Floyd Landis speaks out about his return

8 comments
By BikeRadar & AFP | Friday, Jan 23, 2009 4.27am

American cyclist Floyd Landis, stripped of his 2006 Tour de France title and suspended for two years for doping, marks his return to road racing at next month's Tour of California with trepidation and excitement, USA Today reported Thursday.

Landis, 33, will race for the Team OUCH, sponsored by his personal physician Brent Kay. Kay's osteoarthritis medical center performed reconstructive surgery on Landis's ailing right hip.

"I feel really good and I'm working hard to stay in shape," Landis told USA Today reporter Sal Ruibal in an an article posted on their website. "It's good to have some goals and to put all that stuff behind me."

The Tour of California, slated for February 14 - 22, will also feature seven-time Tour de France winner (and Landis' former USPS teammate) Lance Armstrong, and Landis said he believed his vaunted American compatriot's comeback is good for cycling.

"(Armstrong's) comeback is good for the sport," Landis said, adding that he had been watching the Texan's progress in the Tour Down Under in Australia. "You know, he's just one of 200 other cyclists there, but I'm getting an idea of his condition by how he's doing in the Australian race."

Landis said his campaign with OUCH, sticking to a US schedule that includes the Tour of Missouri, Tour of Utah and several one-day races, is a contrast to Armstrong's return with the Astana team, which is slated to include spring classics like Milan-San Remo, Tour of Flanders, the Giro d'Italia and Tour de France.

"Lance is on a whole different level," Landis said. "We're not sponsored by Kazakhstan. Other than Lance, the rest of pro cycling is pretty much blue-collar guys."

Landis, who has denied doping and fought a lengthy, expensive and eventually losing battle against the US Anti-Doping agency in the wake of his positive test for testosterone during the 2006 Tour de France, says he has no faith in the sport's anti-doping procedures and those who administer them.

"I have no more trust," he said. "Those are half-hearted tests and they know it, but I have no choice if I want to race. You have to agree to those terms. But I trust those guys less than just about anyone I've ever met.

"Doing my own testing wouldn't do any good either," he added. "It won't make a difference because to them; as we saw, the chain of custody is just a concept to them. They can say anything and you can't do anything about it. It would be senseless to do my own testing because they've shown that transparency leads to nothing."

Ruibal asked about Armstrong and other riders' posting of their internal testing results online, to which Landis scoffed.

"People can make them up just like USADA does," the American said. "I'm not on a mission to make some kind of statement. I enjoy bike racing and being around a team that fights hard for each other. I'm not saving the world."

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User Comments

There are 8 comments on this post

Showing 1 - 8 of 8 comments

  • Why don't cheats like Landis just GO AWAY! and leave our sport alone.

  • "(Armstrong's) comeback is good for the sport,"....well that's up for debate but we all know what isn't good for the sport.

    Bye Bye Landis, and shut the door behind you.

  • Junkie cheating B*****D.

  • I assume the previous posters who don't want Landis to return feel likewise about David Millar, Ivan Basso and the recently retired Eric Zabel; or does a 3 sentence admission and apology make all the difference?

    Floyd Landis had the top prize in his sport stripped from him. He lost his father in law and his personal fortune. Now he seeks to earn a living, support his family and put those troubles behind him. I wish him well.

  • ibgc you are entitled to your view as we all are.

    But do you not realise what these people are doing tp the once great sport of road cycling. It's descending into ridicule and farce.

  • '... the once great sport of road cycling...' not like the good old days where riders used honest remedies to cheat lie alcohol, amphetamines and even strychnine. I for one won't be happy till I see a rider die on a mountain top finish, only then will I know we are back to the earnest days of cycling.

  • like Tom Simpson ?

  • Ohh come on now guys cycling was not nor has been clean as the wind driven snow like you might think.

    Here is something to ponder, having spent most of my life being tested for drugs, i have peed in cups before total strangers giving a sample as well as blood. So I know that god awful feeling and you have to educate yourself on over the counter meds that you may think are ok to getting an herbal smoothie, any number of things can set off the tests.

    Ok so now answer me this,... how do you test positive one day,... then 2 or 3 days later you do not? Testosterone no matter WHAT type takes weeks of continual use to build up and twice as long to leave your system. So how is it that Landis tested pos one day and neg a few days later.

    That is a tough pill to swallow, and why he MIGHT have been screaming bloody murder.

    It is what it is till you are in the cross hairs

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