I would suggest Landis consider going to college and forgetting about pro riding
after this one... :(

----- Original Message -----

Just when you thought they could sink no lower ....


http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1622888,00.html?cnn=yes


(MALIBU, Calif.) - Floyd Landis' sleepy, scientific arbitration hearing morphed
into a pulp-fiction blockbuster Thursday, replete with revelations of sexual
abuse, allegations of threatening phone calls and even a Donald Trump-style
firing.

It came courtesy of Landis' fellow American Tour de France champion Greg LeMond,
who disclosed he had been sexually abused as a child and received a call
Wednesday from Landis' manager who threatened to reveal the secret if LeMond
showed up to testify.
Shortly after LeMond dropped those bombshells, the manager, Will Geoghegan,
walked up to LeMond, apologized and admitted he made the call, LeMond said.
Which led to "You're fired" - the message Landis attorney Maurice Suh gave to
Geoghegan while they were still standing in the hearing room.

"It was a real threat, it was real creepy, and I think it shows the extent of
who it is," LeMond said before leaving the Pepperdine law school after his
spellbinding day. "I think there's another side of Floyd that the public hasn't
seen."

Landis, ditching his yellow tie for a black one he wore to symbolize his
feelings of animosity toward LeMond, sat stoically as he watched the three-time
champion wreck his day. Landis is not allowed to comment during the hearing.

Making it worse for last year's Tour de France champion was that the
cross-examination of LeMond, designed to expose his motives and impeach his
credibility, was called off because LeMond refused to answer questions about
Lance Armstrong.

"I just have to say, again, this is completely unfair," Landis attorney Howard
Jacobs said.

He wanted to ask LeMond about suggestions he has made in the past that
Armstrong, a seven-time Tour de France winner, might have doped.

But LeMond didn't think that was the main point.

"I think they didn't want me coming here today," LeMond said. "I don't know why.
If you didn't do anything wrong, why would you mind me coming here today?"

Before LeMond received the threatening call from Geoghegan, his testimony was
supposed to be about conversations he had with Landis shortly after news of his
positive "A" urine sample had been leaked to the media.

LeMond said he urged Landis to come clean if, in fact, his backup "B" sample
also came back tainted.

He said he encouraged Landis to help his sport and "more importantly, help
himself."

"At this point, he said, 'I don't see anything that ... what good would it do?
If I did, it would destroy a lot of my friends and hurt a lot of people,'"
LeMond testified.

He said he used the story of his being sexually abused when he was 6 as an
example of how it's good to get things out in the open.

"It nearly destroyed me by keeping the secret," LeMond said.

He said he told Landis that very few people knew that about him, then revealed
that someone in the Landis camp tried to use that information to intimidate him.

LeMond described receiving a call Wednesday evening from someone who claimed to
be his uncle. He said he later traced the call to Geoghegan's cell phone.

"He said, 'I'll be there tomorrow and we can talk about how we used to' perform
a sexual act, LeMond said of the phone call. "I thought this was intimidation to
keep me from coming here."

He said he was so distraught by the call, he filed a police report, which was
presented as evidence by attorneys. Malibu sheriff's officials, however,
declined to release the report or details about it, saying the case was under
investigation.

A message left on Geoghegan's cell phone by The Associated Press was not
immediately returned.

Outside the hearing room, LeMond insisted he appeared only to help cycling, a
sport he thinks has been ruined by an unabated culture of doping.

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.

"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."


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