Kimmage interviews Floyd Landis: Sunday Times + Bombshell NYVC transcript [merged]

[Siriuscat]

So....

Floyd Landis - Tested positive for a substance he continually asserts he didn't us.......Used to ride for USPS
Tyler Hamilton - Tested positive for an Autologous transfusion.......Used to ride for USPS
Roberto Heras - Tested positive for EPO ...used to ride for USPS
Vladimir Gusev - sacked for "abnormal values" ..... was riding for Discovery

I wonder how many of these have the hands of the UCI and Team Pharmstrong all over them. Loyalty to the cause is obviously important to Lance

 

[Barrus]

Barrus, can you please explain your questions, and perhaps JV's answer?

First tweet:

@Vaughters ANything to say about the new statements of Landis about you and the fact that you wanted to keep everything under wraps?

Vaughters:

@Barrus87 sure.In my opinion,anti-doping authorities need to know these facts. Media wants to know, but doesn't have ability to solve issues

my answer to that:

@Vaughters apparently though, out of the article it appears as though Landis himself interpreted your statements differently
or am I wrong in that interpretation?

Vaughters:

@Barrus87 I think he didn't go into detail. But note he says "journalist"not wada or whatever. My stance annoys Paul too.

Mine:

@Vaughters I can completely understand your position about the media not needing to know everything, however I also understand that
understand that media can be used as a good method of applying pressure on agencies and as a good deterrent

Vaughters:

@Barrus87 ...yeah, I see your point.

 

[Barrus]

My question concerned this part of the interview:

Last April), when I was going to tell the story, I had some correspondence with him - because he knew before some other people did - and his advice was, “Just say what you know about you and don’t say anything about anyone else.” And I said, “Yeah, but Jonathan, this story involves other people. How do I tell the story without that? What do I do when they say ‘Who helped you dope on the Postal Service team?” He said “Just say it’s none of your business.”

 

[Sanitiser]

nyvelocity is down again but it's cached by google.

 

[BotanyBay]

Time will tell. but who is going to depose McQuaid and surely the next uci president will be a puppet for the puppet master, Verbruggen, who i believe still runs the sport through McQuaid, albeit extremely corruptly and badly.

FIFA gets away with is huge corruption, IOC too. UCi aint gonna change.

Unfortunately, it probably has to be destroyed in some way.

 

[hrotha]

Maybe in an ideal world it would have been better to keep this from the media so that the relevant authorities could deal with it in a more efficient manner, but we all know it's either go public or see it all swept under the rug.

 

[red_flanders]

**********

 

[red_flanders]

Maybe in an ideal world it would have been better to keep this from the media so that the relevant authorities could deal with it in a more efficient manner, but we all know it's either go public or see it all swept under the rug.

My strong sense is that there is PLENTY of additional information they're working on.

 

[Benotti69]

So....

Floyd Landis - Tested positive for a substance he continually asserts he didn't us.......Used to ride for USPS
Tyler Hamilton - Tested positive for an Autologous transfusion.......Used to ride for USPS
Roberto Heras - Tested positive for EPO ...used to ride for USPS
Vladimir Gusev - sacked for "abnormal values" ..... was riding for Discovery

I wonder how many of these have the hands of the UCI and Team Pharmstrong all over them. Loyalty to the cause is obviously important to Lance

i think he wants more than loyalty. he demands subservience to him.

look at what they paid Floyd, a pittance for such a talent and not what he was worth and a guy who gave everything in every race, why because they knew they could. then when he was offered what he was worth they offered to match it too late.

i wonder how many other Floyd's are in the peloton now?

 

[thehog]

Its a powerful and evocative read.

This part I read again on how Floyd stood up to Lance. Even Johan couldn't tell Lance what to do. The more I read today's transcript the more i think Armstrong has a screw loose in his head. He's just a very strange man. For some other reason I keep thinking of Brad Wiggins and how he eluded Floyd was a drunk and Lance never tested positive. To say these things goes to what Floyd was saying about one version for the media and the other world which the cyclists knew.

