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Landis loses; appeal uncertain
By Charles Pelkey
editor, VeloNews.com
with wire reports
Filed: September 20, 2007
Landis must forfeit his Tour title or appeal to CAS
photo: file photo
American Floyd Landis has been formally stripped of his 2006 Tour de France title after an arbitration panel has ruled against Floyd Landis in his appeal of a positive doping test during that year's Tour.
Landis still has the option to appeal the case to the International Court of Arbitration for Sport, but the UCI on Thursday formally awarded the 2006 Tour title to Spaniard Oscar Pereiro, the Caisse d'Epargne rider who finished second. Landis becomes the first Tour winner in more than 100 years to be stripped of his title, and he now faces a two-year suspension from racing and an additional two-year exclusion from ProTour ranks.
"This ruling is a blow to athletes and cyclists everywhere," Landis said in a statement. "For the panel to find in favor of USADA when, with respect to so many issues, USADA did not manage to prove even the most basic parts of their case, shows that this system is fundamentally flawed.
"I am innocent and we proved I am innocent."
UCI president Pat McQuaid saw things otherwise.
"He has been found guilty. It proves that the system works no matter who you are," McQuaid told Reuters via telephone.
The three member panel voted 2-1 to uphold the results of Landis's positive test, with lead arbitrator Patrice Brunet and Richard McLaren in the majority and Christopher Campbell dissenting. Campbell was the lone dissenting vote in the Tyler Hamilton blood doping case, as well.
Read the Full Text of the Decision
Should he opt not to appeal, Landis's suspension would expire at the end of January in 2009. According to the decision, the panel had the option of suspending Landis from the date of its decision, but "in this case the athlete filed a declaration of voluntary non competition as of 30 January 2007. Therefore, the period of ineligibility will begin on that date and continue until 29 January 2009."
The sample Landis provided after his stage-17 victory in the 2006 Tour showed a testosterone-to-epitestosterone ratio higher than the 4-to-1 standard outlined in the world anti-doping code. A second and more specific test examined carbon isotope ratios, which officials at the French national anti-doping laboratory said indicated the presence of synthetic testosterone.
The majority of the panel found that while the initial testosterone-epitestosterone test was not "established in accordance with the WADA International Standard for Laboratories," the more precise and expensive carbon-isotope ration analysis (IRMS), performed as a follow-up was accurate. As a result, "an anti-doping rule violation is established," said the majority.
The finding means that Landis was cleared of the initial positive T/E violation, but now faces a two-year suspension because the IRMS test did show the presence of exogenous testosterone.
"As has been held in several cases, even where the T-E ratio has been held to be unreliable ... the IRMS analysis may still be applied," the majority wrote. "It has also been held that the IRMS analysis may stand alone as the basis" of a positive test for steroids.
Landis's case was argued in a public hearing in May, and a ruling had initially been expected prior to this year's Tour. Landis spokeswoman Pearl Piatt told Agence France Presse that he has not decided whether to press his case before CAS.
"We're still digesting the report," she said. "They are still reading the opinion closely and looking at it."
At one stage, Landis had said the cost of making such a fight might be more than he could afford, although he has maintained his innocence throughout the doping fight. Landis has reportedly spent more than $2 million in his defense, about half of it from his own pocket.
One of his lawyers, Maurice Suh, called the ruling "a miscarriage of justice."
"The majority panel's decision is a disappointment, but particularly so because it failed to address the joint impact of the many errors that the AFLD laboratory committed in rendering this false positive," Suh said.
"To take each of these errors singly is to ignore the total falsity of the result. The majority panel has disregarded the testimony of Mr. Landis' experts, who are pre-eminent in their respective fields, without analyzing the impact of the errors on the final result."
Agence France Presse contributed to this report
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Landis loses; appeal uncertain
By Charles Pelkey
editor, VeloNews.com
with wire reports
Filed: September 20, 2007
Landis must forfeit his Tour title or appeal to CAS
photo: file photo
American Floyd Landis has been formally stripped of his 2006 Tour de France title after an arbitration panel has ruled against Floyd Landis in his appeal of a positive doping test during that year's Tour.
Landis still has the option to appeal the case to the International Court of Arbitration for Sport, but the UCI on Thursday formally awarded the 2006 Tour title to Spaniard Oscar Pereiro, the Caisse d'Epargne rider who finished second. Landis becomes the first Tour winner in more than 100 years to be stripped of his title, and he now faces a two-year suspension from racing and an additional two-year exclusion from ProTour ranks.
"This ruling is a blow to athletes and cyclists everywhere," Landis said in a statement. "For the panel to find in favor of USADA when, with respect to so many issues, USADA did not manage to prove even the most basic parts of their case, shows that this system is fundamentally flawed.
"I am innocent and we proved I am innocent."
UCI president Pat McQuaid saw things otherwise.
"He has been found guilty. It proves that the system works no matter who you are," McQuaid told Reuters via telephone.
The three member panel voted 2-1 to uphold the results of Landis's positive test, with lead arbitrator Patrice Brunet and Richard McLaren in the majority and Christopher Campbell dissenting. Campbell was the lone dissenting vote in the Tyler Hamilton blood doping case, as well.
Read the Full Text of the Decision
Should he opt not to appeal, Landis's suspension would expire at the end of January in 2009. According to the decision, the panel had the option of suspending Landis from the date of its decision, but "in this case the athlete filed a declaration of voluntary non competition as of 30 January 2007. Therefore, the period of ineligibility will begin on that date and continue until 29 January 2009."
The sample Landis provided after his stage-17 victory in the 2006 Tour showed a testosterone-to-epitestosterone ratio higher than the 4-to-1 standard outlined in the world anti-doping code. A second and more specific test examined carbon isotope ratios, which officials at the French national anti-doping laboratory said indicated the presence of synthetic testosterone.
The majority of the panel found that while the initial testosterone-epitestosterone test was not "established in accordance with the WADA International Standard for Laboratories," the more precise and expensive carbon-isotope ration analysis (IRMS), performed as a follow-up was accurate. As a result, "an anti-doping rule violation is established," said the majority.
The finding means that Landis was cleared of the initial positive T/E violation, but now faces a two-year suspension because the IRMS test did show the presence of exogenous testosterone.
"As has been held in several cases, even where the T-E ratio has been held to be unreliable ... the IRMS analysis may still be applied," the majority wrote. "It has also been held that the IRMS analysis may stand alone as the basis" of a positive test for steroids.
Landis's case was argued in a public hearing in May, and a ruling had initially been expected prior to this year's Tour. Landis spokeswoman Pearl Piatt told Agence France Presse that he has not decided whether to press his case before CAS.
"We're still digesting the report," she said. "They are still reading the opinion closely and looking at it."
At one stage, Landis had said the cost of making such a fight might be more than he could afford, although he has maintained his innocence throughout the doping fight. Landis has reportedly spent more than $2 million in his defense, about half of it from his own pocket.
One of his lawyers, Maurice Suh, called the ruling "a miscarriage of justice."
"The majority panel's decision is a disappointment, but particularly so because it failed to address the joint impact of the many errors that the AFLD laboratory committed in rendering this false positive," Suh said.
"To take each of these errors singly is to ignore the total falsity of the result. The majority panel has disregarded the testimony of Mr. Landis' experts, who are pre-eminent in their respective fields, without analyzing the impact of the errors on the final result."
Agence France Presse contributed to this report
------------------
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