Landis Letter on Two Pound Articles

Email from Michael Henson

Floyd Landis Responds to Dick Pound Comments in New York Times and Wired Magazines

New York / Murietta, Ca., January 8, 2007 ­ Dick Pound¹s recent defamatory and absurd public comments ­ in the midst of a process where the highest ethical standards should support a fair and just outcome ­ highlight the dramatic and systemic problems with global anti-doping enforcement and adjudication. The ³leader² of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) continually makes public comments that by any standard are inappropriate, clearly false and are truly bizarre attempts to obfuscate the truth. This chronic behavior by the head of WADA highlights a key reason for the type of disregard for basic standards of practice that encourages scientific misconduct at the Labaratoire National Depistage de Dopage (LNDD), which is accredited by WADA.

Floyd Landis commented, ³Mr. Pound¹s published reference to the testosterone in my system proves he has not even bothered to review the facts regarding the unsubstantiated allegations against me. My testosterone levels were tested as normal following Stage 17 of the 2006 Tour de France and this fact is clear to anyone who cares to review the lab data [link]. Absolute testosterone levels are not even part of the allegations. The LNDD tested a clearly contaminated sample of my urine (against WADA rules), and even then my testosterone levels fell into the normal to low range.²

Landis added, ³Mr. Pound should conduct himself in a manner consistent with the seriousness of the unsubstantiated allegations against me and the damage they have caused to a great number of people. My livelihood and family have already been unfairly and severely damaged, the Tour de France has been unnecessarily tainted by an incompetent WADA lab, and cyclists, fans and sponsors alike have been hurt by the LNDD and anti-doping agencies that routinely ignore their own rules without regard for fairness or ethics.²

For full text of the New York Times Magazine profile of Dick Pound, please visit [NYT]. To read the Wired article please visit [WIRED].


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