Floyd Landis Tests Positive; Tour de France Title Now in Jeopardy
By JEROME PUGMIRE
PARIS – Tour de France champion Floyd Landis will fight to clear his name and keep his hard-won title after his backup doping sample tested positive Saturday.
The International Cycling Union said Landis’ "B" sample confirmed the initial "adverse analytical finding" for higher-than-allowable levels of testosterone.
Landis was immediately fired by his Swiss-based team, Phonak, and the Tour de France director said the 30-year-old rider no longer was considered the race champion.
If found guilty, Landis also faces a two-year ban from the sport. He continued to deny any wrongdoing and vowed to clear his name.
"I have never taken any banned substance, including testosterone," Landis said in a statement. "I was the strongest man at the Tour de France, and that is why I am the champion."
"I will fight these charges with the same determination and intensity that I bring to my training and racing. It is now my goal to clear my name and restore what I worked so hard to achieve."
Landis’ urine sample was analyzed at the Chatenay-Malabry lab outside Paris, and the second positive result was announced nearly two weeks after he stood atop the winner’s podium on the Champs-Elysees in the champion’s yellow jersey.
"The analysis of the sample B of Floyd Landis’s urine has confirmed the result of an adverse analytical finding notified by the anti-doping laboratory of Paris on 26th July, following the analysis of the sample A," the International Cycling Union said.
The UCI said it was asking USA Cycling to open disciplinary proceedings against Landis, and Phonak severed ties with him.
"Landis will be dismissed without notice for violating the teams internal Code of Ethics," the team said in a statement. "Landis will continue to have legal options to contest the findings. However, this will be his personal affair, and the Phonak team will no longer be involved in that."
Tour de France director Christian Prudhomme said Landis no longer was considered champion, but the decision to strip him of his title rests with the UCI.
"It goes without saying that for us Floyd Landis is no longer the winner of the 2006 Tour de France," Prudhomme told The Associated Press in a telephone interview. "Our determination is even stronger now to fight against doping and to defend this magnificent sport."
Prudhomme said runner-up Oscar Pereiro of Spain would be the likely new winner.
"We can’t imagine a different outcome," Prudhomme said.
UCI lawyer Philippe Verbiest said Landis would officially remain Tour champion pending the American disciplinary process.
"Until he is found guilty or admits guilt, he will keep the yellow jersey," he said. "This is normal. You are not sanctioned before you are found guilty."
If stripped of the title, Landis would become the first winner in the 103-year history of cycling’s premier race to lose his Tour crown over doping allegations.
Roberto Heras, who was stripped of his 2005 Spanish Vuelta title and suspended for two years after he tested positive for the performance enhancer EPO, and Landis were both former teammates of Lance Armstrong, the seven-time Tour winner who retired after his final win in 2005.
Tyler Hamilton, the 2004 Olympic gold medalist who is serving a two-year ban for blood doping, was also a former teammate of Armstrong.
Landis’ confirmed test sets off what could now be months of appeals and arguments by the American, who says the positive finding was due to naturally high testosterone levels. He has repeatedly declared his innocence.
"It’s incredibly disappointing," said three-time Tour winner Greg LeMond by phone Saturday from the starting line at the Pan Mass Challenge in Sturbridge, Mass. "I don’t think (Landis) has much chance at all to try to prove his innocence."
Landis’ lawyer is preparing to take the case to arbitration, said a statement issued by his spokesman, Michael Henson.
He confirmed this week that the rider had tested positive for a testosterone-epitestosterone ratio of 11:1 – well above the 4:1 limit.
On Friday, Henson said Landis was in the San Diego area.
The tests were conducted on urine samples drawn July 20 after Landis’ stage victory in a grueling Alpine leg of the Tour, when he clawed back nearly eight minutes against then-leader Pereiro – and back into contention to win the three-week race.
The case is expected to go to the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency for handling. The process could take months, possibly with appeals to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
"It doesn’t end here," said Landis’ Spanish lawyer, Jose Maria Buxeda. "What matters is the concept. A prohibited substance has been found in the samples, but no immediate sanction comes into effect yet. The rider will defend himself."
Landis, a 30-year-old former mountain biker, says he was tested eight other times during the three-week tour and those results came back negative.
Landis has hired high-profile American lawyer Howard Jacobs, who has represented several athletes in doping cases.
Jacobs plans to go after the UCI for allegedly leaking information regarding the sample testing.
Earlier this week, a New York Times report cited a source from the UCI saying that a second analysis of Landis’ "A" sample by carbon isotope ratio testing had detected synthetic testosterone – meaning it was ingested.
"I call on the UCI to start following its own rules and to allow this process to proceed without the further taint of public comment by UCI officials," Jacobs said in a statement Saturday.
"The anti-doping process must be free from the perception that sports federations and anti-doping authorities, who hold great political and financial sway over sport, are attempting to influence the outcome of a pending case by issuing inappropriate public comments."
Since the Phonak team was informed of the positive test on July 27, Landis and his defense team have offered varying explanations as to the high testosterone reading – including cortisone shots taken for pain in Landis’ degenerating hip; drinking beer and whiskey the night before; thyroid medication; and his natural metabolism.
Another theory – dehydration – was rebuffed by anti-doping experts and contrasted with events during stage 17 itself when Landis rode alone for hours.
"When I heard it was synthetic hormone, it is almost impossible to be caused by natural events. It’s kind of a downer," said LeMond, the first American to win the Tour. "I feel for Floyd’s family. I hope Floyd will come clean on it and help the sport. We need to figure out how to clean the sport up and we need the help of Floyd.
"He’s a victim that needs to be held accountable. Just by pinpointing him is not enough. He needs to tell who did it, how they did it."
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Associated Press Writers Jamey Keaten, Jean-Luc Courthial in Paris, Erica Bulman in Geneva and Sports Writer Vinay Cherwoo in New York contributed to this report.