**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

Floyd Landis on the Tour de France, July 23 2006.
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 

> an Anti-Doping Rule Violation is found to have been established
> 
> 

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

Other websites
--------------

WikinewsWikinews
**Wikinews** has News related to this article:

* Landis fails drug test; could lose Tour title
* Landis' fate to be announced Monday
* Court decision means Floyd Landis loses Tour de France title

* 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.

 * v
* t
* e
Tour de France Maillot jaune (Yellow jersey) winners

|  |
| --- |
| 
 1903 Maurice Garin ·
 1904 Henri Cornet ·
 1905 Louis Trousselier ·
 1906 René Pottier ·
 1907-1908 Lucien Petit-Breton ·
 1909 François Faber ·
 1910 Octave Lapize ·
 1911 Gustave Garrigou ·
 1912 Odile Defraye ·
 1913-1914 Philippe Thys ·
 1915-1918 World War I ·
 1919 Firmin Lambot ·
 1920 Philippe Thys ·
 1921 Léon Scieur ·
 1922 Firmin Lambot ·
 1923 Henri Pélissier ·
 1924-1925 Ottavio Bottecchia ·
 1926 Lucien Buysse ·
 1927-1928 Nicolas Frantz ·
 1929 Maurice De Waele ·
 1930 André Leducq ·
 1931 Antonin Magne ·
 1932 André Leducq ·
 1933 Georges Speicher ·
 1934 Antonin Magne ·
 1935 Romain Maes ·
 1936 Sylvère Maes ·
 1937 Roger Lapébie ·
 1938 Gino Bartali ·
 1939 Sylvère Maes ·
 1940-1946 World War II ·
 1947 Jean Robic ·
 1948 Gino Bartali ·
 1949 Fausto Coppi ·
 1950 Ferdinand Kübler ·
 1951 Hugo Koblet ·
 1952 Fausto Coppi ·
 1953-1955 Louison Bobet ·
 1956 Roger Walkowiak ·
 1957 Jacques Anquetil ·
 1958 Charly Gaul ·
 1959 Federico Bahamontes ·
 1960 Gastone Nencini ·
 1961-1964 Jacques Anquetil ·
 1965 Felice Gimondi ·
 1966 Lucien Aimar ·
 1967 Roger Pingeon ·
 1968 Jan Janssen ·
 1969-1972 Eddy Merckx ·
 1973 Luis Ocaña ·
 1974 Eddy Merckx ·
 1975 Bernard Thévenet ·
 1976 Lucien Van Impe ·
 1977 Bernard Thévenet ·
 1978-1979 Bernard Hinault ·
 1980 Joop Zoetemelk ·
 1981-1982 Bernard Hinault ·
 1983-1984 Laurent Fignon ·
 1985 Bernard Hinault ·
 1986 Greg LeMond ·
 1987 Stephen Roche ·
 1988 Pedro Delgado ·
 1989-1990 Greg LeMond ·
 1991-1995 Miguel Indurain ·
 1996 Bjarne Riis ·
 1997 Jan Ullrich ·
 1998 Marco Pantani ·
 1999-2005 Lance Armstrong, disqualified ·
 2006 Óscar Pereiro (Floyd Landis, disqualified) ·
 2007 Alberto Contador ·
 2008 Carlos Sastre ·
 2009–10 Alberto Contador ·
 2011 Cadel Evans ·
 2012 Bradley Wiggins ·
 2013 Chris Froome ·
 2014 Vincenzo Nibali  |