French Press: A nightcap in Paris, late Thursday

With most of my European sources still running with the Eddy Merckx not testifying story, l'Equipe filed this story about today's pre-LeMond testimony late this evening.

Lab admits some "errors"

The third day of Floyd Landis' hearings in Los Angeles allowed the American's defense team to hear a portion of what it wanted: to hear from the mouth of one of the technicians involved that in effect there were errors during the analyses of the 2006 Tour de France victor's positive samples.

Claire Frelat, the second technician from the anti-doping laboratory at Châtenay-Malabry, in effect came to testify Thursday to explain that "errors" in procedure sometimes occurred in the manipulation of measuring equipment during the analysis of the B sample taken after the 17th stage of the Grande Boucle. In addition, because certain operations were forgotten, analyses were sometimes interrupted and then restarted.

At no moment during the cross-examination (conducted by Floyd Landis' attorney, Maurice Suh) was it possible to know whether these "errors" could have had consequences for the results of the analyses. The day is supposed to continue with the testimony of Greg LeMond. Eddy Merckx, who also had been asked to be a witness, made it known, on the other hand, that he would not come to Malibu to testify.