CYCLING: Tour de France winner Floyd Landis will take the next step in his fight to hold on to his title when his defence team presents new evidence today on the doping charges levelled against the American.
Dr Arnie Baker will hold a press conference in Tucson, Arizona, in which he is expected to provide what the rider's website terms are "additional scientific arguments supporting Landis's innocence against allegations of doping in the 2006 Tour de France." The Phonak rider returned a positive sample for testosterone during this year's race and risks becoming the first Tour de France champion to be disqualified for doping if he is unable to disprove the charge in arbitration hearing to be held in January.
The case took not one but two bizarre twists this week. On Tuesday it was reported that a hacker broke into the central email server of the Châtenay-Malabry laboratory earlier this year, then sent forged emails purporting to be from the lab to sports institutions such as the UCI, IOC and Wada. These emails attempted to highlight inaccuracies in the testing processes and procedures carried out by the lab, thereby casting doubt on the anti-doping findings made there.
Intriguingly, L'Equipe has said that a person with close ties to Landis is suspected by investigators as being the author of the emails. The cyclist's defence team have dismissed the claims.
The second surprising development occurred on Wednesday when the French laboratory admitted it made a mistake in the recording of numbers corresponding to his B test sample.
Châtenay-Malabry director Jacques de Ceaurriz confirmed an error was made by his laboratory, although he insisted this did not invalidate the result. The identification number for the rider was 995 474 but one of those six digits was different on the lab's B sample counter-analysis report, which bore the code 994 474. Landis's defence team had previously accused the French laboratory of numerous errors and said the results it has returned are inaccurate.
De Ceaurriz confirmed the lab mix-up. "It's an error as regards numbering, a typing error which has no significance whatsoever on the findings in the samples," he said. "These little mistakes happen . . . they are corrected, and noted."
He said that Wada was aware of the incident. "It wouldn't surprise me that Landis's lawyers use this information," he added, "but the error does not wipe out the result of the analysis."
Meanwhile, in domestic news, experienced coach Paddy Doran and Cycling Ireland's women's commission will hold an introductory coaching and training session in the Spawell Leisure Centre in Templeogue tomorrow. It will include a hill cycling exercise, and will be followed by lectures and advice on winter training programmes. More information is available from Valerie Considine on 086 3825842.
The following day two off-road events will take place. The next round of the Ulster cyclo-cross league will begin at noon in the Woodburn Forest in Carrickfergus, while the third leg of the Connacht MTB league will get under way at 1pm in Ballygar Wood, Co Galway.
