MADRID, Spain - Sounding more defiant than the
day before, eyes flashing and voice steady, Floyd Landis looked into the cameras
Friday and said he would prove he "deserved to win" the Tour de France.
In his first public appearance since a positive
test for high testosterone cast his title into doubt, the American said his
body's natural metabolism — not doping of any kind — caused the result, and that
he would soon have the test results to prove it.
"We will explain to the world why this is not a
doping case but a natural occurrence," Landis said from the Spanish
capital.
The day before, in a teleconference from a
location in Europe he did not disclose, Landis said he didn't cheat, but had no
idea what might have caused his positive test on the Tour's 17th stage, where he
staked his stirring comeback in the Alps.
During that Thursday call, Landis sounded
downcast and heartbroken, saying he expected to clear his name but never his
reputation. His demeanor was decidedly more fiery Friday, when he sat before a
buzzing news conference and lashed out at the media for characterizing his
plight as a drug scandal.
"I would like to make absolutely clear that I
am not in any doping process," said Landis, wearing a baseball cap turned
backward and a white shirt with the name of his Phonak team.
Landis is still awaiting results from a backup
sample, which would clear him immediately if found to be negative. But his
lawyer, Luis Sanz, said he fully expected the backup test to come back with the
same result, since the elevated testosterone was produced naturally by Landis's
body.
And the 30-year-old cyclist said Friday that he
would undergo additional testing to prove that "the levels that I've had during
the Tour and all my career are natural and produced by my own organism."
Until those tests are conducted, Landis said,
"I ask not to be judged, or much less to be sentenced by anyone."
But Landis saved his most aggressive tone for
the defense of his title as Tour de France champion.
"I was the strongest guy. I deserved to win,
and I'm proud of it," he said.
Lance Armstrong said all he knew about Landis'
case was what has been reported.
"But I will say this," the seven-time Tour de
France champ told The Associated Press in a phone interview Friday. "When Floyd
was with us, there was never a problem. We never saw anything even remotely off,
never had a reason to suspect anything. He left our team for a better offer.
There was no suspicious behavior, none. It's that simple."
"Secondly, I can't help but be aware the lab
that found this suspicious reading is the same one that was at the center of the
'L'Equipe affair.'
The French newspaper, L'Equipe, said samples
taken from Armstrong during the 1999 Tour de France and then frozen tested
positive for the blood-booster EPO. The International Cycling Union commissioned
a report that later cleared Armstrong of the doping allegations.
"When an independent investigator contacted the
lab, they wouldn't answer the simplest of questions, wouldn't go into their
testing ethics, who did the tests, etc., etc," Armstrong said. "I don't
personally have a ton of faith in that lab. I think they should lose their
authorization and the report pretty much supports that."
Landis appeared to lose any chance of victory
during a disastrous 16th stage of the Tour, then broke out with one of the
greatest performances in history the next day. After winning the 17th stage, he
submitted to a drug test — standard for a stage winner — that showed an "unusual
level of testosterone/epitestosterone."
Phonak suspended Landis after the International
Cycling Union notified it Wednesday of the result, and he could stripped of his
title and fired from the team if he does not clear his name.
Landis, a native of Lancaster County,
Pennsylvania, said he was shocked when told of the initial positive result. He
said he had been tested six other times during the tour, and many other times
during the year.
A homecoming parade planned for Landis next
week in Ephrata, Pa., has been put on hold pending more test results, organizer
Rich Ruoff said Friday. As many as 10,000 people and 500 cyclists were expected
at the event.
The news of Landis' test has rocked the cycling
world, already under a cloud following a wide-ranging doping investigation in
Spain that led to the barring of several of the world's leading cyclists from
the Tour.
On the eve of the Tour's start, nine riders —
including pre-race favorites Jan Ullrich and Ivan Basso — were ousted,
implicated in a Spanish doping investigation. Their names turned up on a list of
56 cyclists who allegedly had contact with a Spanish doctor at the center of the
probe. Landis was not implicated in that investigation.
