Johan Bruyneel Comments on Landis Situation
Team RadioShack Team Manager Johan Bruyneel spoke to the press after Lance Armstrong, all prior to the start of the fifth stage of the Amgen Tour of California. Bruyneel responded to allegations from Floyd Landis of organized doping.
“I absolutely deny everything he said. I will reiterate a little more what Lance said. It’s not a surprise to us, we’ve been expecting this for a long time. Floyd started contacting us, me in particular, four years ago, almost as soon as he tested positive. He threatened, blackmail, whatever you want to call it, asking for certain things, asking for a job when he was able to race again. Obviously we did not respond to that request. From there on it’s been a constant roller coaster in that Floyd has changed his story too many times. He’s been saying something for four years. I’ve seen him on TV and in court. He wrote a book, set up a fund once he found out a legal defense is very expensive. All of a sudden this changes. He’s pointing at me, he’s pointing at Lance but he’s pointing to all the people that are still there. He even goes after Andy Rihs or Jim Ochowicz, all people who are still in the sport. For me it’s clear we’re dealing with someone who is bitter. To me Floyd has always been an angry person, sometimes for good, sometimes for bad. Sometimes he used anger in a race to motivate himself. But really he’s angry with the world. To me it sounds like he wants to drag down people that are still here and he’s enjoying this. There’s not so much else I can say about this. Except to say it’s another fact in a long line of things that happened in the past and coming from Floyd it’s no surprise."
(Regarding the timing) "You can ask what his drive is and I still don’t know. I know his team and his new personal sponsor had been trying to get into this race, so he was not only threatening us but also Andrew Messick and the sponsor of this race. They didn’t respond the way he wanted. Who knows? I think he finally found someone who wanted to write his story. I’m pretty sure some people standing here have had the story for a few weeks but didn’t give it any credibility, but now here we are. Who knows, maybe by the end of the race he shows up. I’d totally expect that too. It’s definitely an unpleasant fact and a distraction for this race and for us, but it’s nothing that I’m going to lose my sleep over.
"This (story) came late at night yesterday but it’s not like it all-of-a-sudden fell out of the sky. We’ve known since Sacramento, actually a little earlier. Obviously I was aware of it, Lance was aware of it, the teammates were aware of it. We’re going to try to not let it be a distraction as best we can. I’m going to go in the bus and talk about today’s stage and see how we can go about winning this race."
(In regards to the demands made by Landis)" He was basically asking for two things after his positive test in the Tour de France in 2006. First he has been asking us for money, a lot of money to help pay for his legal costs. (Asked if he gave him any) No, of course not or we wouldn’t be standing here. Also after his suspension was over on two occasions he has asked me for a job on the team, which also, of course, I didn’t respond positively to. The history shows that this is the time we’re going to talk about it and I hope we can address as much as we can but after I walk onto the bus, I’m done with it. We’re here for the Tour of California, this is a very important race for us, obviously Floyd chose this moment. Whether he first wanted to put pressure on the organization to put his team in the race and didn’t get it, then saw that all the doors were closed so he comes out with it when the Tour of California gets to a high point since tomorrow is the most important day…..his timing is obviously not a coincidence. For us basically this is nothing new."
(Rather than characterize it as extortion…) "I would rather call it 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.
"When I read the part of the email that said I’d taught him the doping, I thought, Wow, I must have some special qualifications. I deny this completely. This part just came out, these specific allegations against me I only learned of a few weeks ago. I’m not the only one who received this email. What can you do? We can say what we think and feel about it and say we feel bad for Floyd. He went from a high point and then basically two days later had lost everything he had. All the people in cycling received these emails, they were copied, so everyone knows what was said. This is another incident in a long line. To me it comes to what kind of credibility you can give to Floyd Landis after four years telling his story. I recently saw him on “Larry King Live” and he was talking about something else but if this is true then he’s been lying to everyone for four years. The credibility of Floyd Landis is really at a low point right now. I think he needs help.”
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Johan Bruyneel Comments on Landis Situation | Team Radioshack
