Exactly one year ago, cyclist Floyd Landis hit the send button on a thousand-word email to USA Cycling CEO Steve Johnson, laying out detailed accusations that Lance Armstrong, the iconic seven-time Tour de France winner who had supported Landis throughout triumph and scandal, was a shameless but clandestine doper.
Armstrong forcefully denied his former lieutenant's claims, and continued to do so as the ongoing federal investigation got underway. But 365 days have passed since Landis published allegations that implicated Armstrong's teammates, closest advisers and loved ones in what sounded like an international criminal conspiracy - and Armstrong and his cohort have declined to sue Landis.
The deadline to challenge that email in court passed at midnight. The statute of limitations on defamation in California, where Landis' claims were made, is one year. Plaintiffs can cite republications of the defamatory claims in future suits, but claiming damages would be more difficult. At any rate, it looks like Landis has made it safely into Sunday without becoming a defendant in a defamation suit from Armstrong or anyone in his inner circle. [...]
That works both ways; by not suing, Armstrong won't have to face sworn cross-examination in his own litigation while the specter of a grand jury investigation hovers over him. [...]
And of course, Landis put up most of the heaviest artillery in the email to Johnson, writing that during the 2004 Tour de France, the U.S. Postal Service cycling team bus carrying Landis, Armstrong and their teammates pulled over for a roadside transfusion.
"The driver pretended to have engine trouble and stopped on a remote mountain road for an hour or so so the entire team could have half a liter of blood added," Landis wrote. "This was the only time that I ever saw the entire team being transfused in plain view of all the other riders and bus driver."
Landis also wrote in his email to Johnson that Armstrong handed him testosterone patches and kept blood in a refrigerator at an apartment in Girona, Spain. The leaked email surfaced weeks later, and the Wall Street Journal and the Daily News reported it in May 20 editions.
