Landis Speaks. Again.

By Jessica | Permalink |

No Comments | January 12th, 2007 | Trackback

landis

Floyd Landis hit the road politician-style, raising money for his legal defense fund (subtly called the Floyd Fairness Fund) and talking with a small audience just outside Washington, DC on Wednesday evening. Landis’ spokesperson, Michael Henson, said the placement of the town-hall-ish event wasn’t an accident. “Part of what we’re looking to do here is to bring a greater sense of democracy to the sport and the process, therefore, it’s appropriate to have it in DC.

Landis was asked a wide range of questions during the Q&A portion of the evening, but my favorite has to be the person who asked whether Landis would rather have been caught up in the Operación Puerto scandal or the reality of his own positive test for testosterone. Landis’ response? “Would I rather lose an arm or a leg?” Yeah. Kind of a weird choice.

Landis and his legal team repeatedly “expressed their belief in the unfairness of the current doping process and what was described as its guilty until proven innocent approach” - which, to Americans, is rather backwards to the way we’re used to our system of justice working. Cycling, however, is not an American sport - far from it, despite Lance Armstrong’s recent domination of the Tour de France - and the rules aren’t necessarily going to jive perfectly with an American sense of justice. Honestly, whatever the rules are, they just need to be enforced by a clean organization that doesn’t vilify anyone.

Apparently Landis’ case will appear before the American Arbitration Association for a hearing later this year. I hope it’s before the start of this year’s Tour - the recent doping scandals will already be lingering in everyones’ minds, the last thing the sport needs is to have race headlines competing with stories about legal battles. For god’s sake, people, can we please move this thing along?