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As the Tour de France begins, Floyd Landis, once a teammate of 7-time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong, has issued new allegations against the cycling great. In fact, Landis called doping in cycling "systematic," in a Wall Street Journal report. Floryd Landis was stripped of his 2006 Tour de France win over doping, then fought the allegation for four years. He even lied about his actions in his 2007 book, "Positively False," in which he also said he had no evidence that Lance Armstrong had used performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs). However, he has since changed his tune, and not only...

Nearly four years after he began waging a costly, draining and ultimately losing battle to discredit his positive test for synthetic testosterone at the 2006 Tour de France, Floyd Landis told ESPN.com on Wednesday he used performance-enhancing drugs for most of his career as a professional road cyclist, including the race whose title he briefly held. In a lengthy telephone interview from California, Landis detailed extensive, consistent use of the red blood cell booster erythropoietin (commonly known as EPO), testosterone, human growth hormone and frequent blood transfusions, along with female hormones and a one-time experiment with insulin, during the years...

Floyd Landis lost his expensive and explosive doping case Thursday when the arbitrators upheld the results of a test that showed the 2006 Tour de France champion used synthetic testosterone to fuel his spectacular comeback victory, The Associated Press has learned.

MALIBU, Calif. (AP) -A tip for all potential arbitration witnesses out there: Never take the mike after Greg LeMond. The three-time Tour de France winner stole the show at the Floyd Landis hearing Thursday during a short, explosive bit of testimony filled with talk of sexual abuse, blackmail and backstabbing that led to the on-the-spot firing of Landis' business manager. It was Landis who asked for this hearing to be public, though he couldn't have expected a scene like this to break out. And though it's hard to know what impact these blockbusters had on the arbitrators, it will be...

ALBUQUERQUE, New Mexico — Floyd Landis claims the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency's lead attorney approached his lawyer offering "the shortest suspension they'd ever given an athlete" if Landis provided information that implicated Lance Armstrong for doping. At a news conference Thursday to preview his upcoming arbitration hearing, Landis said he made the Armstrong allegations public not because he planned to use it as evidence when testimony begins Monday, but to show the lengths USADA will go to in prosecuting athletes. "It was offensive at best," Landis said. "It speaks to the character of the prosecution." The 2006 Tour de France champion...

The Tour and the Truth Let's begin with a hearty round of congratulatons to Charlie Engle and the two other guys who just ran all the way across the Sahara. Sure, it's a stunt run, and Charlie's a whore for publicity, but it's an absolutely amazing feat. Well done. Onward. A ho-hum transitional stage at the Tour of California yesterday. Today marks the move southward, with a push from Stockton to San Jose. For those who know their California topography, this is a push from the low-lying regions of the Sacramento Delta, back toward the coastal mountains that will define...

Report: Lab in Landis case made 'administrative error' on 'B' sample Nov 15 10:49 AM US/Eastern Report: Lab in Landis case made 'administrative error' on 'B' sample PARIS (AP) - The French anti-doping lab that tested American cyclist Floyd Landis' urine samples made an "administrative error" when reporting its findings on his backup "B" sample, the French newspaper Le Monde reported Wednesday. The newspaper cited unnamed sources as saying the Chatenay-Malabry laboratory gave the wrong number in its report about Landis' second sample. Tests on the rider's two samples indicated that Landis had elevated levels of testosterone in his system...

After two trying months marked by doping allegations, an assault on his reputation and his father-in-law's suicide, Floyd Landis doesn't wish for a stirring comeback so much as the simpler things in life. At this point, he will settle for a good night's sleep, free of pain. To help reach that goal, Landis had hip-replacement surgery last week. With his rehab under way, the 30-year-old American who won this year's Tour de France won't rule out a return to competitive cycling. "Things have been up and down for me," Landis said Monday in an interview with The Associated Press. "I'll...

September 12, 2006 NEW YORK (AP) -- Two of Lance Armstrong's former teammates said they used a performance-enhancing drug when they were getting ready for the 1999 Tour de France, according to a newspaper report. Frankie Andreu, a 39-year-old former team captain, and another teammate who requested anonymity because he still works in cycling, told The New York Times they used EPO in preparation for the 1999 race, when Armstrong won the first of his seven titles in cycling's biggest race.

NEW YORK Two of Lance Armstrong's eight teammates from the 1999 Tour de France have admitted for the first time that they used the banned endurance-boosting drug EPO in preparing for the race that year, when they helped Armstrong capture the first of his record seven titles. Their disclosures, in interviews with The New York Times, are rare examples of candor in a sport protected by a powerful code of silence. Their confessions come as cycling is reeling from doping scandals, including Floyd Landis's fall in July from Tour champion to suspected cheater. One of the two teammates who admitted...

