Armstrong brushes off Landis drug allegations

Seven-time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong has dismissed claims by disgraced cyclist Floyd Landis that he is a drugs cheat, after his former team-mate made a series of sensational allegations about doping in the sport.

American Landis, who won the 2006 Tour but was later stripped of the title, said he wanted to "clear my conscience" by finally admitting to using performance enhancing drugs after years of denial. He became the first man to be stripped of the Tour de France title after being found guilty of doping - but he furiously denied the allegations and used most of his savings and set up a fund, which raised $500,000, to try and clear his name. He even wrote a book in which he claimed he was innocent.

But now, in a series of emails sent to cycling officials and the media, Landis has confessed to using banned substances, including EPO, steroids, human growth hormone, testosterone and blood transfusions, from 2002 onwards.

It was in 2002 that he joined Lance Armstrong's the US Postal team (the pair are pictured racing together in 2005, above). In the three years he spent with them Armstrong won the tour each time.

Landis implicates Armstrong in his allegations and even claims he asked Landis to look after bags of his own blood. He also accuses a host of senior figures in the world of cycling of colluding to cover up the practise.

However, there has been widespread scepticism over Landis' claims, although he says he has come clean now in order to beat the World Anti-Doping Agency's eight-year statute of limitations, which runs out next month.

Armstrong, who has always denied doping claims and has previously sued his accusers, said he had nothing to hide.

"I would say that I'm a little surprised, but I am not.  In all honesty,  this has been going on for a long time. The harassment and threats from Floyd started a few years ago and really, at that time, we largely ignored him," he said. "Floyd lost his credibility a long time ago."

He also questioned Landis' state of mind and said: "If you saw the rest of the emails that we have it speaks volumes to his mental state, and, the time of the day that they were sent."

Pat McQuaid, the president of the International Cycling Union (UCI), which Landis accused of covering up positive dope tests, said the allegations were "scandalous and mischievous" and claime dit was "obvious" that he had a grudge.

The UCI itself said it was "deeply shocked" by claims it had concealed a positive doping result against Armstrong during the 2002 Tour of Switzerland.

It said that the allegation "considerably impinges on the honour of all persons who have dedicated themselves to the fight against doping." It also pointed out that Armstrong did not participate in the 2002 Tour of Switzerland.

However, that is unlikely to be the end of the matter as Wada has promised to investigate the claims.

Landis, though, remains unrepentant. "I don’t feel guilty at all about having doped. I did what I did because that's what we did." ·