Lancaster County-native Floyd Landis has 30 days to decide whether to appeal yesterday’s ruling from a U.S. arbitration panel to the International Court of Arbitration for Sport.
And, Floyd’s supporters at home are saying ‘give it up.’ This afternoon’s Lancaster New Era quote’s Landis’ former high school economics teacher and friend Dan Garrett calling the process of the 10-day hearing in May a “kangaroo court.” The panel ruled by a 2-1 margin that Landis be stripped of his title as winner of the 2006 Tour de France and banned from professional cycling for two years.
“I still cannot believe that they did not have the moral fortitude to look at the evidence and rule in his favor,” Garrett said this morning. “If this was in front of a jury, the jury would have deliberated for less than an hour and found in favor of Floyd,” continued Garrett, who attended the hearing in Malibu, Calif. last spring.
Garrett, now a magisterial district judge questioned whether it would be any different before the international panel.
Floyd’s boyhood friend, Eric Gebhard, who Floyd raced mountain bikes with, also questioned an appeal.
“I don’t know if they expect to get a different verdict somewhere else. Why waste millions more dollars,” Gebhard told the Intelligencer Journal Thursday evening.
Landis reportedly spent $2 million on his unsuccessful defense. He raised that through a series of Floyd Fairness Fund speaking engagements, such as the one at the Ephrata Playhouse in March, and bicycle rides, such as the one in Ephrata at the beginning of July.
In a prepared statement released Thursday, on the Bicycling magazine website, at http://www.bicycling.com/article/1,6610,s1-3-343-16463-1-P,00.html, Landis’ attorneys state that he is “weighing his future legal alternatives in pursuing the case, but has said that finances may force him to give up his opportunity to continue the appeal process.”
Local bicycle race organizer Rich Ruoff, of Redroseraces.com, who saw a champion in Landis when he was teen, said Floyd should quit.
“I think the cards are stacked against him, and I don’t think he can win,” Ruoff said this morning. “I don’t think it is a fair fight, and I think, even if he feels he should clear his name, he’s wasting his time and money.”
Landis’ mom, Arlene, said this morning that if it was her, she would not pursue the appeal. But, she quickly told a New Era reporter, “I’m not him. If he knows he’s innocent, I don’t know why he wouldn’t.”
Under the ruling, Landis could return to racing on Jan. 30, 2009. Landis, who will be 32 on Oct. 14, has also considered retiring from racing if his appeal was unsuccessful.
