Floyd Landis

Who is Floyd Landis?

Floyd Landis is a retired American professional road racing cyclist. Landis came first in the 2006 Tour de France, but was stripped of his title after testing positive for performance enhancing drugs. Landis 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.

Until 2010, Landis maintained his innocence and mounted a defense. Although Landis' legal team documented inconsistencies in the handling and evaluation of his urine samples, the disqualification was upheld. On May 20, 2010, after almost four years of contesting the allegations, Landis admitted to continual doping, and revealed that Lance Armstrong and many other top riders who rode on his team doped as well. 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. In January 2011, Landis was unable to find a new team, which effectively ended his professional career.