Doctor Jaques de Ceaurriz of Châtenay-Malabry lab (Image credit: AFP)
By Shane Stokes
The Châtenay-Malabry anti-doping laboratory (LNDD) has commented for the first time on a discrepancy regarding the coding of Landis’ B sample, saying that a typing error is responsible. According to Wednesday’s edition of the French newspaper Le Monde, the identification number referring to Landis had mistakenly been indexed with the wrong number on the counter-analysis report.
The identification number for the rider was 995 474 but one of those six digits was different on the B sample report, which bore the code 994 474.
The issue had been raised before by Landis’ defence team but this is the first time that Châtenay-Malabry director Jacques de Ceaurriz had commented on it. "It's an error as regards numbering, a typing error which has no significance whatsoever on the findings in the samples," de Ceaurriz told AFP. "These little mistakes happen. They are corrected, and noted." He said that WADA was aware of the incident.
While he maintains that the original findings stand, the admission is undoubtedly an embarrassment for the laboratory. Landis’s defence team submission to the USADA review board previously referred to the lab documents as being “replete with such gross errors and ineptitude that their results in this case cannot be seriously accepted as accurate.”
For its part, the laboratory insists that the typing error does not change the result, and says it fully stands behind the findings. "It wouldn't surprise me that Landis's lawyers use this information," De Ceaurriz added, "but the error does not wipe out the result of the analysis."
Cyclingnews' coverage of the Floyd Landis case
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