LeMond bombshell wakes up Landis doping hearing

	RELATED • Lemond: Landis made threats
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MALIBU, Calif. -- During a late recess in yesterday's Floyd Landis arbitration hearing at Pepperdine University's law school, I fell into conversation with Landis's father, Paul, who'd been unaware, until I told him, that he bore a strong resemblance to hockey legend Scotty Bowman.

As the tide of events had turned swiftly against his son earlier in the session, I noticed that Paul immersed himself more and more deeply in a book. It was a paperback New Life Bible.

"Sometimes things come up and there's nowhere to turn," he explained, "and the Word is such a comfort."

His voice cracked. "I was just talking to Will" during the recess, "and of course we love and forgive him, but there's a mark that will never be erased."

He was talking about Will Geoghegan, Floyd's just-fired business manager, who'd been busted for witness tampering, then publicly sacked during the hearing -- who had single-handedly transformed an arid, science-intensive proceeding into a tabloid-worthy carnival.

"I don't know if he was with anyone or not," Paul continued, sadly. "But it doesn't really matter. He should have known better."

In fact, it matters quite a bit, since it could determine whether only Geoghegan is prosecuted for what is a crime.

If Floyd Landis had any of that Jack Daniels left over from last summer, I'm thinking it was gone by this morning.

Until Greg LeMond walked into the courtroom on Thursday, Team Landis had been holding its own against the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency. Eight months after tests indicated that he cheated to win the '06 Tour de France, the cyclist was taking the fight to his accusers.

That was Team Landis' strategy against the French lab analysts who'd testified over the previous two days. And it was certainly the plan for LeMond, who joined the proceedings after yesterday's lunch recess. During his abortive attempt to cross-examine the three-time Tour de France winner, Landis attorney Howard Jacobs made it clear that he intended to depict the 46-year-old as an embittered former champion, a has-been whose public criticisms of Landis were motivated by jealousy. The idea was to diminish LeMond, cut him down to size.

But after riveting the courtroom with testimony that can only be described as courageous -- LeMond spoke publicly for the first time about being sexually abused as a child -- the witness was elevated in stature. It was Team Landis that came off looking small.