Late Wednesday Roundup

For more Landis hearing news check the Early Wednesday Roundup

News
The San Francisco Chronicle prints Eddie Pell's wrap up, as the Landis hearing finally ends it's 9 day run. As the author states "they turned the lights out on the Landis heairngs". But, much more was debated than just pure science and this showed in the closing arguments of both sides:

It will be more than a month before the three arbitrators who sat through nine days of testimony sort through the evidence and decide whether the Tour de France champion is guilty of doping. Whoever loses is almost sure to appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

YahooNews prints the Reuters wrap up of the Landis hearings which ended this evening at Pepperdine University. The majority of the day's testimomy was devoted to the science behind the case as the session wound up and the closing arguments were made by both sides, The arbitration panel will likely not make a decision on the matter for at least a month.

The San Francisco Chronicle posts the midday Landis hearing report by Eddie Pells. Today they are sticking to the science of the case and leaving the drama behind. Simon Davis continues his testimony about the LNDD:

Davis said the software was so unreliable, it was impossible to trust any results.

"What we're looking at is very expensive, rather large random number generators," Davis said.

There was rebuttal questioning from USADA and Dr Brenna was called back to the stand by USADA lawyers as well. Closing arguments are planned for this afternoon, but it will be quite some time before a decision will be reached by the arbitration panel.


SuperCycling prints the Reuters piece on this morning's testimony at the Landis hearings, where the emphasis was back on the disputed science that is at the heart of the case. Closing arguments should be made in the afternoon session.

Stuff.co.nz reports that this morning Simon Davis testified that he was "flabbergasted" by what he saw at the LNDD:

Responding to questions, British mass spectrometry expert Simon Davis said he was "flabbergasted" by the way technicians operated at the Chatenay-Malabry laboratory (LNDD) outside Paris.

Davis, an observer for Landis when the samples were re-tested at the LNDD in April, said data from the lab had been manipulated and described the instrument used as a "very expensive and random number generator".

He added that critical evidence had been removed from the lab's computer hardware.

"Frankly, I was flabbergasted when I saw they were reprocessing it manually," he said, referring to how the LNDD technicians had reprocessed the results.

USAToday's Mike Lopresti is suffering from some inaccuracies in his report on some of the drama of the Landis hearings.

The Colorado Springs Gazette's Kate Crandall reports that the science is back on the agenda today and that a decision from the arbitration panel will be a long time coming.

The CyclingNews notes that today the Landis hearings end,

Blogs
Rant thinks that Maurice Suh might have been getting the better of USADA witness Dr Brenna, more to come with closing arguments:

Team USADA, on the other hand, want to slow things down, and have already objected a few times, just to give Brenna some breathing room. It’s hard to say for certain, given that I’m not getting the video feed, but judging by Suh’s questions and Brenna’s answers, Brenna may be on a sinking ship.

Rant posts his last update of the day on the Landis hearing closing arguments. He was interested not only in what USDA said in it's closing, but also in what they simply chose to ignore, "trust us he's guilty". In Maurice Suh's closing it was pretty much what you would expect from the side that concentrated largely on the science of the issue, it was never a positive, and the lab was faulty. On a personal note, Rant deserves a hand, and a long rest for all the great work he's done.

Racejunkie thinks that in closing arguments today in the Landis hearing USADA tried portray Floyd as a real real meanie, while the Landis side stuck to the science of the case.

The RoadBike.com reminds us that Chris Campbell admonished USADA for not allowing lab employees to testify about another lab after Mr Young's closing statement today. Seems like maybe one of the arbs is on Floyd's side anyway.

Hieu writes that there are two steroid stories in sports in America now, and one of them is the Floyd Landis story.

Thoughts from the Apex is a recreational cyclist, and thinks that the most important thing about the Landis hearings is that the anti doping system needs to be fixed.

Tea Leaves comments on the Tour de Floyd, and wonders what strange twists ans turns this may take in the future.

Transformatum has seven unrelated but not random things, two of which are Genesis, and Floyd Landis t-shorts not purchased.