Landis suspended for flunking Drug Test; may lose Tour de France title
Tour de France champion Floyd Landis denied taking performance-enhancing drugs during the race, after initial tests found higher-than-normal levels of testosterone in body.
Floyd Landis would become the first Tour de France cycling winner to be stripped of the title for drug use if the second portion of the test confirms a violation. The 30-year-old rider from Farmersville, Pennsylvania, said he understands if the public doesn’t believe his claims of innocence.
This year’s Tour de France began July 1 amid a blood-doping scandal resulting from a judicial investigation in Spain. The probe led teams to suspend nine riders on the eve of the race, including favorites Jan Ullrich and Ivan Basso. Both deny wrongdoing, and Landis said he’s not a drug user, either.
Landis was suspended from racing, pending the result of tests on the second part of his urine sample, his Phonak team said in a statement yesterday.
The only other Tour champion to lose the title was Maurice Garin, who was disqualified from the second edition in 1904 for taking a train over part of the route.
Patrick Schamasch, the International Olympic Committee’s medical director, said in a telephone interview that a high testosterone level might be considered an anti-doping violation even if no trace of a banned substance is found.
Floyd Landis succeeded another American, record seven-time champion Lance Armstrong, as winner of the sport’s premier event, winning by 57 seconds from Spain’s Oscar Pereiro.
Landis’s testosterone reading was recorded after he won the 17th stage by more than five minutes, riding solo for 130 kilometers (80.8 miles) to get back in contention after falling more than eight minutes behind the leaders the previous day, Phonak said.
