Floyd Landis

Floyd Landis (born October 14, 1975) is a retired American cyclist who was stripped of his 2006 Tour de France after testing positive for performance enhancing drugs. He was an all-around rider, with special skills in climbing, time-trialing, and descending. 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. In January 2010, a French judge issued a national arrest warrant for Landis on computer hacking charges related to the 2006 doping allegations.

In 2006, Landis won the first edition of the Amgen Tour of California, before going on to finish first in the 2006 Tour de France. He was stripped of his Tour de France victory and fired from the Phonak team after a drug-control test demonstrated the presence of a skewed testosterone/epitestosterone ratio during stage 17.

Until 2010, Landis maintained his innocence and mounted a vigorous defense. Although Landis' legal team documented inconsistencies in the handling and evaluation of his urine samples, the disqualification was upheld.

He was suspended from professional competition through January 30, 2009, following an arbitration panel's 2-to-1 ruling on September 20, 2007. Landis appealed the result of the arbitration hearing to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, which subsequently upheld the panel's ruling.

During the 2008 season, Landis worked as an advisor for Rock Racing. After completion of the suspension, Landis joined OUCH Pro Cycling Team. His first race following his suspension was the 2009 Tour of California, in which he finished 23rd out of a field of 84 riders. He parted ways with the OUCH team at the end of 2009. He then raced the Tour of Southland in New Zealand in November 2009 with local team CyclingNZshop.com-Bio Sport.

On May 20, 2010, after almost four years of contesting the allegations against him, Landis admitted to continual doping and, because Lance Armstrong would not help him get back in the sport, revealed that Armstrong and many other top riders who rode on his team doped as well. The admissions and accusations came in an e-mail Landis sent to cycling officials three weeks before it was leaked to the media. Landis cooperated with Food and Drug Administration agent Jeff Novitzky, which eventually lead to the USADA investigation and 2012 decision to strip Armstrong of all seven of his titles.

In January 2011, Landis was unable to find a new team, and ended his professional career.