Late Friday Roundup

For news from earlier today see the Early Friday Roundup

News
The San Diego Union Tribune posts that finally after 5 days in a hearing room which has at times been contentious Floyd Landis will take the stand in his own defense tomorrow:

His folks and wife, who have sat stoically through these five days, should be on hand again. And maybe the hearing room, essentially void of public spectators since Monday, will fill up, too.

The schedule, with Landis' name on it, came out at the end of a long day of testimony Friday.

Reuters writes about the testimony today of former cyclist Joe Papp who admitted using testosterone gel in an effort to more quickly recover from tough stages in long bike races, something which the Floyd Landis defense had claimed would not be of use.

Canada.com posts an Eddie Pells (AP) piece written late Friday afternoon on testimony at the Floyd Landis vs USADA hearings. Pells first describes Joe Papp, former cyclist,who discusses how he used testosterone gel to his advantage as a competitor, how it helped him recover from difficult stages of a bike race, and how he stayed under the detection limit in doing so thus contradicting Landis' claims that the PED for which he tested positive would be of no benefit. The next witness called, Bruce Goldberger a professor from the University of Florida, was the first to testify for Landis:

He described himself as initially reluctant to get involved in the case.

“But I saw some glaring issues with the way the chemistry was performed in the laboratory,” Goldberger said of the French lab where the tests were done.

Earlier in the week, the Landis lawyers had used cross-examination of USADA witnesses to set up these arguments. But Goldberger was the first witness to connect the dots of the argument.

“It’s the pattern that concerns me,” he said. “I can’t trust it. I think it’s unreliable.”

As for gaps in the chain of custody, Goldberger said: “Terrible. Omissions in the chain of custody should demonstrate lack of attention.”

Earlier in the afternoon Christiane Ayotte finshed her appearance for USADA and under cross examination made one of the few concessions to the defense throughout her testimony:

Ayotte conceded the peaks in the graphs didn’t show the good “separation” the lawyers contend is needed in these graphs.

“But anyone can see the peak is nine times higher than the epi” peak, Ayotte said. “It’s more than 9-to-1.”

She said she came to that conclusion by eyeballing the graph.

“Is eyeballing it acceptable?” lawyer Howard Jacobs asked.

“No,” Ayotte replied.It was one of the few concessions the Landis team got from the lab director.

ESPN's The Magazine Shaun Assael writes that fans of Floyd Landis who contributed to the FFf, have been cheated by people who felt they were part of "The Sopranos".This is in reference to the harassing phone call Landis' former manager made to Greg LeMond, but:

Fortunately for Floyd, the people who donated to his fund don't seem to be having any buyer's remorse … at least not yet.

The San Francisco Chronicle posts Eddie Pells' AP afternoon report on what has been a much quieter day today at the Landis hearings. Landis lawyer Maurice Suh asked Dr. Christiane Ayotte, who is an USADA expert, if she thought there were significant differences in some test results performed on the machine that analyzed Landis' urine:

"There's one difference for one peak on a 'B' sample, and that's it," she said. "It doesn't create doubt about the rest of it."

Eurosport writes that fired Landis manage Will Geoghegan has issued an apology for a perceived threatening phone call to former Tour de France winner and USADA witness Greg LeMond:

Geoghegan's statement read: "I apologise to Greg LeMond and his family for the distress I caused by my call.

"I also apologise to the arbitration panel and to Floyd Landis and his legal team for the distraction.

"I have been very angry about how unfair this whole proceeding is to Floyd, a great friend and a greater champion, and stupidly tried to take out my anger on Greg.

The CyclingNews posts the apology written by FFF Executive Director Michael Henson in response to the phone call made by former Landis manager Will Geoghegan:

In a letter to Cyclingnews, Michael Henson, Executive Director of the Floyd Fairness Fund, clarified the position. "In light of the news coverage of yesterday’s testimony at the Floyd Landis arbitration hearing, we are writing to clarify that Will Geoghegan, who served as Floyd’s business manager until being fired yesterday, had no formal role with the FFF.

