To read the first story about Floyd, scroll past this one.

May 16, 2007 - Floyd Landis's arbitration hearing opened at Pepperdine University on Monday. The hearing is open to the public. So far not much has been revealed . Tuesday's session was interrupted when an interpreter had trouble intrepreting what a French lab employee was saying. The interpreter was fired in the middle of the hearing and a new one was brought in. She was better at understanding French and speaking English than the previous one, but still not much was revealed. Floyd's parents, Paul and Arlene Landis of Farmersville, were present. Maybe her plain dress will help his case. Paul's backwards hat probably won't.


 
May 5, 2007 - Last summer an ex-Mennonite who was born in Farmersville made international news when he won the Tour de France. In fact he is probably the most famous Mennonite ever. Nearly every one (especially the plain people) in LancasterCounty followed Floyd Landis’s race to Paris. They read the paper in disbelief after stage 16 when he collapsed and were elated the next day when they read about his improbable comeback to take the lead. A few days later LancasterCounty’s favorite son rode up to the Arch de Triomphe and claimed the yellow jersey for the final time. He kept the title in the United States’ hands after Lance Armstrong won it 7 years in a row.
   Many people drove to Farmersville to see Landis’s birthplace and met his parents and sisters. Media from all over the world came too. The town of Farmersville was overjoyed. Many Mennonite boys took up biking to become the next Floyd Landis and the many Joe Wengers who already bike thought they could win the Tour de France if they just could leave the church and join a racing team.   
   But several days after the race, news reached Lancaster that Landis had failed a drug test. His fans were stunned. Some of them got angry at Landis for cheating, but most people didn’t believe the tests. Many people asserted the French were so angry an American had won again they were falsely accusing Landis. The media attacked Landis’s family like dogs going for a wounded sheep. They had to leave their home for several days.    
   Since those days, Landis has maintained his innocence. He was kicked off the Phonak team, banned from competing for two years, and the French no longer consider him the champion. He is now appealing the drug test to the USADA. He is traveling throughout the country to raise money for his defense fund. 
   The Laboratoire National de Dépistage du Dopage (LNDD) at Chatenay-Malabry, which tested the urine sample has come under much scrutiny. Their official finding – that Landis testosterone levels were unusually high- is being questioned by Landis and his legal team and by his many local fans. The testing process has many flaws.

   In late April Landis’s samples were retested at the lab. Landis’s expert was kicked out of the retesting session and forced to sit on the concrete outside the lab. The expert, Paul Scott, formerly of UCLA Olympic Laboratory said, “In my years at the UCLA lab, I’ve never seen anything like what I experienced at the LNDD yesterday. The limitation placed on me…demonstrates the lack of objectivity in this process, USADA’s interest in controlling and limiting our observation of the retesting is an example of one of the most egregious problems in the fundamental science of anti-doping that I have experienced.“ Of course, the samples retested positive.

   Last week it was revealed that critical evidence in Landis’s case had been erased from the LNDD’s hard drives. The original record of his urine test analysis is gone. Only copies remain which may have been tampered with.

   Lance Armstrong has quietly voiced his support of Landis (his former teammate). He was attacked by the French for many years, but they never managed to bring him down.

   Landis’s team is considering contacting the Department of Justice about the activity the USADA has been involved in to prove him guilty. Landis’s website (floydlandis.com) asserts that they may have engaged in criminal activity. His final appeals hearing is scheduled some time this month. (Jim Stoltzfus, BIHN Sports) 
   We at Bird in Hand News.com are trying to stay unbiased in reporting this story, but it seems to us that Landis is the victim of a French witch hunt. A Mennonite would not cheat. Although he left his Mennonite roots far behind, we believe he is innocent. The US should boycott the Tour de France and start its own bike race here. 
   For more information on Floyd Landis or to contribute to his legal defense fund, please visit floydlandis.com.