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MALIBU, California - A French laboratory technician today denied leaking information to French newspaper L'Equipe about Tour de France cycling champion Floyd Landis testing positive for doping.
Cynthia Mongongu, an analytical technician at Chatenay-Malabry laboratory (LNDD) outside Paris, was asked under cross-examination whether she had spoken to the
newspaper after Landis' 'B' samples were retested in April.
"Absolutely not," Mongongu told Landis' attorney Howard Jacobs on the third day of the Landis arbitration hearing which is scheduled to end in a week.
Asked whether she knew the reporter who wrote the article in L'Equipe one day after the retesting was completed, she replied: "No."
Landis, who won the 2006 Tour de France title after winning the 17th stage, has consistently denied using performance enhancing drugs and his legal team say the French laboratory failed to adhere to "international standards" in its testing.
Mongongu, who analysed the Landis 'A' sample and verified the 'B' sample, was questioned at length over how she conducted the testing and how she had been trained to use the machine used for IRMS (carbon-isotope ratio testing) analysis.
Although she was very clear in her replies, she was a little vague when asked how many times she had to call for assistance when the IRMS machine needed maintenance or broke down.
"Ten times or maybe more," she said.
"I just can't seem to come up with a number. I just can't seem to remember."
Jacobs replied: "I just need to establish her best estimate, so we will go with 10."
Mongongu claimed she had been "accosted" by a Landis representative, Paul Scott, who witnessed her retest some of the Landis back-up 'B' samples on April 17 this year.
In a signed declaration, she said the top of a partially filled test tube broke and that, "when Mr Scott saw that the tube had broken, he jumped and accosted me".
Mongongu added that she put Scotch tape on the laboratory floor demarcating where Scott and fellow observer Simon Davis had to stand.
"The first two days they were very close to me," she said.
"I need to be able to concentrate in my work."
However, Mongongu said she felt no need to ask US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) observer Thomas Brenna to stand further away.
"Not necessarily Dr Brenna but it's just the whole group of people right behind me," she said.
Under further cross-examination from Landis' attorney Maurice Suh, Mongongu was unable to explain several time gaps on the computer log detailing the IRMS analysis of the 'A' sample.
At the 10-day Landis hearing, three arbitration experts will determine whether the American cyclist injected himself with the male hormone testosterone.
If found guilty of doping, Landis faces a two-year suspension and the possibility of becoming the first tour winner to be stripped of his title.
- REUTERS