Tour de France winner Floyd Landis repeatedly denied taking
performance-enhancing drugs during his racing career when he
finally testified at his nine-day hearing at Pepperdine University
on Saturday.
Landis, fighting to keep his 2006 Tour title after testing
positive for the banned male sex hormone testosterone, said the
idea of cheating was against his principles.
"To me, bicycle racing was rewarding for the pure fact that I
was proud of myself when I put the work into it and I could see
results and get something out of it," the 31-year-old American told
the panel.
"As long as I know I earned what I got, that was satisfactory.
People are defined by their principles and how they make their
decisions.
"Obviously it's always fun to win but nevertheless it's a matter
of who I am and it wouldn't serve any purpose to cheat and win the
Tour because I wouldn't be proud of it.
"That's just not what the goal was from the beginning," added
the American, who has used cortisone to help alleviate pain
following a hip injury in October 2002 with the blessing of cycling
authorities.
Responding to questions by his lawyer, Howard Jacobs, Landis
denied taking synthetic testosterone during the Tour de France or
using any banned substance during his entire racing career.
Landis, wearing a grey suit and yellow tie, finally took the
stand after patiently watching others give testimony over the first
five days at the hearing.
In a 75-minute testimony, he spoke about his former business
manager's menacing phone call to three-times Tour de France
champion Greg LeMond and the confusion when news of his positive
test first broke last July.
Landis said he was in the same hotel room on Wednesday night
when Will Geoghegan phoned LeMond anonymously and threatened to
reveal the former cyclist had been sexually abused as a child.
"It (the call) was very short and I wasn't sitting beside Will,
I was on the other end of the table," Landis added.
"At first I thought he wasn't talking to anybody and then it was
over."
Landis said there were few things he could imagine that were
worse than what LeMond went through.
"I cannot even put words to it," he said.
(China Daily via Agencies May 21, 2007)