-------

I was extremely upset with what was going on…I happened to be on the front when Lance came by going twice as fast as us, clearly not wanting anybody to get on his wheel. I knew why he was going up there – he had told us on the bus ‘Make sure Simeoni doesn’t go in the break’ – so I looked at the other guys behind and said ‘Somebody get on his wheel’ but he was already half way across to the break at that stage. So I got on the radio immediately and said to Johan (Bruyneel) ‘You’ve got to get Lance to slow down. You have to tell him to come back’ and the only response I got was ‘You guys have to chase him down.’ And I said ‘Look, I’m not going to look that foolish; I’m not going to chase down the leader of the race on my own team. How dumb do you think I am? I’m going to the back.’ So I went to the back and went back to the (team) car and said ‘Johan, this is ridiculous. We look really bad. He looks like an idiot. How are we going to explain this? Just tell him to sit up.’ And then he told Lance (by radio) to sit up and Lance wouldn’t sit up. He told me to go back to the front and ride. I said ‘I’m not going to be part of this. I’m going to sit at the back’ and so I stayed at the back of the peloton until they brought Simeoni back. I thought it was stupid and I said what I thought – not because I like Simeoni or don’t like Simeoni – I just thought it was a foolish thing to do in the race. I said ‘There is no good explanation for this, I don’t want to be part of it.’ And no one said anything. I was the only one that ever spoke-up against Lance and if I thought something was wrong – and that was clearly wrong – I was going to say it.

Are you saying it was wrong in the context of him as the race leader and you as the team?

No, it was wrong to treat him that way. I just wouldn’t do that.

It was wrong to treat Simeoni that way?

Absolutely, yeah, but my argument to Johan couldn’t possibly be a moral one at that point. My argument to try and get him to stop was ‘Look, this is stupid. He is not accomplishing anything.’ But I disagreed with what he was doing. I just wouldn’t do that. Alright, I had justified winning in my own mind while I was doping but I would never be able to justify preventing someone else from winning that wasn’t doping. Or that had said something to me. I wouldn’t do that, ever. I don’t race my bike to prevent other people from winning. And this is the distinction between Lance and I – I get satisfaction out of winning or achieving a goal; he gets all his satisfaction out of preventing other people from winning.

 

[Benotti69]

My strong sense is that there is PLENTY of additional information they're working on.

i also get from the conversation that Floyd and Paul discussed more than what we read in NYVelocity. anyone else get that?

 

[Anonymous]

i also get from the conversation that Floyd and Paul discussed more than what we read in NYVelocity. anyone else get that?

Sure. He interviewed Landis for something like 7 hours.

 

[Sanitiser]

Well apparently the conversation went on for several hours so yes that would be correct. Also this:

Kimmage, however, felt that Landis’ detailed views on cycling needed to be aired, so he offered us the transcript of their interview. Naturally we accepted. The transcript is presented here in the form Kimmage intended, with no edits from us. We’d like to thank Kimmage and Landis for speaking freely, and note that the opinions within are strictly theirs.

 

[Kennf1]

Quite an interview. The few things that stood out for me:

1. The ex-wife and father-in-law knew about the doping from day 1.

2. He implies that Gord Fraser was completely clean when he quit the euro scene and came back to race domestically. As I recall, Fraser was winning every other crit he was racing in back then.

3. Floyd was so baffled by the Simeoni incident he went to the back to speak with Bruyneel personally, and refused to go back to the front.

4. Del Moral was actually concerned about the team looking too strong, which is why he "only" gave Floyd half a bag, and dumped the rest out.

5. Floyd says the discussion of the refrigerated motorcycle paniers in the IM exchange between Vaughters and Andreu makes no sense (so much for the rumors that Floyd has a picture of the thing).

6. Floyd was going on a bike ride with Will-"you're fired"-Geoghagen on the day the arbitration verdict was announced.

 

[Benotti69]

Sure. He interviewed Landis for something like 7 hours.

yeah, some people are querying certain questions that were not asked in the transcript, but i imagine they talked about everything. anyone who dares say again that Paul kimmage has no inside knowledge of the modern pro game is talking out there proverbial.

Floyd didn't get too detailed about his PEDs and how often, but i imagine he was taking stuff pretty consistently to have the need for a getaway on his Harley?

 

[Boeing]

Its a powerful and evocative read.

he gets all his satisfaction out of preventing other people from winning.

wow that is powerful

 

[Granville57]

My question concerned this part of the interview:

Last April), when I was going to tell the story, I had some correspondence with him - because he knew before some other people did - and his advice was, “Just say what you know about you and don’t say anything about anyone else.” And I said, “Yeah, but Jonathan, this story involves other people. How do I tell the story without that? What do I do when they say ‘Who helped you dope on the Postal Service team?” He said “Just say it’s none of your business.”

