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UCI to sue Floyd Landis over cover up allegations

Sport's governing body plus its present and former president to see Floyd Landis in court...

Lance Armstrong may have let the legal deadline for launching a defamation case against Flloyd Landis pass, but the UCI and its current and former presidents, Pat McQuaid and Hein Verbruggen are not it seems going to let things lie as they today announced they were initiating legal proceedings against Landis in the Swiss courts.

In a short to the point of terse press statement the UCI confirmed the move and said:

"By this step, made necessary by numerous unacceptable public statements by Mr Landis, the UCI is seeking to defend the integrity of the cycling movement as a whole against the accusations of a rider who, by breaching the Anti-doping Rules, caused cycling serious harm."

Last year in a sworn statement given to the Wall Street Journal Landis accused Armstrong and the US Postal team of initiating a programme of systematic doping and said that the UCI and its then President, Hein Verbruggen, had colluded in covering up a dope test that Landis alleged Armstrong had failed at the 2002 edition of the Tour de Suisse. All parties have vehemently denied the accusations and the UCI had already called in its lawyers and warned Landis last May that it would "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."

Armstrong by contrast has not taken the legal route instead calling in to question Landis's own credibility – citing the disgraced former rider's own long running campaign against his conviction for doping at the 2006 Tour which ended suddenly when Landis admitted his guilt.

Speaking last year at the Tour of California when the Landis allegations against him first surfaced Armstrong said:

"He has nothing, he has no proof, it's his word against ours", added Armstrong. "We like our word. We like where we stand. We like our credibility. I don't there's a lot of credibility on the other side."

“We have nothing to hide. We have nothing to run from. I can give you one word to sum this all up. It’s credibility. Floyd lost his credibility a long time ago.”

At the same time UCI President Pat McQuaid angrily rebutted Landis's claims saying that the only thing that they proved, "is that he’s a liar. He has stood up in court and denied these things. He’s got absolutely no credibility."

Mr Landis will now get the opportunity to stand up in court again this time though a Swiss court with the UCI electing to play this one on home turf.

In the meantime the world awaits the outcome of the investigation in to the Lanids claims against Armstrong and his ex-US Postal team mates by Special Agent Jeff Novitzky of the Food & Drug Administration (FDA) which one way or another is likely also to prove something of a bumper payday for lawyers in any number of the world's legal juridictions.

road.cc's founder and first editor, nowadays to be found riding a spreadsheet. Tony's journey in cycling media started in 1997 as production editor and then deputy editor of Total Bike, acting editor of Total Mountain Bike and then seven years as editor of Cycling Plus. He launched his first cycling website - the Cycling Plus Forum at the turn of the century. In 2006 he left C+ to head up the launch team for Bike Radar which he edited until 2008, when he co-launched the multi-award winning road.cc - finally handing on the reins in 2021 to Jack Sexty. His favourite ride is his ‘commute’ - which he does most days inc weekends and he’s been cycle-commuting since 1994. His favourite bikes are titanium and have disc brakes, though he'd like to own a carbon bike one day.

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7 comments

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Gregoire500 | 13 years ago
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Even if they successfully sue Landis, the result of the Armstrong investigation very well may leave them liable to a rather fast appeal...

It's already been shown Armstrong made undeclared payments to the UCI, and there have been numerous contradictions about the sum and dates these transactions took place. Combine that with the fact cycling under both men has had a terrible reputation and it is easy to see why they seem to be confusing the it with their own.

No smoke without fire and you can guarantee if it wasn't the UCI picking up the tab for repairing their pride they wouldn't be paying for it out of their own pockets, would they?

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Tony Farrelly | 13 years ago
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@cat1commuter Maybe they'll try swapping him for Roman Polanski  39

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handlebarcam replied to Tony Farrelly | 13 years ago
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tony_farrelly wrote:

@cat1commuter Maybe they'll try swapping him for Roman Polanski

Isn't that always the way, you end up with ten worthless Floyd Landises and when all you need to complete the set is one Roman Polanski. Still, he did only ride briefly with Faema-Flandria so his scarcity factor is deserved.

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Tony Farrelly | 13 years ago
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@simonmb …and people say the UCI doesn't have a sense of humour

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simonmb | 13 years ago
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"the UCI is seeking to defend the integrity of the cycling movement as a whole".

Hmm. That's rich. It's thanks to the UCI that many aspects of the cycling movement as a whole apparently retains so little in the way of integrity.

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crazy-legs | 13 years ago
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Does Floyd actually have any money left should he be found guilty and ordered to pay damages? The whole Landis/UCI/Armstrong thing is a right old mess.  2

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cat1commuter | 13 years ago
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So how does this work? Floyd is sitting in the USA, and they are suing him in Switzerland. I guess he can just ignore them?

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