed from Pepe the team "trainer" who lived in Valencia along with the team doctor at that time. While training for that Vuelta I spent a good deal of time training with Matthew White and Michael Barry and shared the testosterone and EPO that we had and discussed the use thereof while training. Again, during the Vuelta we were given Andriol and blood transfusions by the team doctor and had no problems with any testing.
2004: Again the team performed two separate blood transfusions on me, but this time Bruyneel had become more paranoid and we did the draws by flying to Belgium and meeting at an unknown persons apartment and the blood was brought by "Duffy" who was at that time Johans assistant of sorts. The second of which was performed on the team bus on the ride from the finish of a stage to the hotel during which the driver pretended to have engine trouble and stopped on a remote mountain road for an hour or so so the entire team could have half a liter of blood added. This was the only time
that I ever saw the entire team being transfused in plain view of all the other riders and bus driver. That team included Lance Armstrong, George Hincapie and I as the only Americans.
2005: I had learned at this point how to do most of the transfusion technicals and other things on my own so I hired Allen Lim as my assistant to help with details and logistics. He helped Levi Leipheimer and I prepare the transfusions for Levi and I and made sure they were kept at the proper temperature. We both did two separate transfusions that Tour however my hematocrit was too low at the start so I did my first one a few days before the start so as to not start with a deficit.
2006: Well you get the idea....... One thing of great significance is that I sat down with Andy Riis and explained to him what was done in the past and what was the risk I would be taking and ask for his permission which he granted in the form of funds to complete the operation described. John Lelangue was also informed by me and Andy Riis consulted with Jim Ochowitz before agreeing. There are many many more details that I have in diaries and am in the process of writing into an intelligible story but since the position of USA Cycling is that there have not been enough details shared to justify calling USADA, I am writing as many as I can reasonably put into an email and share with you so as to ascertain what is the process which USA Cycling uses to proceed with such allegations.
Look forward to much more detail as soon as you can demonstrate that you can
be trusted to do the right thing. - Floyd Landis
road.cc's founder and first editor, nowadays to be found riding a spreadsheet. Tony's journey in cycling media started in 1997 as production editor and then deputy editor of Total Bike, acting editor of Total Mountain Bike and then seven years as editor of Cycling Plus. He launched his first cycling website - the Cycling Plus Forum at the turn of the century. In 2006 he left C+ to head up the launch team for Bike Radar which he edited until 2008, when he co-launched the multi-award winning road.cc - finally handing on the reins in 2021 to Jack Sexty. His favourite ride is his ‘commute’ - which he does most days inc weekends and he’s been cycle-commuting since 1994. His favourite bikes are titanium and have disc brakes, though he'd like to own a carbon bike one day.
Latest Comments
- chrisonabike 30 min 52 sec ago
Something Something Brexit... ? (sorry) Anyway I think they should try calling them "loveable neighbourhoods".
- Flintshire Boy 1 hour 39 min ago
[Sorry - wrote mine before saw yours! You make the point much better than I.] .
- grOg 4 hours 19 min ago
Where does it state in the article that Ashley purchased the stock? it does state that Ashley bought the brand and intellectual property, not the...
- rogerwb 7 hours 8 sec ago
Jump off the bike and run across. I cycle in trainers though.
- momove 8 hours 3 min ago
Cheers for the lesson! Wasn't expecting one so was pleasantly surprised, especially getting to find the origin of "laconic"!
- ktache 8 hours 50 min ago
Isn't it a rights issue?
- Daddy Feebs 9 hours 53 min ago
If anything, it looks a bit like an SL6
- wtjs 10 hours 29 min ago
Other commenters have different views True!
- Daclu Trelub 10 hours 44 min ago
Incredibly bone-headed.
Add new comment
37 comments
I recommend Matt Rendell's Blazing Saddles. It's a cracking blast through Tour history. Henri Desgrange famously said that the 1904 edition would be the last because of all the cheating that went on (riders on trains, tacks left on the road by rival fans etc).
But we still want it to be real. It's not a fake show like WWF wrestling and those riders who ride clean deserve better.
Thats all we want how the sport actually achieves that is another matter and is it actually achievable.
Apparently Landis and the FDA are holding a press conference at the Tour of California on Saturday if its true maybe this is going to have the legs to bring it all crashing down.
