Wednesday Roundup

News
Reuters reports that the Landis case will likely not be heard by the CAS until March at the earliest. It mentions the Landis picked arbitrator for the hearings, as well as the lawyer USADA has chosen to defend its position:

CAS general secretary Mathieu Reeb told Reuters on Wednesday the case was unlikely to be heard before March 2008, with a final verdict coming as late as May.

"The parties will have until around the end of January to submit their statements, so it is very unlikely that the hearing can proceed before March," Reeb said.

The United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA), who are defending the appeal, have selected New York lawyer David Rivkin, whose previous cases include the controversial stripping of Alain Baxter's alpine skiing bronze medal from the 2002 Olympics.

The CyclingNews reports on the Landis CAS appeal brief filing which includes a "non-comment" by USADA's Travis Tygart:

"I don't really have any comment on it," said Travis Tygart, head of the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA). "It's a right afforded them under the rules, and they've elected to go forward."

In a later update the CyclingNews writes that Predictor Lotto has suspended Björn Leukemans, who tested positive with a 6:1 T/E ratio. He's claiming he is naturally elevated and has tested high before. We don't have information on any longitudinal study to know what the real story may be. While there never was a good time, this is an even worse climate than usual to stand accused.

CNN International provides a bit more detail on the CAS appeal filing made by Team Landis yesterday noting that the written submissions will continue to be made over the next few weeks and that no date has been set at this time for the actual hearing.

The LA Times posts the Reuters' story about Floyd Landis' CAS appeal which was filed yesterday.

The Gazette.com features a story on new USADA CEO Travis Tygart, who "made a name for himself" prosecuting the Floyd Landis case last spring:

If Tygart wanted to measure his success, he could look at USADA’s record in cases that have gone before arbitration panels. It’s 35-0, and Tygart prosecuted about 30 of them.

“We are not happy anytime we have to bring a case,” Tygart said. “We fail when an athlete decides to cheat, and we take responsibility for that. While we’re going to hold (athletes) accountable, we’re also going to look internally to find ways to better fulfill our desire to not let them get in that position.

BBC News writes a short summary of yesterday's Landis appeal brief filing to the CAS.

The New Zealand Herald has apparently not been paying much attention to the Landis CAS appeal which they refer to as "last minute".


Blogs
Sara Best posts that the CAS appeal is Floyd Landis' last hope, and as far as hope goes she regrets that she doesn't have much for his success.

It might not be the last hope, by the way. There have been rattled sabers about taking the case to US Federal Court for quite a while, but doing so might require the exhaustion of the arbitration remedy first. That could be why the CAS appeal seems to be getting done on the cheap rather than the full court press. See below...

Steroid Nation says "he's back", but SN has trouble hiding his cynicism. At least the CAS appeal will be "economical."

Khabar Bike notes the filing yesterday of the CAS appeal by Floyd Landis.

BikingBis briefly summarizes the Landis case to date with particular mention of the CAS appeal brief which was filed yesterday. And he keeps giving us links.

Bike Girl goes on and on about how disappointed a friend of hers was to learn that Floyd Landis "doped". Despite Landis' denials of guilt BG thinks he cheated

Dugard talked to Floyd and thinks he sounds mellow, or at least mellow for Floyd.