As many have heard, Will Geoghegan was fired Thursday as Floyd Landis’ business manager shortly after Greg LeMond testified at the Landis arbitration hearings. LeMond told the arbitration panel that Geoghegan had placed a threatening call to him on Wednesday evening, perhaps as a way of intimidating him into not appearing before the panel.
I’ve seen a number of people commenting in various places on the firing wondering about Geoghegan’s connection with the Floyd Fairness Fund, and whether he was paid by the Floyd Fairness Fund for work in any capacity.
So I contacted Landis spokesman, and FFF executive director, Michael Henson to find out what connection might exist between the FFF and Geoghegan. In a word: None. Henson tells me that Will Geoghegan, “never received any payment, financial or otherwise, from the Floyd Fairness Fund. He will not receive any severance from the Floyd Fairness Fund. The FFF never had any official business relationship with Mr. Geoghegan and had no formal fiduciary, intellectual or oversight capacity with the FFF.”
Which means, for the people who’ve donated money to the FFF (myself included) that none of the money donated has been paid out to Will, and he wasn’t an employee of the organization. While Will may no longer be Floyd’s business manager (and I’m sure it was painful to Floyd to have to fire his long-time friend), Geoghegan was never an employee of the FFF.
Trust But Verify is now reporting that Geoghegan, through his attorneys, has released the following statement:
I apologize to Greg LeMond and his family for the distress I caused by my call. I also apologize to the arbitration panel and to Floyd Landis and his legal team for the distraction. I have been very angry about how unfair this whole proceeding is to Floyd, a great friend and a greater champion, and stupidly tried to take out my anger on Greg. I acted on my own, impulsively, after a beer or two. I never thought about keeping Greg from testifying. If I had, I would have concluded that since Greg is such a fierce competitor my stunt would likely make him more resolved to testify. What I did was wrong and very unfair to Greg. I am very sorry about and embarrassed by my conduct.
Google News is my homepage. Everyday, I look at the sports section to see if there is any mention of Landis. Well, today the case finally made it to the “big time” with this headline “Transcript of LeMond’s impromptu press conference” that is posted on ESPN. I can’t believe LeMond (1) garners this kind of attention, (2) was “absolutely shaking and shocked” after Will’s call — what a wimp (3) thanks God for WADA — chain of custody, athlete confidentiality, current technology be damned, eh Greg? The one thing I do believe is that LeMond put his business at risk — what person would buy a LeMond branded anything? My guess is that LeMond will really find reason to be “absolutely shaking and shocked” when he sees the fallout from his obvious grandstanding — I for one am going to find out how to contact Mr LeMond to let him know personally how disgusting his antics are; I hope others do the same.
Steve thats an interesting spin on a real phone call that Will admitted to placing into Greg. Why would this be considered grandstanding.
Frankly, Im surprised that Lemond was called as a witness at all. What the hell does he know about this case? Was he even in FR during the tour? While Pound and the WADA mafia are at it, they might as well call Eddy Merckx back from the dead using a Ouji board to testify.
What a joke – It seems that the whole arbitration hearing has loss credibility with this story….
Confused –
I agree with you…as I related yesterday’s events to my wife, she boiled it down to the most important question. She asked “How does all of that say whether or not he cheated? Isn’t it supposed to be about the test?” In the end, she nails the actual “so what?” question.
Frustrated
Steve-
I agree with you…I’m kind of pissed that I have 2 bikes with gregs name on them. I also think that at least 2 people showed incredibly flawed judgment yesterday and now they’re reaping the rewards of not fully considering their actions. Greg will undoubtedly recover…I half heartedly hope we find out someday that Will was paid off and not really that stupid.
Confused
Merckx isn’t dead unless he died last night…Frankie Andreu might be a better choice for the USADA guys…he seems to have the kind of memory they enjoy.
Landis should call Bob Roll (or whoever announced s17) and play back the parts where they wonder why no one is chasing him…
This is going to be a good day… I’m waiting for the cross of Ayotte…
Hi confused — I agree with you about LeMond’s value as a witness. And, I agree — Merx’s conduct (by refusing to participate) stands in sharp contrast to LeMond’s.
To answer your question, here is how I think LeMond’ behavior is grandstanding. First, while I agree the phone call from Will was real, it had little to do with Landis and his use of PED’s. If LeMond was worried for his security, he could have gotten protection of some sort. If LeMond was vengeful, he could have pursued Will legally. There was no reason to introduce Will’s cell phone into the arbitral proceeding other than to assassinate Landis’s character. Like Landis or hate him; think he’s a good guy or a bad guy; character doesn’t seem to be the point. Yet, LeMond used a public proceeding to severely damage Landis — for something Landis did not do. Second, LeMond is using his reputation to publicly make inflammatory statements that are not based in fact. Examples of this type of grandstanding include LeMond’s implication that Landis made a confession — Landis made no confession as has been reported by Rant. Also, LeMond said “there is another side of Floyd the public has not seen” and goes on to denigrate Floyd’s reputation by Will’s call saying “they are not good people.” While the Landis case shouldn’t revolve around LeMond’s opinion, LeMond both attracted and then shamelessly exploited his opportunity to make his opinion both known and seem (in a way that is beyond me) like fact. All you have to do is look at today’s headlines to see how successful and how damaging LeMond has been. To me, that’s grandstanding. Third, LeMond gave an impromptu press conference while the arbitration was in process, just outside of the hearing room; diverting attention from the Landis case to LeMond’s own views on cycling, God, USADA, WADA, his son and who knows what else. Again, LeMond uses the Landis forum for his own personal agenda. Finally, while this is a bit of a stretch, LeMond sensationalizes his involvement in the case with stories of sexual abuse and alleged witness tampering to ensure attention. What LeMond did yesterday had nothing to do with whether or not Landis took PED’s, the competence of LNDD or the fairness of the ADO’s. Nearly a year of Rants, TBV’s, DPF’s, and Wiki’s haven’t been widely reported — yet, LeMond’s appearance and, worse his point of view, got immediate worldwide coverage. The thing that sickens me is that all the good work and conscientious effort of so many people has been slimed by LeMond’s shameful grab at the limelight. To me, that’s grandstanding.