I believe that strychnine is no longer considered performance enhancing, and is not on the UCI list of banned substances.
Choppy Warburton and his boys were winning races hopped up on cocaine and strychnine back in the 1890s… yes, doping is another thing the British invented!
Here's his Wikipedia entry http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Choppy_Warburton
and a good programme about him on R4 from back in 2003 that you can still listen to (nice to see the BBC can still do some things well)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/history/longview/longview_20031014.shtml
Yeah what Denzel said. there's a lot of hand-wringing about drugs destroying our sport, as if there was a halcyon time when there weren't any drugs. wake up people: that time has never existed.
after years of denial it's gotta be the biggest U-turn in the history of U-turns.
Let's not kid ourselves here simonb even a cursory reading of road cycling history is enough to suggest that until probably very recently indeed the winner of the Tour de France and most other major races was the top cheat in a field of cheats, they all did it.
As for Armstrong denying being a doper I think you'll find he's always denied failing any tests which is a slightly different matter.
Professional cycling has never been a clean sport, it was a spectacle created by the media to sell newspapers because that was the only way you could find out what had actually happened it's about making money - it's an entertainment. Amateur cycling, now that's a sport.
Yes, if Armstrong were ever proved a cheat a lot of cycling fans would be disappointed, but most of the general public would simply shrug, while the media would absolutely love it, we'd have Bad Lance stories, then redemption stories, and than Lance back as an A-list celebrity bigger than ever (that's what he is anyway - not a cyclist) .
And as for Livestrong being tainted? It probably would be, but the people it helped would still have been helped some tangible good would have been done. Armstrong's gains might be proved to be ill gotten but he he'd still have used them to help people*, by cheating better than the other cheats in what's essentially a long running reality TV game.
*he's obviously gotten very rich in the process too
Absolutely. Gone are the days when riders would take a sneaky train ride during a stage.
Confession is supposedly good for the soul.
I might be naive here but I always kinda believed Lance, not for the myth of the guy (I hate all that leadership crap too and actually think he's a bit of prick) but because I really believe he is a *genetic freak* and is intensely driven. I think you have to go back to Hinault to find someone as nuts as LA - in a good way of course! It is possible and so I give him the benefit of the doubt until PROVEN otherwise, as I do with all the riders.
But if he did fall, yes it would be horrible. I think the only way he could be cheating would be through using something that is waaaaayy cleverer than EPO and HGH etc. And if that's the case we are not going to find out, not for a good few years yet. Again, I come down on the innocent until proven guilty side.
Floyd, well he has lost it. I feel for him in that what he has gone through is horrible, even if it is entirely self-inflicted. If he has been doing all this blackmail BS then he really does need help. Again, proof of blackmail required please...
As for the current situation lets look at the great racing in the Giro, what a brilliant tour this is shaping up to be. Lots of ex dopers in there but no one looks infallible and most people are riding less than perfect races which is, I believe, a good sign. And I think we can be safe in assuming that Cadel is clean, and there is no one who is mincing him on a daily basis, another good sign.
I disagree, if he were ever proved to have doped the record would then seem to suggest he was still the best in a field comprised mainly of dopers. As for Livestrong of course it would be damaged but it would still already have raised massive amounts of money for good causes.
Whatever people think about professional cycling now this is probably the cleanest era in the sport's history. In big money professional sports people cheat, they always have and they always will and they cheat in the way that is the most effective for their particular sport. In cycling that means doping. In football it means diving, conning the ref, yes and maybe doping too – again it probably always has and always will.
One other thing to bear in mind when it comes to doping in cycling, dope costs serious money. In the days when teams organised doping only the riders who were good enough got given the gear and in the days when they had to pay for it themselves they had to be good enough to afford it. Years ago as an exercise myself and a colleague who knew a lot more about the ins and outs of this sort of thing than me sat down and went through the final GC of a Tour from the early 90s to see who would have won in the end if all the people who'd been caught for doping or heavily suspected had been struck out. The first rider he could say that was definitely clean was Chris Boardman in something like 36th place.
Anyway I would say that all of this is academic because the chances of Landis or anyone else having usable evidence against Armstrong are remote in the extreme.
