Hearing - Sat Finger Stretch

The pack is gathering already. As we got to the pressroom, NBC, CBS, and ABC news guys were already laying cables in anticipation of today's testimony. They explain it to themselves like this: "Some guy on a phone, an expert, and Floyd."

These real video pros are dissatisfied with the pool video that has been available, mainly because of technically bad switching between cameras that goes clunk, loses sync, and sometimes goes blue screen. CBS is putting what they call a "real" camera into the room, which they intend to have on Landis all the time, at least when he is testifying. This will be split for all the press to record if they want. The technical press guys are almost always friendly about such things, only competitive when it comes time to stake out their camera location or muscle in with the mobile for an interview.

As we came in, there were two satellite trucks parked outside. Yesterday, when Hiltzik came in the day after the Lemond bombs, he said he'd seen local news doing a standup with a truck. "It was even pretty accurate, until she stopped reading my story and ad-libbed."

This morning, we're getting a witness-by-phone in by Wilhelm Schnäzer of the Cologne laboratory. According to the briefs, he's going to testify to the single metabolite standard, and probably say the -6 5aA is enough on it's own. We don't know if he's going to be usefully able to speak to the QC quality of the pack.

It's crowded already. Seats in the court may be hard to get, and there's talk of using an overflow room for press and guests.

Director. Institute of Biochemistry of the German Sports University Cologne