May 17, 2007 (Malibu, CA) – Thursday will be day four in the Floyd Landis anti-doping hearing at Malibu’s Pepperdine University. The US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA), which is prosecuting the case against Landis, is expected to call three-time Tour de France winner, Greg LeMond as a witness today. LeMond is expected to testify about “conversations he had with Respondent Landis) and related matters,” according to the USADA witness list. LeMond has also publicly expressed doubts that another American TdF winner, Lance Armstrong, rode clean, but it is unclear how these opinions affect the Landis hearings.

Also scheduled to testify today is Christiane Ayotte, director of the Doping Control Laboratory at Montreal’s Institut National de la Recherché Scientifique (INRS). Ayotte holds a PhD in organic chemistry. Her main areas of interest include “the characterization of the urinary metabolites of anabolic steroids and S the development of a comprehensive gas chromatographic/mass spectrometric method for the detection and identification of anabolic agents,” according to the INRS website.

Wednesday (yesterday) heard Cynthia Mongongu, a chemist at the Châtenay-Malabry anti-doping laboratory (LNDD) continuing her testimony about her analysis of Landis’s urine samples. Mongongu, speaking in French, explained that she was “accosted” by Landis observers while she was doing her analysis on the B (back-up) samples and that she had to tape a line on the floor to keep them away. “I needed to concentrate on my work,” she explained, but also adding that there was no physical contact with the Landis observers.

Defence lawyers questioned whether the presence of a USADA also interfered with her work, but Mongongu gave a non-partisan reply that it was the presence of “groups” that interfered with her concentration. Translating questions into French and Mongongu’s answers into English slowed the
proceedings, but there were no reports of misinterpreted remarks as on Tuesday.

At one point Mongongu asked for a particular graph to explain her nterpretation of the laboratory results and proceedings came to a halt. There was some procedural squabbling when defence lawyers claimed that they didn’t have this particular graph of Mongongu’s analysis nor did they have time to properly analyze its content.

The hearing before a three-member American Arbitration Agency (AAA) panel will determine whether Landis used a banned substance-synthetic testosterone-when he won the 2006 TdF. If so, Landis, 31, will likely be stripped of his title and face a suspension of two or even four years, likely ending the his career. The hearings are expected to conclude May 23.