But he has denied doping so often and so vehemently, and many of his fans and supporters know and rely on that. If he doped it would seriously dent his image and the inspirational nature of that incredible story. But I have no desire to see that happen, just that the truth come out.
I'd say he has raised a huge amount for himself, first and foremost. There are questions over exploitation of US tax laws and where the money goes, and talk of the difference between Livestrong.org and Livestrong.com.
I amazes me that Landis spent so long and so much energy fighting his case. Not time well spent, it seems. I suspect the strain has taken years off his life.
Perhaps this development will prompt the agencies to take the fight against doping more seriously before the sport, as a professional (i.e. heavily sponsored) entity, disappears.
Except that the others have, for the most part, been found out one way or another. We've had closure and justice on them. Only Tex remains unsullied, at least in the eyes of the fanboys and supporters. I dislike him and have little or no respect for him as a sportsman. I might have a little more if he fessed up to being the best dirty rider in a era of dirty riders. As it is he knows that he is pretty much untouchable. I genuinely believe that nothing will change that. Even if Landis has video of himself, Tex and Big George hooked up to blood bags with dated copies of Le Monde scattered around the room and Bruyneel bringing them tea and biscuits while checking the flow, even that wouldn't be enough to convince people or shake his position. Too many people have invested too much in him, financially and emotionally, to accept that their demigod was a cheating piece of crap and no better than the rest. As for Livestrong, I don't care, it's not relevant to this.
For Armstrong to be shown to be the best cheat amongst a group of cheats - this isn't what our sport should find acceptable. To cheat, be caught, hold your hands up and then confess is one thing - it indicates a badly guided competitive spirit within a weak mind. But IF Armstrong is subsequently found to have doped after all these years of denying it, he will be exposed as far worse - as a charlatan and a fraud. And whilst the achievements of Livestrong will remain, they will be forever tarnished not only throughout the cycling world but throughout society as a whole. Livestrong will be shown to have been built on a premise of lies and falsehoods.
I really think we deserve better, think the sport's grandees CAN do better.
considering the UCI hasnt managed to ban Valverde this wont come to much
Well I feel sorry for Landis, he's obviously a desperate guy he's tied himself in knots, lost everything including his dignity and finally got it off his chest. Don't know whether Lance doped or not, Landis obviously believes he did but he's got no proof so he's just going to bring himself more pain.
As for it being the end of the world if Lance doped, well I'm not a particular fan of the great man but shocking as it might sound to some it wouldn't necessarily lessen the scale of his sporting achievement in my eyes. Here's the top 10 finishers on GC from the 2005 Tour all of the top 5 except Armstrong were either convicted of doping or heavily implicated. Plus much as I love cycle racing, the fact that for most of its history as a professional sport its biggest stars have doped is not going to stop me wanting to ride a bike, even if another generation are exposed as dopers.
Top 10 on GC 2005 Tour de France
Operation Puerto, retired after being blacklisted by Tour
1. Lance Armstrong
2. Ivan Basso (Italy) - doped
3. Jan Ullrich (Germany) TMO - doped
4. Francisco Mancebo (Spain) IBA -
5. Alexandre Vinokourov (Kazakstahn) - doped
6. Levi Leipheimer (USA) GST
7. Mickael Rasmussen (Denmark) - doped
8. Cadel Evans (Australia) DVL
9. Floyd Landis (USA) PHO - doped
10. Oscar Pereiro Sio (Spain)
In Armstrong's case I'd also have to say that if he is ever revealed to have doped he will still have raised millions of dollars for cancer research and contributed more to the common good than any number of sporting saints.
There is no sporting achievement if he doped, because in a nutshell the man would be a cheat.
The implications of him being found to have doped will be massive,the damage that will be done to Livestrong immeasurable.
Maybe they'll search Lance's house in Girona and find a fridge in his cupboard!
Where is the proof. Rather than saying he knows things why doesn't he go public with the facts?
Oh sorry, forgot. There isn't any.
I am prepared and willing to be proven wrong.
Sigh. I don't want it to be true, any of it. But if it is, then we cycling fans have some sobering up to do. Heroes of ours being shown up to be cheating frauds. If Roid Landis is telling the truth at last then pro cycling has just been the victim of a drug scandal genocide. How will anyone trust a pro race result? It makes a mockery of all the anti doping agencies and the worldwide efforts to eradicate cheating from the sport. What I cant understand is why can't the punishments for doping be more severe? Like lifetime bans? Prison? Whatever the outcome good' ol Landis has thrown so much shit at so many walls its going to be a while before this story dies. Sigh.
