Late Thursday Roundup

Floyd Landis is the 'Man in Black" today at his hearings at Pepperdine University.

For more information from earlier today see the Early Roundup

News
The VeloNews Antonio Gallegos thinks that the LeMond testimony likely will not have a lot of impact on the arbitration panel's decision on Landis, but that today's science with testimony from Claire Frelat could have more significance:

Landis's team again went on the attack during cross examination, highlighting several points made during Cynthia Mongongu's testimony from Wednesday - missing information from the chain of custody log, time gaps in lab documents, and the sequence for reprocessing electronic data files. On redirect examination, Frelat explained that other lab documents, not just the chain of custody log, can account for time gaps and transfers of samples from one person to another that are not reflected in the chain of custody log.

The Raw Story AFP recounts that today's Landis hearings took an ugly and sensational turn.

The Washington Post writes that the sleepy Landis hearings morphed into "Pulp Fiction" with today's Greg LeMond revelations.

AHN tells us that the testimony fo Greg LeMond manged to introduce sensationalism into a very dry Landis hearing today.

The San Diego Union Tribune is representative of most media outlets tonight in printing the updated AP story about the testimony of Greg LeMond at the Landis hearings today, and how it has overshadowed the scientific evidence the seemed to be tipping in Landis's favor. Attorneys for Landis were unable to cross examine Mr LeMond after he made accusations of witness tampering by former Landis manager Will Geoghegan. LeMond in a statement made after the testimony said:

What I felt was right was to come here and tell the truth,” he said as he walked to his car. “People say it's the message that hurts this sport, but it's not that. It's cheating that hurts this sport, and that's all I have to say." His appearance at Pepperdine, however, made the sport look every bit the unseemly circus he's been trying to fix all these years. Still, he had no remorse.

ESPN.com posts the shocking testimony made by Greg LeMond at the Landis hearings today.

The VeloNews also has the latest on the bombshell revelation today that Floyd Landis allegedly admitted doping to Greg LeMond in a phone call last August:

LeMond said he then told Landis that keeping dark secrets can ruin one's life, relating his own story of being sexually abused of a child, a story he said he had shared with very few people and never spoke of publicly until Thursday's hearing.

The drama continued when LeMond, under direct questioning from USADA attorney Matt Barnett, said he received a phone call Wednesday night from a mysterious caller, who identified himself only as "Uncle Ron." LeMond said he was perplexed at first, but that changed to concern when the caller made direct references to the conversation about sexual abuse that he had with Landis last August. The three-time Tour champ said the caller quickly hung up, and when LeMond redialed he got a voicemail message identifying himself as "Will."

The New York Daily News writes that today Greg LeMond threw the Landis hearings into chaos:

LeMond told a three-judge panel at the embattled Tour de France champion's hearing at Pepperdine Unitersity in Malibu, Calif., that he received a phone call at 6:53 p.m. last night that was later traced to Will Geoghegan, Landis' manager, in which the caller referred to sexual abuse LeMond had received as a child. "Hi, Greg, this is your uncle," the called said. A moment later, the caller added, "I'll be there tomorrow and we can talk about how we used to hide your weenie."

Reuters also writes of the LeMond bombshells taking place during the Landis doping hearings today:

Earlier in his testimony on the fourth day of the hearing, LeMond said he had shared a private story with the 2006 Tour de France champion in a phone conversation between the two last August.

"I told him I was sexually abused before I got into cycling and that it nearly destroyed me by keeping it secret," the American said.

LeMond said the 36-minute phone call took place on August 6, one day after Landis tested positive for elevated testosterone to epitestosterone levels on the 17th stage of that year's Tour.

"I was very careful and said to him: 'Because I don't know if you did or didn't (take drugs) but if you did you could be the one to salvage the sport," LeMond added.

Eurosport posts the same LeMond revelations from today's Landis hearings

The CyclingNews is the first to write of the bombshell revelation which took place this afteronno with Greg LeMond's testimony. It was revealed that Landis allegedly told LeMond in a call last August, that he didn't know "what good it would do" to come clean and that innocent people would be destroyed by any revelation. This was not the end of the bombshells, they continued with LeMond telling of an intimidating phone call he revcieved last night with a veiled threat and reference to sexual abuse Mr LeMond has suffered as a child. The caller is purported to be Will Geoghegan Landis' friend and manager.

The San Francisco Chronicle posts an AP story by Eddie Pells about this mornings testimony by Claire Frelat an LNDD employee. During cross examination by the Landis lawyers this AM she aadmitted not only knowing that she was testing Floyd Landis' "B" samples in April of this year but:

Frelat also acknowledged making some mechanical mistakes that accounted for time gaps and overwritten test results in the computer logs, specifically April 21.
"I remember that morning because there was lots of wasted time," Frelat told attorney Maurice Suh under cross-examination.

Suh asked several questions about her recollection of events from last month, and asked if it was true that Frelat's memory was the only way to account for some of the missing and overwritten data in the computer logs.

"Yes," Frelat said.

Greg LeMond ,former champion cyclist, is expected to testify this afternoon for USADA.

SuperCycling highlights today's testimony in the Landis case up to the lunch break and mentions LNDD chemist Claire Frelat's statements that she knew she was testing a sample belonging to Floyd Landis. It also mentions that former Tour de France winner Greg LeMond is on tap for this afternoon's session.


Blogs
Khabar Bike is amazed at the turn in the Landis case that occurred today.

Ifjeff wishes that everything that has happened in the Landis case to date had never happened. Good thought.

Rant writes a sad update about Greg LeMond's testimony this afternoon in whcih LeMond states that during a phone call with Landis in August. During which the line "what good would it do" was uttered in response to LeMond telling Floyd to come clean. It was also revealed that LeMond received a threatening phone call allegedly from Will Geoghegan last night and has filed a police report.In the last update of rant's day he feels that a stink bomb was thrown into the Landis hearings today, and that despite some good scientific evidence tilting towards Landis, the slime that came form Greg LeMond's testimony landed squarely on Floyd.

eightandfive thinks that,even though he is not a LeMond fan, today's Landis hearing was weird, just weird.

Addicted2Wheels wants the TRUTH to come forward in the Landis case, that's all.

Steroid Nation thinks that due to revelations made today by Greg LeMond, the Landis case has exploded, or imploded , or both.

Racejunkie thinks that the fat lady has sung for Floyd Landis, and even if Floyd didn't dope, the association he has with his former manager ,accused of harassing Greg LeMond, dirties him enough that he should just go away.

Signal to Noise notes the Landis arbitration hearings even though it's only about a cyclist and not someone like Paris Hilton.

Knowledge Problem writes a lengthly piece about the wiki-defense and the Landis hearings at Pepperdine. The fear is that this is in reality a kangaroo court. Thanks for the credit given:

And yet, there is still a suspicion that the fix is in. No athlete has ever successfully defended against accusation in a USADA arbitration procedure, and the process for choosing the panel of arbiters and the arbitration procedure itself (a process that did not allow the parties a discovery process) is consistent with the hypothesis that this proceeding is really a kangaroo court.

Joeschmo's Gear and Grounds feel is's a slow news day so he is keeping an eye on the Landis hearings . He gives us the Lego version of Monty Python's Camelot number from The Holy Grail. And thanks for the plug.