Published>Fri, May 21 10 02:08 AM
Disgraced Tour de France winner Floyd Landis has confessed to using performance enhancing drugs and accused some of the biggest names in the sport, including Lance Armstrong, of also cheating.
Landis, who was stripped of his 2006 Tour win after failing a doping test, had spent four years and more than $1 million protesting his innocence before suddenly deciding to come clean on Thursday.
"I want to clear my conscience," he told ESPN after making his confession in a series of emails.
"I don't want to be part of the problem any more."
In the emails, which Reuters has seen and Landis said were also distributed to USA Cycling and the International Cycling Union (UCI), the American provided details of a variety of drugs he had used during his career and who supplied them to him.
He admitted using EPO, human growth hormone, testosterone, blood transfusions and even female hormones from 2002, when he joined the U.S. Postal team.
The 34-year-old said he witnessed some if his team mates, including Armstrong, a seven-time winner of the Tour de France, also use illegal drugs, including once on a team bus during a race.
"There are many many more details that I have in diaries and am in the process of writing into an intelligible story," Landis wrote in the emails.
Accusations against Armstrong are nothing new. He has never failed a dope test and has always denied taking banned substances.
"With regard to the specific allegations, the specific claims, they're not even worth getting in to," Armstrong told reporters at the Tour of California.
"I'm not going to waste your time or my time. I think history speaks for itself here. We've all followed this case for the last four years..."
ASTONISHING CONFESSION
The astonishing confession and claims by Landis triggered a swift response from senior doping and cycling officials.
"We are very interested in learning more about this matter and we will liaise with the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) and any other authority with appropriate jurisdiction to get to the heart of the issues raised," World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) president John Fahey said in a statement.
UCI president Pat McQuaid questioned Landis's credibility.
"After going through two or three court cases denying everything, the question is what credibility does he have?" McQuaid told Reuters.
In his emails, Landis accused officials from the sport's governing body of covering up a positive test from Armstrong during the 2002 Tour of Switzerland -- a race the UCI said he did not compete in.
"Deeply shocked by the gravity of this statement, which considerably impinges on the honour of all persons who have dedicated themselves to the fight against doping, the UCI wishes to clearly state that it has never changed or concealed a positive test result," it said in a statement.
"Finally, the UCI wishes to make clear that it will undertake all necessary measures to defend its honour as well as the honour of all its executives who have been unfairly accused by Mr Floyd Landis."
ARREST WARRANT
Landis was stripped of his Tour win after returning an abnormal testosterone/epitestosterone ratio.
He denied any wrongdoing and fought a long and expensive legal case, which he eventually lost, and was subsequently banned for two years.
His suspension ended last year but in February a French judge issued an arrest warrant against him for suspected hacking into an anti-doping laboratory computer.
French anti-doping agency head Pierre Bordry said the judge believed Landis wanted to prove the laboratory where his samples were tested was wrong.
In his emails, Landis maintained the testers got it wrong, arguing he had used human growth hormone and not the synthetic testosterone he tested positive for.
Phonak team owner Andy Rihs, for whom Landis rode for in 2006, denied the American's claims he was aware the rider was doped.
"His present statements according to which I was informed are lies," Rihs said in a statement.
"It probably is a last tragic attempt of Landis to once again gain public recognition whilst step by step he has lost this in the last few years. It is sad to have to see such a thing."
Jim Ochowicz, the president of BMC Racing Team, also issued a denial after his team and one of his riders, George Hincapie, were named by Landis.
"These allegations are not true, absolutely unfounded and unproven. This is disappointing to anyone who works in the sport or is a fan of the sport," Ochowicz said.
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