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Landis takes stand, denies cheating

Controversial Tour de France champ testifies for 75 minutes in own defense

Image: Floyd LandisAFP - Getty Images
Floyd Landis testified in his own defense at his arbitration hearing Saturday.

He described being massively confused when word of the positive test first came out last summer, which led to a debacle of a news conference in Spain.

At that appearance, he explained his positive test came not because of testosterone use but was, rather, something that was produced “by my own organisms.”

“I still don’t know what that means,” Landis testified. “I regret it. It was confusing at that point. I shouldn’t have taken the advice of those lawyers. I didn’t know what I was doing. As you can see, those guys aren’t here today writing statements.”

When it was over, Landis hurried outside and before stepping into his van, he said “Almost done.”

Well, not quite.

He’ll return Monday for a cross-examination that should be quite different in tone from the friendly storytelling kind of day he had under questioning from his own attorneys.

This was easily the best day of the six for Landis, and earlier unfriendly testimony from Don Catlin, the former director of the Olympic testing lab at UCLA, seemed long forgotten.

Asked his opinion on whether Landis doped at last year’s Tour, Catlin said, simply: “There’s no question about it. My opinion is doping is going on.”

Landis squirmed through parts of Catlin’s testimony, the latest chapter in a difficult week of listening to people talk about him and his case. He looked much more comfortable when he finally got to tell the story himself.

© 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.


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