Armstrong hits back at Landis accusations in the Wall Street Journal

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Lance Armstrong has hit back at the latest accusation by Floyd Landis in Saturday's edition of the Wall Street Journal, comparing his former teammate's credibility to a carton of sour milk.

"Today’s Wall Street Journal article is full of false accusations and more of the same old news from Floyd Landis, a person with zero credibility and an established pattern of recanting tomorrow what he swears to today," Armstrong said in a statement published on the lancearmstrong.com site.

In a new allegation, Landis also claimed that the team sold off bike from sponsor Trek to create a fund to pay for a doping programme.

The Wall Street Journal reported that three other former U.S. Postal riders had said in interviews that doping had occurred at the team, during the time Armstrong was its lead rider. Several other riders said they had never seen doping going on during their time on the team.

"The article repeats many of Landis’ baseless and already-discredited claims against many successful people in cycling, and even includes some newly created Landis concoctions," Armstrong continued in his statement.

"Landis’ credibility is like a carton of sour milk: once you take the first sip, you don’t have to drink the rest to know it has all gone bad."

"For years, sensational stories – based on the allegations of ax-grinders -- have surfaced on the eve of the Tour for publicity reasons, and this article is simply no different."

Armstrong is scheduled to start his final Tour de France prologue at 19:30 local time in Rotterdam later today. He insists he will not be distracted by the latest allegations.

"Lastly, I have too much work to do during this, my final Tour, and then after my retirement in my continued fight against cancer, to add any attention to this predictable pre-Tour sensationalism."