Floyd Landis is being represented by the same law firm that represented Greg Lemond in his case against Trek Bicycles.
Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati (WSGR) is the name of the firm and many of the attorneys who represented Lemond and Lemond Bicycles in the recently-resolved litigation with Trek are now working with Landis.
And Cycling Weekly has been able to confirm from another source that Landis is co-operating with Jeff Novitzky, a federal investigator with the Food and Drug Administration in the United States, as has been reported. Novitzky is the agent who investigated allegations of doping centring on the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative in San Francisco.
Last month, Landis admitted doping during his career and made allegations against a number of other riders and managers, including his former team-mate at the US Postal Service team Lance Armstrong and the team's boss Johan Bruyneel. He said that Armstrong had taken EPO – as Landis had – while they rode for the US Postal Service team. Landis rode for US Postal between 2002 and 2004.
Armstrong and Bruyneel denied the allegations and painted Landis as someone with a grudge. Armstrong also raised questions about Landis's state of mind, saying: "I saw him every day at the Tour of the Gila. Not one word was said. It was ironic because not one word would be said to any of us during the race. We heard stories about him talking to himself. But we would get home and all of a sudden we would have these emails from him at night. Strange."
Mark Handfelt of WSGR told CW: "The allegations regarding Mr Landis's motivations and current health are completely false and seem to be made in a manner as so to interfere with Mr Landis's professional opportunities, just as they were when made by Mr Armstrong against Mr Lemond."
But he added that he could not go into the specific nature of the representation the firm is providing Landis.
Since Landis's explosive allegations almost three weeks ago, things have gone quiet – in public at least.
Last week, Lemond told USA Today that Landis's allegations against Armstrong made him feel vindicated. Trek marketed Lemond's bicycle brand until there was a dispute between the two companies, which arose after Lemond criticised Armstrong. The dispute was resolved and Lemond's bicycle brand was returned to him.
However, during Landis's appeal against his doping suspension in 2007, Landis's friend and sometime business manager Will Geoghegan called Lemond pretending to be the person who molested Lemond when he was a child.
After Landis had failed a dope test in 2006, he called Lemond for advice. Lemond told Landis to come clean and revealed that he had been abused as a child as a way of explaining that the burden of trying to keep something secret can have a corrosive effect.
The call from Geoghagen to Lemond effectively attempting to blackmail him against testifying was a low point in a lengthy and failed bid by Landis to clear his name.
Lemond recently revealed that he and Landis had put the issue behind them. Now they find themselves on the same side of the argument. However, CW understands that this does not mean Lemond is paying for Landis's legal representation.
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