Landis' actions belie image

By: ROBERT EILEK - Commentary: | Wednesday, May 30, 2007 8:51 PM PDT ∞

Bjarne Riis, the 1996 Tour de France champion, is the latest casualty of doping in cycling. Haunted by shame and guilt, Riis admitted using cortisone and growth hormone and to blood doping, and has apologized, saying that he feels unworthy of the crown and is willing to surrender the symbolic yellow jersey.

Contrast Riis' decision to admit cheating and express remorse with that of another Tour winner, Murrieta's Floyd Landis. Recall Landis' meltdown during Stage 16 of last year's Tour when he plummeted from first to 11th place, falling 8 minutes behind Spain's Oscar Pereiro. A "miraculous" effort at Stage 17 saw Landis skillfully navigate the Alps, surviving steep climbs and treacherous descents allowing him to reduce the deficit to 30 seconds and eventually win the Tour.

Sadly, failed drug tests showing abnormal levels of synthetic testosterone turned a celebration of the human spirit into a tragedy of deceit and misadventure.

Landis offered many excuses: cortisone for his hip, thyroid medication, natural metabolism, dehydration and alcohol consumption the night before Stage 17. When those excuses failed to erase doubt, the Landis camp shifted to a conspiracy theory, suggesting that shoddy laboratory practices, faulty science and fraud were behind Landis' positive tests.

Whether the Landis defense team has met the burden of proof to exonerate their client before a three-member arbitration panel remains to be seen.

What is clear, however, is that the aggressive, public relations strategy to clear Landis through Internet postings, public forums, an over-reliance on mind-boggling scientific data subject to interpretation, and ill-advised statements by Landis and business manager Will Geoghegan, has crashed.

Most damning was the vulgar phone call by Geoghegan to three-time Tour champion Greg LeMond threatening to expose LeMond's childhood sexual molestation. Landis learned of this secret in a private conversation with LeMond and, in an apparent breach of trust, shared this with Geoghegan, who then used it in an attempt to dissuade LeMond from testifying before the arbitration panel.

Landis' claim that he was neither a participant in the extortion nor privy to the inappropriate comments made to LeMond sounds disingenuous when one examines a Landis entry on a message board back in November at www.dailypeloton.com. In that message, Landis calls Lemond, "a pathetic human" and added that "if he ever opens his mouth again and the word 'Floyd' comes out, I will tell you all some things you wish you didn't know and unfortunately I will have joined the race to the bottom that is now in progress."

Equally disturbing, was Landis' delay in dismissing Geoghegan. The Landis camp fired Geoghegan only after LeMond revealed that threat before the arbitration panel.

Landis' behavior contradicts the carefully crafted image of a man with high moral values and strong work ethic. Who is the real Floyd Landis? Is it a man willing to do anything, including cheating to guarantee victory or a man who earned victory through dedication, hard work, and a never-give-up attitude? The arbitration panel may clear Landis of doping charges but it will take a lot more for Landis to be found innocent in the court of public opinion.

-- Robert Eilek lives in Temecula.