Floyd Landis

Floyd Landis (born October 14, 1975) is an American road racing cyclist, now best remembered because of the Tour de France 2006 doping scandal. He is a time-trial specialist and a strong climber.

Landis turned professional in 1999 with the Mercury Cycling Team. He joined the US Postal Service team in 2002, and moved to the Phonak Hearing Systems team in 2005.

Doping 
Landis was fired from the Phonak team on 5 August 2006. The doping test after stage 17 of the 2006 Tour de France showed he had a very high testosterone/epitestosterone ratio.  The rules say that for every one unit of one chemical he should have four unites of the other (a 4 to one (4:1) ratio).  Landis's test showed a ratio of 11:1.

Landis appealed to the USA Cycling and saying the tests were not done properly. USA Cycling asked three people from the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) to study Landis's claims.  On 20 September 2007 that group voted 2 to 1 against him.  Landis was stripped of his title as winner of the 2006 Tour de France by the UCI, and banned from professional racing for two years. 

Under UCI rules, the cyclist's national federation, in this case USA Cycling decides if the rules have been broken, but because of the science involved they asked the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) to help.

Biography 

Floyd Landis was born in  Farmersville, Lancaster County,   Pennsylvania.

Landis was brought up a Mennonite, and rode his first races wearing sweatpants because his religion forbade wearing shorts; he won anyway.   Landis' father, is a devout Mennonite, and tried to stop him from racing his bike by giving him extra chores. He had no time to train during the day, so he would sneak out of the house at night to train, sometimes at 1 or 2 a.m. and often in the freezing cold. His father, found that Floyd had been going out at night and often followed him at a distance to make sure he was not getting into trouble. Today, Floyd Landis's father is a supporter of his son and says he is one of Floyd's biggest fans.

2006 Tour de France 

Before the 2006 Tour de Francemost people thought the winner would be either Ivan Basso or Jan Ullrich, who finished second and third respectively in the 2005 tour. Days before the race, the Operación Puerto doping case forced Basso and Ullrich to withdraw, and Landis became one of the  favourites to win

Hip ailment 
Landis performance up to Stage 16 of the Tour de France and his comeback in Stage 17 is surprising because of his hip ailment, called osteonecrosis, which was revealed in an article in The New York Times during the 2006 Tour de France.  This means he was in constant pain.

Doping investigation

On July 27, 2006 the Phonak Cycling Team said Floyd Landis had a urine test come back positive, having an unusually high ratio of the hormone testosterone to the hormone epitestosterone (T/E ratio) after Stage 17. Landis denied having doped. Phonak stated that he would be dismissed should the backup sample also test positive. It did, and Landis was suspended from professional cycling and dismissed from his team. Landis's personal physician later disclosed that the test had found a T/E ratio of 11:1 in Landis, far above the maximum allowable ratio of 4:1.

The tests were done by French government's anti-doping clinical laboratory, the National Laboratory for Doping Detection (LNDD)which is part of the Ministry of Youth, Sport, and Social Life, and is  and is accredited by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA).)

Appeal 
On May 14, 2007 a meeting began between the USADA and Landis about the doping allegations. On September 20, 2007, the arbitrators found Landis guilty of doping.

As Landis forfeited his Tour title, the second place rider, Óscar Pereiro, became the race's official winner. Landis has also been banned from the sport for two years, dated retroactively to January 2007.

Landis's former team, Phonak has already been disbanded

The USADA had more B samples taken during the Tour de France 2006 examined. After Landis's attempts to prevent these tests had failed, traces of exogenous testosterone were found in several samples in a test of seven samples. These confirmation tests were done at the same French lab Landis's team was trying to discredit for the first positive results.

Landis did race in France in 2007 so that the appeal could be decided in the United States first.  If the raced in France  they may start their own investigation because doping is illegal in France.

Among Landis's lawyers are José Maria Buxeda of Spain and Howard L. Jacobs of the United States. Buxeda represented Spanish cyclist Roberto Heras when he was suspended for two years after testing positive for doping. Jacobs has also defended athletes accused of doping, such as cyclist Tyler Hamilton and sprinter Tim Montgomery. They are also representing Kazakh cyclist Alexandre Vinokourov who was accused of blood doping, kicked out of the 2007 Tour de France, and fired from his cycling team.

Verdict 
On September 20, 2007 Landis was found guilty of doping by a 2-1 vote of the hearing committee. The committee said that there were mistakes testing the sample so they will not say that there was a high amount of the natural chemical testosterone.  But the committee did say was proof of artificial testosterone  and that 

Landis does have the right to appeal the decision of the committee to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

Major results 

1999 - Mercury Pro Cycling Team
 2nd overall and 1 stage win – Cascade Classic

2000 - Mercury Pro Cycling Team
 Overall – Tour du Poitou-Charentes

2001 - Mercury Pro Cycling Team
 Boulevard Road Race

2002 - U.S. Postal Service
 2nd overall – Dauphiné Libéré
 3rd stage, Tirreno-Adriatico
 61st overall – Tour de France

2003 - U.S. Postal Service
 77th overall – Tour de France

2004 - U.S. Postal Service
 Overall – Volta ao Algarve
 Stage 5 – Volta ao Algarve
 Team time trial – Tour de France
 Team time trial – Vuelta a España
 23rd overall – Tour de France

2005 - Phonak Hearing Systems
 3rd overall and Stage 3 win – Tour de Georgia
 9th overall – Tour de France

2006 - Phonak Hearing Systems
 1st, Profronde van Stiphout
 Disqualified - Tour de France
 Yellow jersey, General Classification leader during Stages 12, 13, 16 and 20.
 1st, Stage 17 (voted most combatative rider of the day)
 1st, USA Cycling National Racing Calendar series
 1st overall – Tour de Georgia
 1st, Stage 3 (ITT) – Tour de Georgia
 1st overall – Paris-Nice
 1st overall – Tour of California
 1st, Stage 3 (ITT) – Tour of California

References

Other websites 

 Floyd Landis' Website
 Sex, drugs and sports: Prostaglandins, epitestosterone and sexual development
 Floyd Landis profile
 Trust But Verify: News, Research and Commentary about the Floyd Landis doping allegations.

1975 births
Living people
American cyclists
Doping cases in cycling
Sportspeople from Pennsylvania
Tour de France cyclists