Lance Armstrong Claims Innocence, Crashes Out of Race (Pictures)

Doping claims slide right off of him, but asphalt will not be denied...

Floyd Landis apparently lied to a lot of people over the years, including this humble writer, but now he claims he's telling the truth and trying to take Lance Armstrong down with him. Armstrong spent about ten minutes Thursday morning denouncing the Landis doping link.

And then Armstrong went out and crashed his way to an early conclusion at the Tour of California.

Last year, Landis was a heavily promoted feature cyclist at the Tour of Utah. The Utah Jazz were swayed into believing the drug free story and even convinced their franchise player, Deron Williams, to go on a mini publicity tour with him that included one on one competitions in basketball and cycling. Jazz owner Greg Miller also operates the Tour of Utah.

Today on his twitter page, Miller simply stated: "Landis lied to me."

He did the same to me at KUTV in the days leading up to the race. Although, his body language didn't exactly pass the smell test. How do I smell body language? Not sure, but I hadn't been to Cafe Rio that day so it definitely wasn't me.

Either way, just like the Pete Rose admission, I was never sure that this day would actually come. Unlike Rose, Landis didn't tie his admission to the selling of a book but that likely won't mitigate the reaction. Armstrong was quick to remind people of the reported millions that had been spent on Landis's defense against doping charges.

A tired defense that now finally rests.

Happier times