Floyd Landis is an American cyclist, from Farmersville, Pennsylvania, best known for being stripped of his title (for a doping offense) after initially being awarded victory in the 2006 Tour de France. As of March 2010, he rides for the Bahati Foundation Pro Cycling Team. Prior to signing with Bahati, he rode for OUCH Pro Cycling Team, throughout 2009. He is an all-around rider, with special skills in climbing and time-trialing, and is also known to be a very fast descender. 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 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.

Landis maintained his innocence, and he mounted a vigorous defense. Although Landis's 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.or 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 alleged that Lance Armstrong and many other top riders who rode on his team doped as well.


Lance Edward Armstrong is also an American professional road racing cyclist who is best known for winning the Tour de France a record seven consecutive times, after having survived testicular cancer. He is also the founder and chairman of the Lance Armstrong Foundation for cancer research and support. He currently rides for UCI ProTour team Team RadioShack.

In 1996 he was diagnosed with testicular cancer, a tumor that metastasized to his brain and lungs. His cancer treatments included brain and testicular surgery and extensive chemotherapy, and his prognosis was originally poor. He went on to win the Tour de France each year from 1999 to 2005 and is the only person to win seven times, having broken the previous record of five wins, shared by Miguel Indurain, Bernard Hinault, Eddy Merckx and Jacques Anquetil.

In 1999, he was named the ABC Wide World of Sports Athlete of the Year. In 2000 he won the Prince of Asturias Award in Sports. In 2002, Sports Illustrated magazine named him Sportsman of the Year. He was also named Associated Press Male Athlete of the Year for the years 2002–2005. He received ESPN's ESPY Award for Best Male Athlete in 2003, 2004, 2005, and 2006, and won the BBC Sports Personality of the Year Overseas Personality Award in 2003. Armstrong retired from racing on July 24, 2005, at the end of the 2005 Tour de France, but returned to competitive cycling in January 2009, and finished third in the 2009 Tour de France.

Lance Armstrong is credited with bringing awareness to the global fight against cancer and ushering in a new era of professional cycling, performing at superhuman levels while deftly deflecting doping allegations like the late-race challenges of so many competitors. But the revelations of fallen cycling star Floyd Landis – some of the most specific and close to Mr. Armstrong yet – threaten to catch modern cycling's biggest star in its most common snare.

Since turning professional in 1992 Armstrong has never tested positive for using performance enhancing drugs. But his unprecedented success – seven consecutive Tour de France wins – has made him the target of a constant barrage of doping allegations.

In the latest, Mr. Landis, a former teammate of Armstrong's, accuses him and longtime coach Johan Bruyneel of sophisticated cover-up schemes designed to keep them a step ahead of the International Cycling Union (UCI) and antidoping authorities.

Armstrong took time from a California stop on the cycling tour Thursday to dismiss the allegations, saying that Landis had changed his story many times and was not credible.

Landis is largely disgraced within the cycling community for being the first winner of the Tour de France to be stripped of his title for doping. He had spent $2 million trying to refute those doping allegations until recently. He told ESPN Wednesday that he was guilty and that he needed to clear his conscience. The Wall Street Journal published a fuller account of his confession Thursday.

This isn't the first time those close to Armstrong have been caught or admitted doping. In 2006, two former teammates of Armstrong's from the 1999 Tour de France came forward and said they had used banned endurance-enhancing drug EPO in the lead-up to that year's Tour, and felt pressured to do so by Discovery Channel team for which they and Armstrong rode.

In that instance, World Anti-Doping Agency Chairman Dick Pound was quoted in the New York Times implying that Armstrong was also involved. "I think you have to draw one conclusion from that. It certainly indicates that there were a whole bunch of people around him using drugs," he said. "It doesn’t prove that he did anything, but you look all around him and everyone else is doing it, so what should you think?”

Tags: floyd landis, Floyd Landis Vs Lance Armstrong, lance armstrong twitter, lance armstrong, landis, cycling news, armstrong