Floyd Landis? No, Dr. Wolfram Meier-Augenstein, a spike-haired, jeans-wearing expert with a pinky ring and German accent who proved Monday that, indeed, not all dense scientific testimony has to be boring.

Meier-Augenstein dominated most of the 8 1/2 hours of testimony. That delayed Landis' return to the witness stand for his cross-examination, now scheduled for today, the eighth day of a nine-day arbitration hearing. On Saturday, Landis told his story during friendly questioning.

On Monday, it was Landis' witnesses who spelled out the case that the positive test after his Stage 17 comeback ride last year was based on faulty scientific data.

''I'm terribly sorry, but if someone's life depends on it, his career depends on it, you don't go on assumptions,'' said Meier-Augenstein, an expert in the kind of testing that produced Landis' positive result.

Every bit as convincing, though maybe not as entertaining, was John Amory, a University of Washington endocrinologist who sometimes serves on the USADA review board.

The board is the first line of appeals for an athlete after he tests positive for doping. If the board won't overturn a positive result, the athlete's next option is to take the case to arbitration.

''The case didn't make a lot of sense to me,'' Amory said. ''Initially, when I saw the documents, I thought there were irregularities, first with the handling of the samples, then with the results.''

Also Monday, Landis' new manager released a letter acknowledging former manager 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.

LeMond did testify, and moments after he told that story Thursday, Geoghegan was fired.