Landis will know fate on Saturday
The analysis of his B sample is expected to take place between tomorrow and Saturday at the Chatenay-Malabry lab outside Paris, International Cycling Union spokesman Enrico Carpani said.
Landis tested positive for an elevated ratio of testosterone to epitestosterone following the 17th stage of the Tour de France in the Alps, where he made a remarkable comeback after a poor performance the day before.
If the B sample is negative, Landis would be cleared. If it is positive, which Landis’ lawyers say they expect, he could be stripped of his Tour victory and banned for two years.
The American cyclist has said his body’s natural metabolism — not doping — caused the result, and he would undergo further tests to prove it.
The New York Times reported on Monday that tests on Landis’ A sample show some of the testosterone in his system was synthetic, putting his defence into question. The report cited a person at the UCI with knowledge of the result.
UCI president Pat McQuaid said he had not seen the lab findings and could not confirm the report.
Yesterday he said the cycling organisation had asked the French lab to speed up its analysis.
“The longer it goes until the B sample is tested, the more speculation, and the more denial and the more of everything that goes on.”
Analysis of the B sample takes two-and-a-half days, he said, and the lab closes this weekend for a holiday.
Landis’ lawyers in Spain filed an official request for the B test late on Monday. But Carpani said the UCI had already filed its own request earlier Monday because of concerns about the case dragging on.
Landis’ Swiss-based team, Phonak, wants the results as quickly as possible.
“The sooner that’s done, the better it will be for the team,” Phonak team manager John Lelangue said. He declined to answer any other questions.
At a news conference Friday in Madrid, Landis said that “we will explain to the world why this is not a doping case but a natural occurrence”.
But after determining Landis’ ratio of testosterone to epitestosterone was more than twice the limit of 4:1, the lab performed a carbon isotope ratio test on the first of the cyclist’s two urine samples to determine whether it’s natural or synthetic, the New York Times reported.
The result showing synthetic testosterone does not need to be confirmed with a second test, said Dr Gary Wadler, a member of the World Anti-Doping Agency and a spokesman for the American College of Sports Medicine.
He told the newspaper: “The rules say that it is a violation, but if you can show that the athlete had no fault or no significant fault, there could be a mitigation of the sanction. No matter how it got there, the athlete has to show how it got into his or her body. It could have been sabotage or contaminated dietary supplements, or something else, but they have to prove how the testosterone got there.”
Spain’s Oscar Pereiro, the Tour de France runner-up, would be declared the winner if Landis loses the title. It would be the first time at the Tour the winner was disqualified for doping.
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