GENEVA (AP) — Floyd Landis has been threatened with legal action if he does not withdraw allegations leveled at cycling leaders Hein Verbruggen and Pat McQuaid in a television interview.
Verbruggen, who was president of the International Cycling Union for 14 years until being succeeded by McQuaid in 2005, tells The Associated Press that they “cannot accept what he said.”
Landis, stripped of the 2006 Tour de France title for doping, told a German channel in November that the UCI had acted corruptly and protected some star riders from doping claims.
Verbruggen says a lawyer’s letter to Landis invites him to apologize, or he is “kindly invited to prove what he says.”
The letter, which was published by a cycling website, gives Landis 15 days to retract or face legal proceedings in Switzerland.