By Debbi Farr Baker UNION-TRIBUNE BREAKING NEWS TEAM 1:46 p.m. August 16, 2006 SAN DIEGO – David Witt, the 57-year-old father-in-law of embattled Tour de France winner Floyd Landis has died, authorities said Wednesday. Witt was found dead in his car Tuesday afternoon in a North Park parking garage, according to his friends. An investigator with the San Diego County Medical Examiner's office confirmed Witt's death but said the cause was still under investigation. San Diego police reported that a man had committed suicide Tuesday afternoon in a parking garage in North Park. The man was found at 3:14 p.m....

The controversy surrounding Floyd Landis is actually different then other controversies over illegal steroid use for one major reason: Both his blood and urine has been tested eight times (three blood tests) throughout the French de Tour. These other tests combined are more significant and telling then the single sample test found with an abnormal T/E ratio. As it stands, Landis' single positive test is just a distraction that sheds little light on the truth of any illegal drug activity on his part. To get any benefit out of an anabolic agent it must be used over weeks, not hours...

Posted on Sat, Aug. 05, 2006 In Armstrong's cycling world, paranoia and fear reign The Dallas Morning News By Michael Grabell and Cathy Harasta DALLAS - Lance Armstrong rose to sporting power in a world where paranoia ruled. He had his meals delivered in a blue cooler during his final Tour de France for fear of sabotage. His team drove miles to dump its trash, knowing that the moment it threw something away, someone else would pick through it. And former cyclists still active in the sport were so worried about the power the seven-time tour winner wielded that they...

Matriarch of In-N-Out Burger dies at 86 Sun Aug 6, 2:40 AM ET Esther L. Snyder, who with her husband founded the iconic West Coast restaurant chain In-N-Out Burger, died Friday. She was 86. The family declined to release further details including the cause of death, said Bob Emmers of Sitrick and Company, which handles public relations for the chain. Esther and Harry Snyder opened the first In-N-Out drive-through stand in Baldwin Park in 1948. In-N-Out now has 202 restaurants in California, Arizona and Nevada. The Snyders' business plan was simple: Serve fresh burgers in a "two-way speaker" drive-through concept....

Tour de France champion Floyd Landis' backup urine sample confirmed high levels of testosterone, cycling's governing body said Saturday, raising the prospect that he could lose his title. Following the results of the "B" sample, Landis was expected to be fired by his Swiss team, Phonak, which had suspended him pending the results. He also faces a two-year ban from USA Cycling, which is responsible for sanctions against the American rider. "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,...

CHATENAY-MALABRY, France Testing began Thursday on Tour de France winner Floyd Landis' backup doping sample, and one of his lawyers reiterated he expects it, too, will show elevated testosterone levels. However, Landis is "certain he hasn't ingested any prohibited substance," said lawyer Jose Maria Buxeda. "He knows there is a natural explanation to the (initial) finding. "He's pretty sure we will be able to prove, if this result is confirmed, that it is due to natural causes, to a natural reaction of his body, either (normally) or in the circumstances he was in that particular stage." The result of the...

Tests performed on the cyclist Floyd Landis’s initial urine sample showed that some of the testosterone in his body had come from an external source and was not produced by his system, according to a person at the International Cycling Union with knowledge of the results. That finding contradicts what Landis has claimed in his defense since the disclosure last week that he had tested positive for an elevated ratio of testosterone to epitestosterone during the Tour de France. During a news conference in Madrid on Friday, Landis said, “We will explain to the world why this is not a...

Making a central thread for people to link articles, post comments, discuss, etc -- the Floyd Landis, Tour de France Doping scandal.

Nothing is adding up (in my mind at least) with the charges of illegal doping by Landis. Consider the following points: 1) His previous tests were clean. 2) Any kind of illegal doping on the night of his comeback would have zero affect on his performance the following day. 3) Why would anyone who knows they face mandatory testing take banned substances they know very well would be detected? Me think the culprit in this scandal isn’t Landis, but someone or group who wanted to discredit him and bring shame to American cyclists. This is the only motive and explanation...

MADRID, Spain (AP) -- Floyd Landis said the high testosterone levels that caused him to fail a drug test at the Tour de France are the result of his natural metabolism -- not doping of any kind -- and he will undergo tests to prove it. "We will explain to the world why this is not a doping case but a natural occurrence," Landis said Friday in his first public appearance since the doping test cast doubt on his title, one of the most stirring comeback wins in Tour history. Landis said in a teleconference Thursday that he had no...