Tour de France winner Floyd
Landis asked a U.S. Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) review board on Monday to dismiss
doping charges against him.
"The details of the submission support Landis's long-held innocence and argue
that tests conducted on the athlete's 'A' and 'B' urine sample from stage 17 of
the Tour de France do not meet the established World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA)
criteria for a positive doping offense," said a statement released by Landis's
publicist on behalf of his attorney Howard Jacobs.
"The single (positive) T/E (Testosterone/Epitestosterone) analysis in this
case is replete with fundamental, gross errors," the statement added.
The statement said three of the four testosterone metabolite differentials
tested in Landis's sample are reported as negative considering the margin of
error.
"The one metabolite that has been identified by WADA-accredited laboratories
as the best, and longest-term indicator, of exogenous testosterone usage was
reported as negative in Landis's urine samples," the statement said.
STUNNING COMEBACK
Landis tested positive for the male sex hormone following his stunning
comeback in stage 17 that put him on course for victory in the Tour de France.
He has repeatedly denied taking performance-enhancing drugs.
"I did not take testosterone or any other performance-enhancing substance and
I'm very happy that the science is confirming my innocence," Landis said in
Monday's statement.
"I look forward to restoring my good name so that I can focus on my hip
replacement and begin training for next season," he added.
USADA general counsel Travis Tygart said that under the agency's rules he
could not comment on the specifics of any doping case.
"Our process allows all athletes to make a submission to an independent
review board, and those submissions are thoroughly considered before a case
proceeds," Tygart said via telephone from his office in Colorado Springs,
Colorado.
The review board is expected to make a recommendation within a week, Jacobs's
statement said.
USADA, based on the review board's recommendation, will then decide whether
to charge Landis with a doping offence.
If USADA does charge him, Landis would have an opportunity to contest that
decision and the recommended sanction before an arbitration panel.
Jacobs said errors made by a French laboratory that tested Landis's sample
include inconsistent testosterone and epitestosterone levels from testing on the
"A" sample as well as multiple mismatched sample code numbers that do not belong
to Landis.
"In the case of the mismatched sample identification codes, the alleged
confirmed T/E data on the 'B' sample is from a sample number that was not
assigned to Landis," Jacobs's statement said.
The only testosterone metabolite that can be argued as positive under the
WADA Positivity Criteria resulted from an unknown laboratory error and is not
the result of testosterone usage, the statement added.