Does that make sense?
Good points on the Grandstanding. I have not been following the details on the arbitration too closely, because I dont have the access or the time to hear hours and hours of mumbo jumbo. Thanks for providing detail
James – your right – OOPS, I forgot that the Cannibal still arround!
Good point on Andreu. Wasnt he ousted from Mgr @ Toyota United when his wife started mouthing off about Armstrong?
As Bill Hue said, ” See the monkey? Isn’t it pretty?” LeMond was out of order! A personal vendetta. I’m sorry about his sexual abuse, but he’s the one making it into a headline. I’m not condoning Will stupid behavior, he needs to get anger mangement sessions with a therapist. He is not willing to embrace any other American that wins “his” race. And he wants the press to know, he’s still around. End of story.
Steve hits the nail on the head. All about the “me me me” factor for Lemond, plain and simple; “LOOK AT ME!!!! I AM OVER HERE! ME ME ME!!!! Everyone else is a cheat but I did it FAIR AND SQUARE! ME ME ME!!!”
I agree with Theresa. Lemond could’ve settled it with testifying about his phone conversation with Floyd; we can argue separately about its purpose. But revealing his “personal experience” was his choice alone; Barnett asked him on more than one occasion if Lemond wants to publicly speak in more detail about it, and each time Lemonds went ahead to tell.
I for one am going to find out how to contact Mr LeMond to let him know personally how disgusting his antics are; I hope others do the same.
Bad idea. Contacting and talking to Greg Lemond for any reason is a bad idea. Floyd knows this now. Will Geogheon really knows it. Don’t talk to Lemond. He isn’t worth it.
MMan,
I agree. I’d stay away from contacting LeMond. I don’t think it will change his ways, even if you’ll feel some sense of satisfaction from telling him off. And he might perceive it as a threat … which could lead to some bad complications.
– Rant
The tour de France winners who never took substances considered now illegal are rare. At least since Fausto Coppi, the first to have rationalized training and ‘feeding’.
Merckx and Ocana had their performance enhancers. Hinault needed much more than water. Stephen Roche and Pedro Delgado had their own affairs. Bjarne Riis (Mr “60%” hematocrit) and Marco Pantani were immoderately doped, to a nearly self-destructive point. These two (not naturally athletically outstanding, as Merckx and Indurain) won by chance, being more daredevils than others.
Lance Armstrong was scientifically doped (he was brilliant, very professionally assisted by Dr Ferrari) and carefully avoided the detectable substances. He stopped EPO before detection started.
The only two riders that can be suspected to have been allways “clean” (whenever one knows what that word means) are Greg Lemond and Miguel Indurain (who nevertheless needed high doses of cortisone to “treat alergy”).
Note finally that 70% of the 200 riders of the tour de france suffer from asthma (and therefore are allowed “special prescriptions”). Is that statistically possible ?
So what ? Everybody is doped, but they chose it. They all chose to have a 50years life expectancy, They are adults, let them do.
Let us only require, for the sake of sportsmanship, that they are equally doped.
Problems arise when some (like Floyd) happen to be, at one precise moment, obviously more doped than others.
Flandrin:
So why are Lemond and Indurain presumed to be clean? Because they say so? Armstrong says he was clean. Because they never tested positive? Ditto for LA and others.
Big Mig was an extrordinarely good climber for one of his size. Is this evidence he was on somethine or merely that he was, in fact, very good. I, for one, do not know. Nor, do I suspect, do you, unless you are a close associate of his.
[“absolutely shaking and shocked” after Will’s call “” what a wimp “]
I think it’s one of the most cold hearted things I ever read… I’ll just quote someone you must love here, Betsy Andreu, from this article: http://www.nbcsports.com/sports/1521216/detail.html
“Betsy Andreu, whose husband, Frankie, was once one of Lance Armstrong’s lieutenants, was one of those in the know. She knew he had wrestled for years with the notion of making his secret public, whether and when and how; he simply didn’t want to be seen as self-promoting.
“I told him before he went to go testify I was so sorry it was going to be revealed this way,” she said Thursday evening. “It’s not right to have to speak about it when it’s not on your terms.””
Disgusted,
Actually, I respect Frankie as a cyclist and a person. I was disappointed in him when he revealed that he had used EPO in 1999, but who wouldn’t be? As for Betsy, she’s left some comments here in the past, and her opinion and insight is always welcome.
Betsy was right, it was terrible that LeMond had to reveal his secret, and it was terrible that he wasn’t able to make that choice on his own. And most of all, it’s terrible that he experienced such abuse. No one should have to.
– Rant