Floyd Landis' scientific arbitration hearing morphed into a pulp-fiction blockbuster, replete with revelations of sexual abuse and allegations of threatening phone calls on Thursday.
It came courtesy of Landis' fellow US Tour de France champion Greg LeMond, who disclosed he had been sexually abused as a child and received a call on 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.
PHOTO: AFP
That led to Landis attorney Maurice Suh firing 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.
"I think there's another side of Floyd that the public hasn't seen," he said.
Landis, who was wearing a black tie 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 press.
LeMond said he urged Landis to come clean if, in fact, his 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 six 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 was so distraught by the intimidatory phone call that he traced to Geoghegan that 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.
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