Floyd Landis gives doping details to Wall Street Journal

I just received a WSJ News Alert email that reads that Floyd Landis provided hours of interviews with The Wall Street Journal that detail how he had used performing-enhancing drugs extensively during his career. A quick scan of the article gives tons of details about how Landis was introduced to doping when he signed with U.S. Postal and how Lance Armstrong helped him dope. Here is a brief summary based on a quick scan.

The article has a lot of information that Floyd revealed in May only with a lot more details. For example, the article claims that Floyd revealed that after he joined Phonak he had to develop his own doping program since Phonak wasn't as organized as U.S. Postal was. Apparently, Floyd contacted Levi Leipheimer and they worked together to get a program going. The next year, Floyd claims that he approached the Phonak team owner, Andy Rihs, and Rihs agreed to support a doping program for Floyd so he could win the Tour de France. Other details include descriptions of hotel rooms that were set up for blood transfusions during the Tour and instances when other riders such as George Hincapie and Luis Rubiera were getting transfusions at the same time.

Also, another former U.S. Postal rider, Chad Gerlach, is quoted in the article as saying:

"I believe it because I have seen it personally," he said. "I am not ready to out my friends or provide names. I just saw it. It's just a systematic thing."

Overall, the article is not good publicity for Lance Armstrong and many other American cyclists who are starting the Tour de France tomorrow. My guess is that we will be hearing much more about this over time as the fraud investigation of Lance Armstrong continues...