Rough Ride (34 page)

It was an interesting contrast to the response of Bradley Wiggins, who was adamant they should 'Get the bastards out [of the sport].' Sometimes, you don't need a urine sample or a mass spectrometer to know which guys are cheating. No, you just listen to what they say about doping. I believe in Bradley Wiggins; Landis reminds me of Millar the day we crossed swords in Dunkirk. Reactions That Occur When an Unfrozen Mennonite Becomes a Professional Cyclist? He signs up to the code of
omerta
like most of the rest.

Four weeks ago, when we set off from London, I made a number of unflattering references to my companion for the Tour, the photographer Richard Stanton. I described him as a cycling anorak; I ridiculed his cycling-anorak friends; I warned him that our relationship would never survive the week. I was wrong. He's one of the finest human beings I've ever met. You should have heard him ranting and raving about the dopers as we drove to the ferry in Calais this evening. I looked at him and smiled: 'Christ! You're even more cynical than I am! I've created a bloody monster.'

'What about next year?' he asked.

'What about it?' I replied.

'Will you cover the race again?'

'I'm not sure,' I replied.

It's a Tuesday evening in the fourth week of July in Stiphout, Holland. Floyd Landis is sitting in the back of a black, open-topped Mercedes with a local beauty queen. Two days have passed since his triumphant ride to Paris and the time has come to enjoy the spoils. Tonight it's a 60,000 euro fee to flex his limbs in the Criterium de Stiphout. Tomorrow, there's a similar cheque waiting down the road in Chaam.

President Bush has called to extend his congratulations. His former boss, Lance Armstrong, has been sharing in the glory. 'I'm glad that a guy who came through our programme has won,' Armstrong tells the Associated Press on Sunday. 'We can take a small bit of credit for helping to develop Floyd.'

The problems start the following morning when he's informed that there's a problem with his urine sample from Morzine. He cancels his racing engagements for the week, bolts to a secret location in Europe and holds a short telephone conference with reporters from the US late on Thursday evening. Someone asks if he has taken performance enhancing drugs. He sounds shaken and subdued.

'I'll say no,' he replies. 'The problem I have here again is that most of the public has an idea about cycling because of the way things have gone in the past. So I'll say no, knowing a lot of people are going to assume I'm guilty before I've had a chance to defend myself.'

'I'll say no.' What does that mean Floyd?

He requests that reporters cut him some slack. 'All I want to do is ask that everybody take a step back,' he says. 'I don't know what your position is now and I wouldn't blame you if it was sceptical because of what cycling has been through in the past and the way other cases have gone . . . All I'm asking for is just that I be given a chance to prove that I'm innocent.'

But on Friday afternoon, bolstered by the support of some impressive new lawyers with experience in this field, he's sounding much more defiant before reporters in Madrid. 'I declare convincingly and categorically that my winning the Tour de France has been exclusively due to many years of training and my complete devotion to cycling,' he affirms. 'This is not a doping case but a natural occurrence.'

Jonathan Vaughters, a former American professional, is one of many to offer support. 'I believe Floyd is innocent,' he says. 'The majority of T/E [testosterone/epitestosterone] tests are overturned at CAS [Sports Tribunal] level. The guy will probably be proven innocent in eight months' time but in the short term the media is killing him. Floyd is basically paying for the sins of all the morons who came before him who have denied, denied, denied. He's going to take the fall for everyone who has cried wolf before him.'

Poor Floyd; a scapegoat for the morons; the media is killing him; it's our fault.
Plus ça change . . .