In a move that was supposedly intended to clear his conscience, disgraced American cyclist Floyd Landis attempted to hurt the reputation of former teammate and seven-time Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong by saying that Armstrong was aided by a wide variety of performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs). Lance hasn’t responded yet but the cycling team manager Johan Bruyneel has. Floyd Landis pointed the finger at Bruyneel as the man who introduced Landis to all of the PEDs, and Johan Bruyneel has fashioned an appropriate response on Lance Armstrong’s Live Strong website.

Resource for this article: Lance Armstrong responds to Landis drug accusations via manager

Bruyneel says Lance Armstrong did not participate in doping

Johan Bruyneel, manager of former Lance Armstrong/Floyd Landis cycling team U.S. Postal (which is now Team RadioShack), told the media that every allegation Floyd Landis made is a huge lie. Bruyneel says that when Landis tested positive following his 2006 Tour de France victory, he began to contact Bruyneel and Lance Armstrong and threatened to blackmail them, perhaps even demanding internet loans. Since then, claims Bruyneel, Floyd Landis changed his story regarding PEDs numerous times and even wrote a book about the affair. “For me, it’s clear we’re dealing with someone who is bitter,” Bruyneel told the press. “Floyd has always been an angry person, sometimes for good, sometimes for bad.” Although that energy was sometimes used to help him perform, sometimes it also was just used for him to lash out at friends. Both Lance Armstrong and Johan Bruyneel are uncertain as to Floyd Landis’ timing, whether there was a specific reason to come forward now with a new story.

A Team RadioShack distraction

As Team RadioShack is preparing for their Californian Tour, both Lance Armstrong and Johan Bruyneel want to put to the Floyd Landis situation behind them. Bruyneel said that the Landis accusations were just “a sad story”:

“Knowing the personality, his history, having had him on the team, I mean we took Floyd on the team when he was in bad financial shape after the Mercury fiasco and he had no money. I remember he told me, ‘Luckily you got me on the team because I was almost forced to sell my house to pay my bills.’ Since then I think it’s been up and down for Floyd, and I would advise him to look for professional help, and I’m not talking about lawyers, I’m talking about other help.”

On top of the world was Floyd Landis

Floyd Landis’ Tour de France victory made him a household name in 2006. Unfortunately, his problems with cycling officials have made him known more for that than for how good he is. Lance Armstrong had been rumored to have used similar PEDs to Landis, but Armstrong has passed multiple drug tests. Most cycling authority has been satisfied by that except for a couple French officials who might just be mad that he dominated the Tour de France. The reputation of American cycling has been damaged by Floyd Landis. It may take another young cyclist with the will and ability of a Lance Armstrong to clean up the mess.

Citations

Johan Bruyneel

http://www.livestrong.com/teamradioshack/news_johan-bruyneel-comments-landis-situation/

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 26th, 2010 at 3:01 pm and is filed under Famous Bikers. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.