Floyd Landis’ former physiologist Allen Lim is due to appear in front of a grand jury today, and will face questioning about allegations that he helped both Landis and Levi Leipheimer to transfuse blood.
Lim’s pending testimony has been reported by both the New York Daily News and ESPN, who quote two unnamed sources as saying it will take place today.
The 37 year old has denied the claims that he helped others dope, and insisted that he had done nothing wrong to ESPN’s Bonnie D. Ford. “I am cooperating with the federal investigation and look forward to setting the record straight,” he stated in a phone call. “When I worked with Floyd, I repeatedly told him that he didn't need to dope and should not dope, and I was absolutely not hired to help him to do so. Since then, I've spent my career promoting clean sport and keeping innumerable athletes from cheating, as well as assisting in catching those who are.”
The allegations appeared in a leaked email Landis wrote to USA Cycling, USADA, the UCI and others earlier this year. Under the section marked ‘2005’, Landis spoke about Lim and claimed he helped both himself and Levi Leipheimer tranfuse blood that year.
Landis was in his first season with the Phonak team, while Leiphemier was in year one of his term with Gerolsteiner.
“I had learned at this point how to do most of the transfusion technicals and other things on my own so I hired Allen Lim as my assistant to help with details and logistics,” Landis wrote. “He helped Levi Leipheimer and I prepare the transfusions for Levi and I and made sure they were kept at the proper temperature. We both did two seperate [sic] transfusions that Tour however my hematocrit was too low at the start so I did my first one a few days before the start so as to not start with a deficit.”
Lim also worked with Landis in 2006, the year the rider staged an improbable comeback during the stage to Morzine, breaking clear soon after the start and soloing to a dominant victory. He had full access to Landis’s power data and said that the performance was in line with his abilities.
Lim continued to state this long after it was revealed that the rider had tested positive for testosterone. He backed Landis’s claims of innocence for several years. He now works alongside Lance Armstrong in the RadioShack team, having moved there after three seasons with the Garmin squad.
According to the Associated Press, another who could testify as early as today is former professional rider Kevin Livingston. He was part of Armstrong’s Tour teams in 1999 and 2000, then fell out with the Texan and moved to the T-Mobile squad of Jan Ullrich. The two have since reconciled; Livingston now works as a coach out of the same building that houses Armstrong’s bike shop in Austin, Texas.