The Hindu : Sport / Cycling : Landis takes on dope-testers

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Saturday, May 12, 2007
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Landis takes on dope-testers

Albuquerque: Tour de France champion Floyd Landis wants his upcoming doping hearing to be a spectacle filled with big-time surprises and unseemly revelations, one that shines a harsh light on the anti-doping movement and ultimately clears him of wrongdoing.

Those prosecuting him are hoping for business as usual — a dry, detailed accounting of the science that led to Landis being accused of using banned synthetic testosterone during the Tour.

The public arbitration hearing starts on Monday, and the stakes are higher than just the possible two-year ban Landis could face if he loses. He would be the first rider in the Tour's 104-year history to be stripped of the title, and he says he'll retire if he loses and can't get the result overturned in appeals.

But the 31-year-old cyclist doesn't think he's going to lose. And he wants to use the 10-day hearing to deliver a knockout to the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, the group underwritten by the American government and the U.S. Olympic Committee that Landis claims is fundamentally corrupt.

"If they lose this, they cease to exist. I don't see any other way," Landis said. "It would be no point in them going on.

"They've made such bold statements about how sure they are that this is the truth that there would be no point in ever accusing anyone again after I demonstrate that I'm innocent." — AP

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