Lance Armstrong may have let the legal deadline for launching a defamation case against Flloyd Landis pass, but the UCI and its current and former presidents, Pat McQuaid and Hein Verbruggen are not it seems going to let things lie as they today announced they were initiating legal proceedings against Landis in the Swiss courts.
In a short to the point of terse press statement the UCI confirmed the move and said:
"By this step, made necessary by numerous unacceptable public statements by Mr Landis, the UCI is seeking to defend the integrity of the cycling movement as a whole against the accusations of a rider who, by breaching the Anti-doping Rules, caused cycling serious harm."
Last year in a sworn statement given to the Wall Street Journal Landis accused Armstrong and the US Postal team of initiating a programme of systematic doping and said that the UCI and its then President, Hein Verbruggen, had colluded in covering up a dope test that Landis alleged Armstrong had failed at the 2002 edition of the Tour de Suisse. All parties have vehemently denied the accusations and the UCI had already called in its lawyers and warned Landis last May that it would "undertake all necessary measures to defend its honour as well as the honour of all its executives who have been unfairly accused by Mr Floyd Landis."
Armstrong by contrast has not taken the legal route instead calling in to question Landis's own credibility – citing the disgraced former rider's own long running campaign against his conviction for doping at the 2006 Tour which ended suddenly when Landis admitted his guilt.
Speaking last year at the Tour of California when the Landis allegations against him first surfaced Armstrong said:
"He has nothing, he has no proof, it's his word against ours", added Armstrong. "We like our word. We like where we stand. We like our credibility. I don't there's a lot of credibility on the other side."
“We have nothing to hide. We have nothing to run from. I can give you one word to sum this all up. It’s credibility. Floyd lost his credibility a long time ago.”
At the same time UCI President Pat McQuaid angrily rebutted Landis's claims saying that the only thing that they proved, "is that he’s a liar. He has stood up in court and denied these things. He’s got absolutely no credibility."
Mr Landis will now get the opportunity to stand up in court again this time though a Swiss court with the UCI electing to play this one on home turf.
In the meantime the world awaits the outcome of the investigation in to the Lanids claims against Armstrong and his ex-US Postal team mates by Special Agent Jeff Novitzky of the Food & Drug Administration (FDA) which one way or another is likely also to prove something of a bumper payday for lawyers in any number of the world's legal juridictions.
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Even if they successfully sue Landis, the result of the Armstrong investigation very well may leave them liable to a rather fast appeal...
It's already been shown Armstrong made undeclared payments to the UCI, and there have been numerous contradictions about the sum and dates these transactions took place. Combine that with the fact cycling under both men has had a terrible reputation and it is easy to see why they seem to be confusing the it with their own.
No smoke without fire and you can guarantee if it wasn't the UCI picking up the tab for repairing their pride they wouldn't be paying for it out of their own pockets, would they?
@cat1commuter Maybe they'll try swapping him for Roman Polanski
Isn't that always the way, you end up with ten worthless Floyd Landises and when all you need to complete the set is one Roman Polanski. Still, he did only ride briefly with Faema-Flandria so his scarcity factor is deserved.
@simonmb …and people say the UCI doesn't have a sense of humour
"the UCI is seeking to defend the integrity of the cycling movement as a whole".
Hmm. That's rich. It's thanks to the UCI that many aspects of the cycling movement as a whole apparently retains so little in the way of integrity.
Does Floyd actually have any money left should he be found guilty and ordered to pay damages? The whole Landis/UCI/Armstrong thing is a right old mess.
So how does this work? Floyd is sitting in the USA, and they are suing him in Switzerland. I guess he can just ignore them?