Now he's lost his wife, his money, everything, he's finally learnt that lying never works and you will always get found out in the end. If he was my son he'd be due a good beating for lying to so many people for so long.
Will the allegations against other riders and JB be more than mudslinging? Who knows, but it will be good food for the vultures, I mean journalists. Where there's muck there's always a juicy headline. If true it will rock the sport and have serious repercussions far beyond it. But it's not the end of civilisation.
You can never be sure. I suggest you take it at face value and be hopeful. You can lose faith in one rider, but don't give up cycling because of that. There are cheats in every walk of life, and unfortunately you and I can't influence the riders, teams or UCI. But if we demand a clean sport we may eventually get one.
And don't forget his father-in-law who committed suicide. (Completely unrelated, of course.)
I think I'm a regular kind of guy, I know the difference between right and wrong, and I've always derided cheats for the damage they do to society and (in cases like this) their sport. I've never been one to easily be taken for being a mug. In every other sphere of my life I make valued, critical, and balanced judgements - even when hard facts don't always present themselves. So, how is it that I can so easily convince myself that ALL of these guys do what they do without the benefit of chemical enhancement. I want to believe so much that Armstrong hasn't been making mugs of us for all these years, I said to a friend on a ride that I'll never ride again if he's proven to have doped. My brain tells me I'm being delusional, but my heart tells me to keep on hoping that they are honest sportsmen.
Will Landis be refunding all the suckers who helped pay for his legal case?
As people have said, this will not stick thanks to his years of denial, despite being true. Could he be done for perjury after repeatedly arguing the contrary in court?
well done Floyd.....better late than never...
it all helps in getting cycling clean. i don't care his reasons, but if they are honest, bravo! there has been a lot of evidence this year to suggest cycling is still doping...
...but until the big fish fry, which forces the UCI to actually do something concrete, it will still be simmering under the surface..
every sport is extremely hard to clean up when you imagine that the old dopers are the new managers..Bruyneel, Riis...etc....the media are also culpable in this. e.g. Virenque made a eurosport commentator on the tour after retirement...what a joke...
i hope ASO take it seriously this time as they will lose big time...it's time to make it a big time criminal offence to dope....that'll wake them all up.
PS anybody like me wonder why Cancellera could ride away from 4/5 guys chasing and keep putting time into them all the way to end....a la Floyd in the TdF on his infamous stage....
All those testosterone patches must have been applied directly to his giblets, because only someone with balls the size of basketballs would make a comment like that, after playing the victim of a heartless testing lab's evil conspiracy for the last four years.
OI_B - You've hit the nail on the head there. Too many people are invested in Teflon Tex to let him fall. It simply can't be allowed to happen, so they'll just shrug it off as they have done everyhting else.
Jova - Yes, it's circumstantial, but there is a lot of it and it all adds up over time. What sort of evidence would you be prepared to accept?
FWIW I don't think Landis has any axe to grind against USP or Lance. I don't think this has anything to do with revenge. It's all about his conscience and the fact that he's not succeeded in bullshitting his way back into top level pro-cycling. He's got nothing to lose now by telling the truth.
A bit more of what he has alleged here.
http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/more_sports/2010/05/19/2010-05-19_floy...
"Jova - If you've read the likes of David Walsh then none of this will come as a surprise. US Postal/Discovery have long been suspected of riding on more than just orange juice and coffee and there is considerable circumstantial evidence to back this up."
Read all sorts of stuff Chuffy and it's only ever circumstantial evidence, never a 'smoking gun'.
Maybe Landis will be able to provide the proof, but I very much doubt it, and as others have said; Why wait four years and take all the flak and crap he's been given if he knew the truth all along.
'Cheating, lying tool.'
And Floyd's not much better.
Not expecting much from this, but you know Lance has a looooooooooooong way to fall if this follows through. Going to drag a lot of people with him. Anyone that invested anything in his persona and his charity (whose cult of the leader ethos always freaked me out) is on the cliff edge too now. Fellow US postal riders, fans, managers, anyone who wore one of those yellow rubbery things...
Pages