i've done a lot of reporting on the process of drug testing, drug labs, the protocols and whatnot, and i've interviewed ad nauseum, at length, officials at USADA, WADA, and various lab managers such as the now retired don catlin at the largest worldwide WADA-approved lab at UCLA.

perhaps the most explosive of landis' accusations is that lance and johann paid the UCI to cover up a drug positive. the problem i have with this is the protocol followed by a drug lab. upon returning a positive test, a WADA lab (there are only three dozen around the world) informs three entities at the same time: the IF (the UCI in this case); the testing authority (which may also be the IF, or, it may not, depending on who ordered and paid for the test); and WADA.

so, not only the UCI would have to be in on this, so would WADA. and, really, so would the lab, presumably, because the lab would know that its positive test is being hushed.

the reason WADA is able to release stats each year detailing how many adverse findings occur, per sport, per lab, is that WADA routinely, by protocol, receives notice of these adverse findings concurrently with the testing authority and the IF.

so, for landis' accusation to ring true, not only would the UCI have to have agreed to this payoff, both the UCI and bruyneel/armstrong would have to count on severe ineptitude by both the testing lab and WADA, each of which would also know about the positive. even if you grant that such ineptitude might exist, it's unimaginable that you could rely upon it, esp when a paper trail would be there for anyone to follow.

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Dan Empfield
aka Slowman