MALIBU, Calif. (AP) _ Floyd Landis' former manager was set to enter rehab Monday, a revelation made in the hours before the Tour de France champion was to take the witness stand for what promised to be a hostile cross-examination.
In a letter written by Brent Kay, Landis' new manager, and posted on the ``Trust But Verify'' blog, Kay acknowledged Will Geoghegan is ``entering a rehabilitation program today in an effort to address his problems.''
Geoghegan called Greg LeMond last Wednesday night and, posing as LeMond's uncle, threatened to reveal the secret that LeMond had been sexually abused as a child if LeMond showed up to testify.
Moments after LeMond told that story Thursday, Geoghegan was fired. When he testified Saturday, Landis said he had no idea Geoghegan was making those phone calls.
``I knew there was a problem,'' Landis said of his reaction upon realizing Geoghegan had made the call. ``I was traumatized having him tell me that story in the first place. There are very few things I can imagine would happen to a person that are worse than that. To make light of that, I can't even put words to it.''
Kay's letter reiterated Landis' feelings.
``The past few months have been remarkably stressful for Will and his decompensation resulted in the unfortunate and embarrassing incident last Wednesday,'' Kay wrote. ``While Floyd and the entire team find Will's actions regrettable and abhorrent, he is still a friend and we wish him the best in his recovery.''
Monday's hearing began with Wolfram Meier-Augenstein, an expert called by Landis' lawyers, who testified to the importance of good chromatography in the reading of doping tests.
Landis contends poor chromatography _ essentially the graphing of the results from the tests _ is responsible for unreliable results that call into question the validity of the positive test from Stage 17 of last year's Tour de France.
Testimony is scheduled to end Wednesday. A three-man arbitration panel will decide whether to uphold Landis' positive doping test, which could make him the first person in the 104-year history of the Tour to have his title stripped because of a doping offence.