In addition to this, it was also discussed at today's session of the Landis hearings that perhaps Mr. Geoghegan should be compelled to return to testify since he was not present at the arbitration hearing today:

At the end of the morning session, one of USADA's lawyers, Mr. Barnett, asked the panel if Mr. Geoghegan would be indeed returning to testify, as he was about to take the stand when Mr. Suh asked for a break so that Mr. Geoghegan could consult legal counsel. Mr. Barnett implied that the absence of Mr. Geoghegan from the proceedings today indicated that the Landis side was "trying to hide Mr. Geoghegan."

The panel responded that they have no authority to compel Mr. Geoghegan to appear and testify, as would be the case in a civil or criminal court. Mr. Suh responded to this, saying, "As the panel well knows, there were issues brought up by Mr. LeMond which made it entirely appropriate for him to have legal counsel. We took a break yesterday so that Mr. Geoghegan could consult legal counsel."

The Black Star News in an editorial, states that Floyd Landis is a despicable human being.

PE.Com publishes Will Geoghegan's apology for the phone call he made to Greg LeMond the night before LeMond's testimony at yesterday's Landis hearings.

VeloNews has Oscar Pereiro, last year's Tour de France runner-up and presumptive champion depending on the outcome of the Landis hearings, still insisting that he will leave cycling rather than submit to DNA testing in the OP investigation:

"I'm disgusted at this pathetic journalism that some practice, that they repeat rumors to promote a lie," Pereiro said. "Someone says that Urko is a mythological dog from Galicia, when in reality the name of this animal is written with a ‘c' - Urco. Urko with a ‘k' is a hill in the Basque Country."

Blogs
Rant has the first update from today's testimony at the Landis hearings. It involves the cross examinations of Dr. Christiane Ayotte and Dr. Corinne Buisson and concerns among other things, the training of the previous two employees of the LNDD who were interviewed earlier this week. In his second update this afternoon Rant tells us that he thinks Dr Ayotte has made USADA's case more difficult:

. This time, she’s said something that sounds like it’s shot a major hole in the USADA case:

q: this is to make sure you identify the T and E?
a: for some tests, T or progesteron, that is possible; for E, which is small I have not often seen a lab that can meet the criteria for the E. there’s a limit to the identification and quantification.

q: EX 24, USADA ,

[ deceaurriz and mongongu do not look happy on he video feed. ]

I think Dr. Ayotte just said that for such a low epitestosterone reading, it’s very difficult to actually identify and quantify the amount of epitestosterone correctly. I may be wrong on that, but this exchange seems to be heading in that direction

In Rant's last update of the day he outlines the testimony of Joe Papp, who made a deal with USADA to tell his story of testosterone use, and Dr. Bruce Goldberger who was the first witness to testify for Landis.

ElTrav.com thinks we need only look into Floyd Landis' eyes to know he "juiced".

Independent Freewheeling Chicks thinks that to drink and dial is the height of stupidity, and who does that anyway in the age of caller ID?

Blessed Endurance feels that cycling is now sporting porn, all artifice and no real substance. He also thinks that Joe Papp was an effective witness for USADA against Floyd Landis.

For the Love of Sports wonder why Americans care about the Floyd Landis controversy since it's only cycling, and he thinks it's because Americans LOVE scandal.

Tim's Thoughtful Spot thinks that the Landis hearings started out with a certain degree of sanity, which has now been lost.

Hey Norton says that if you like the OC you will love cycling's latest soap opera, yesterday's Greg Lemond testimony at the Landis hearings.

GFisk.com thinks that you couldn't script yesterday's events at at the Landis hearing if you tried.

The Michigan Daily doesn't get why Greg LeMond chose Pepperdine Law school. and the Landis hearings to confess his abuse as a child.

Lin_M thinks that not only is Floyd Landis guilty, but that he makes Tonya Harding look classy. That does seem harsh.