As far as I'm concerned, George is innocent until proven guilty by somebody with a lot more credibility than a very broke, very desperate Floyd Landis who basically has nothing left to lose at this point. More stuff will be forthcoming from the other side - evidently Landis has been writing lotsa late night emails & texting to LOTSA folks over the past few months, making threats & such in order to be allowed to race.
A coupla excerpts from Lance's statement at Livestrong.com :
"In all honesty, this has been going on for a long time. The harassment and threats from Floyd started a few years ago and really, at that time, we largely ignored him. Johan can speak more to what Floyd exactly wanted from us and the team. A year ago, I told him, ‘listen, you do what you have to do.' We have nothing to say and nothing to hide."
"They started again with some consistency and with some energy about a month ago before this race when Floyd continued to email, text and harass myself, Johan, Dave Zabriskie, Levi (Leipheimer), Andrew Messick, the CEO of Amgen, right around the time that they were trying to get into this race. Floyd made pointed threats to Messick and to the leadership of Amgen that if he wasn’t let in the race he was going to say X, Y and Z about their product.
..."Ultimately all of the other emails that have been sent around will come out. The emails to myself will come out. All of the emails to Andrew Messick will come out, to John Burke from Trek. For someone that says he is here to clear his conscience, why are you sending emails to other people’s sponsors, other people’s partners, to the organizer of a race, to the sponsors of a race? That has nothing to do with your conscience."
If you saw the rest of the emails that we have it speaks volumes to his mental state, and, the time of the day that they were sent it.
It started a couple of years ago and as texts and I wrote him back after a while. Johan can speak more about what he wanted from the team but after a few of them they got to be so annoying that I wrote him back and said, ‘Floyd leave me alone. Do what you have to do, I’m going to be fine, don’t worry about me but you have to stop texting me, annoying me, you have to stop harassing me.’"
(Regarding racing with him at an event in April)" I saw him every day at the Tour of the Gila. Not one word was said. It was ironic because not one word would be said to any of us during the race. We heard stories about him talking to himself. But we would get home and all of a sudden we would have these emails from him at night. Strange."
More at the link above, read the whole thing.
Cyclist Lance Armstrong, bleeding from a cut under his left eye, is helped up after crashing during the fifth stage of the Tour of California cycling race in the outskirts of Visalia, Calif., Thursday, May 20, 2010. (Photo by Marcio Jose Sanchez)
Lance Armstrong crashes in Stage 5 of Tour of California, taken to hospital
Fans out to witness legendary cyclist Lance Armstrong cruise by during Stage 5 of the Amgen Tour of California were disappointed Thursday when the rider was involved in a crash and taken off the course.
The Associated Press reported that Armstrong was going to the hospital for X-rays after crashing Thursday morning during the race.
Armstrong's longtime coach Johan Bruyneel tweeted Thursday that Armstrong was involved in a "huge" crash and "had to abandon and is going to the hospital for Xrays." ("Sorry to report there was a huge crash, with Chechu and Lance involved. Lance had to abandon and is going to the hospital for Xrays.")
Armstrong was reportedly outside Visalia only a few miles into Stage 5 when one of the riders in the group hit some gravel and fell. On a two-lane road, the domino effect ensued, tumbling several riders to the pavement, including Armstrong.
Armstrong sat bewildered before being helped. His face was bloodied up and he had a swollen right eye.
The extent of his injuries are yet to be reported, but his exit from the race clear as Armstrong got in the RadioShack lead team car, according to tracker updates posted at 11:23 and 11:24 a.m.
Lance on Twitter - "I'm alive. Fell face first and banged elbow pretty good. Xrays on the elbow were neg. Extremely disappointed not to be able 2 continue."
Via Twitter: "Just when I thought I couldn't get any uglier."
Tomorrow is a huge stage in the Amgen Tour of California. Stage 6, up the San Gabriel Mountains, through Wrightwood, back down to the high desert and right back up the San Bernardino Mountains to Rim of the World Highway and a finish at Big Bear Lake, 135 miles from 3,200 feet elevation to a high point of 8,000 feet. Armstrong teammate Levi Leipheimer is currently third overall, behind Mick Rogers and Dave Zabriskie. Live video online via tour tracker at the Amgen Tour link above and at Versus sports network.
