Tour de Farce? November 15, 2006
Posted by Steve in : Weblog, Tour De France , trackbackONLY IN FRANCE (AP) - The French anti-doping lab that tested American cyclist Floyd Landis’ urine samples told a newspaper it had made an “administrative error” when reporting its findings on his backup “B” sample, the French newspaper Le Monde reported Wednesday. The newspaper cited unnamed sources as saying the Chatenay-Malabry laboratory gave the wrong number in its report about Landis’ second sample. Tests on the rider’s two samples indicated that Landis had elevated levels of testosterone in his system when he won the Tour de France in July.
In a letter sent to the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency in September, Jacobs said the positive finding on the “B” sample came from a sample number not assigned to Landis.
“It’s incredibly sloppy,” Jacobs said at the time. “It has to make you wonder about the accuracy of the work.” On Sunday, Landis said in a French television interview that the lab made crucial errors in his tests. “Even the best people make mistakes,” he said. “I can’t say that the lab is always a bad lab, but I can say that in this case it made some mistakes I did not take testosterone.”
And predictably, World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) chief Dick Pound says he has complete confidence in the French laboratory that handled the drug tests on Tour de France champion Floyd Landis despite lapses in security and procedure. The French anti-doping laboratory (LNDD) in Chatenay-Malabry, on the outskirts of Paris, has come under intense scrutiny after its computer system was breached and French daily Le Monde reported that an error was made in the handling of Landis’s samples.
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