This whole JV thing is interesting because it was previously reported that Floyd had actually stayed at JV's place after coming back from France just after the TdF, and that that was when and where JV urged Floyd to come clean. Now it seems it was less intimate than that. Not a big discrepancy but it's interesting how stories get retold.

On the heels of the press conference, Mr. Landis said, Jonathan Vaughters, a former U.S. Postal rider, invited him to fly to New York and lie low for a while. There, Mr. Vaughters urged Mr. Landis to come clean—about everything he'd done.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704911704575326753200584006.html

 

[Race Radio]

@nyvelocity
nyvelocity
Of course we liked the hits, but this is about getting the story out.



Feel free to copy and paste portions of the interview here. Also it is no problem if you want to put all of the content on other sites, or link to pdf versions.

Paul, and NYVelocitys, goal is to get this amazing interview dispersed as much as possible. This is not about page views.

 

[MacRoadie]

Re: NYVelocity

Apparently, they are assigned a set amount of bandwidth, and someone failed to alert their webmaster to the anticipated spike in traffic.

Nothing nefarious, apparently....

 

[sniper]

this observation deserves a +1:

Maybe in an ideal world it would have been better to keep this from the media so that the relevant authorities could deal with it in a more efficient manner, but we all know it's either go public or see it all swept under the rug.

 

[thehog]

@nyvelocity
nyvelocity
Of course we liked the hits, but this is about getting the story out.



Feel free to copy and paste portions of the interview here. Also it is no problem if you want to put all of the content on other sites, or link to pdf versions.

Paul, and NYVelocitys, goal is to get this amazing interview dispersed as much as possible. This is not about page views.

Roger that. I'll stop beating up the scurge.

 

[Anonymous]

yeah, some people are querying certain questions that were not asked in the transcript, but i imagine they talked about everything. anyone who dares say again that Paul kimmage has no inside knowledge of the modern pro game is talking out there proverbial.

Floyd didn't get too detailed about his PEDs and how often, but i imagine he was taking stuff pretty consistently to have the need for a getaway on his Harley?

Agreed on Kimmage.

TexPat had an interesting comment on the Harley.

If/when Lance falls it will not be pretty....

 

[Cobblestoned]

Holy smokes! That took up my whole morning. Unbelievable read. Quite the work for Paul Kimmage. The one thing that I wished Paul had gone into just a bit more were the specifics about the night before Morzine. Did Floyd do anything "special" to rev up for his epic ride besides his "normal" routine?

Amazing interview though. How can his detractors not realize the implications of all this? A truly moving read. I'll have to go through it a few more times for sure.


I have always wondered exactly that. Especially with this quote:


Everyone that has won the TdF since Lance has fallen in one way of another (Pereiro was insignificant in the scheme of things). Sastre openly called out Armstrong for his belittling remarks, and now he's not even invited to the Tour. Connections? Why not? I'm far past the point of caring if I sound like a tin-hatter. The depth and breadth of corruption is mind numbing.



My assumption is that whether or not Floyd had the ability to keep up with team, by riding clean, was probably inconsequential. They probably had a mandate of sorts. You ride the Tour, we store your blood. Period.

Just my interpretation.

I really want to go for a ride right now...

Ah, I see. Nice story again. Better go for a ride.

Sastre is not allowed to ride the Tour 2011 because Lance doesn't want it.
French teams are just an excuse and actually they love Gianetti.

Pereiro is now officially "insignificant".

Lance organized Operation Puerto and contaminated Floyds bloodbag with Testo and Albertos bag with Clen.

Lance switched Heras's bloodbag and his teammate's.

Lance is responsible for every single doper who was too stupid to dope or who exaggerated doping.
Only USPS riders were caught. They never rode for any other team before or later.
There were never ever riders from other teams caught or connected to doping.
There are no USPS riders left that were never caught.

This is the place where dreams come true. Wow.
Now finally we can sum up that it is Lance's fault that this sport is a bit cleaner.
Nice fault.
Thank you, Lance.

Unbelievable bold from the UCI that they didn't let the Puerto riders start in 2006 and unbelievable bold from all these people that are trying to clean up this sport. Sad. They all just followed Lance's advices blindly.

 

[red_flanders]

**********

 

[ansimi]

That's a great interview! The whole thing is interesting and compelling and it rings true for me. I finally feel like I understand the guy and I like him and wish him the best.

I'd love several more interviews like this but it's probably best for Landis if he steps away from the cycling world and builds a new life.

I wonder what it was like for him watching the 2007 and 2008 Tours when he was suspended and miserable those races were full of doping scandals.