Three years ago, three-time Tour de France champion Greg LeMond blasted disgraced cyclist Floyd Landis, saying he could clean up the sport if he ever admitted to the doping charge that stripped him of the 2006 Tour title.

Today, LeMond couldn’t be happier with Landis, who has since come clean and whose allegations in May that seven-time champion Lance Armstrong doped are under federal investigation.

“I think he’s telling the truth,” Le-Mond said Monday. “I think the level of detail, the descriptions, I think it rings true.”

LeMond, a longtime critic of Armstrong, will get his chance to talk July 30 in federal court in Los Angeles. Sitting at the Colorado Athletic Club-Tabor Center to promote the Tour de Cure on Aug. 21 at Boulder County Fairgrounds, LeMond couldn’t comment on what he knows or will tell.

However, he indicated few people could be happier with being subpoenaed.

“I’m hoping it gets as far as it can,” LeMond said.

Armstrong has never tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs and has denied doping. He said he will cooperate with any investigation, “as long as it’s not a witch hunt.”

Currently 31st in this year’s Tour, Armstrong has continually attacked Landis’ credibility.

“The fact is, credibility or not, it’s irrelevant because the feds are investigating it,” LeMond said. “And either he is leading them down the right path or he isn’t.”

Landis said Armstrong was in the middle of a doping culture when they were teammates on U.S. Postal Service in 2001. He also cited numerous other Postal cyclists, including David Zabriskie, now a cyclist on Boulder-based Garmin-Transitions, and Garmin-Transitions director Matt White.

Neither is under investigation, but critics accused Landis of dragging others with him.

“I’m just wondering why (Landis) would want to throw people under the bus,” said LeMond, who owns a fitness company in Minnesota. “In his e-mails, he was very articulate. Floyd was just trying to race again.”

The court case could be an escalation of a LeMond-Armstrong feud that began in 2001 when LeMond questioned Armstrong’s relationship with altitude specialist Dr. Michele Ferrari, who has advocated EPO for cyclists.

LeMond told the German newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung last week that Armstrong tried to pay someone $300,000 to say LeMond used a banned drug. On Sunday, Armstrong responded by saying, “That’s absolutely nonsense — $300,000?”

LeMond, who became the first American to win three Tours when he won in 1986, 1989 and 1990, does think doping is down. He points to Garmin-Transitions CEO Jonathan Vaughters’ weekly testing and this year’s Tour, where defending champion Alberto Contador leads Andy Schleck by only eight seconds.

“The RPMs are lower,” LeMond said. “There’s more suffering. The racing is more tactical.”

Leading the investigation is Jeff Novitzky, a Food and Drug Administration criminal investigator who broke open the BALCO doping case in 2003. He reportedly has the cooperation of several cyclists who will help probe whether Armstrong committed sports fraud.

“The evidence will come from the investigation,” LeMond said, “and I believe it will be overwhelming.”

John Henderson: 303-954-1299 or jhenderson@denverpost.com