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Team says Landis tested positive during Tour de France
By STEPHEN WILSON, AP Sports Writer
July 27, 2006

Max Basile, brother-in-law of Tour de France winner Floyd Landis, talks about Landis' test results, from the balcony of Landis' home in Murrieta, Calif., Thursday, July 27, 2006. Landis' stunning Tour de France cycling victory was thrown into question Thursday when his team said he tested positive for high testosterone levels during stage 17 of the race.
AP - Jul 27, 5:41 pm EDT
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LONDON (AP) -- Tainted at the start, the Tour de France may have been tainted at the finish, too.

Floyd Landis' Tour de France victory was thrown into question Thursday when his team said he tested positive for high testosterone levels during stage 17, when the 30-year-old American champion began his stunning comeback with a gritty charge into the Alps.

The Phonak team suspended Landis, pending results of the backup "B" sample of his drug test. If Landis is found guilty of doping, he could be stripped of the Tour title and fired from the team.

Arlene Landis said her son called Thursday from Europe and told her he had not done anything wrong.

"He said, 'There's no way,"' she said in an interview with The Associated Press at her home in Farmersville, Pa. "I really believe him."

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Second-place finisher Oscar Pereiro, who would become champion if Landis is not cleared, said he was in no mood to celebrate.

"Should I win the Tour now it would feel like an academic victory," Pereiro told the AP at his home in Vigo, Spain. "The way to celebrate a win is in Paris, otherwise it's just a bureaucratic win."

The Swiss-based Phonak team said it was notified by the International Cycling Union (UCI) on Wednesday that Landis' sample showed "an unusual level of testosterone/epitestosterone" when he was tested after stage 17 of the race last Thursday.

"The team management and the rider were both totally surprised of this physiological result," the Phonak statement said.

The 30-year-old Landis made a remarkable comeback in that Alpine stage, racing far ahead of the field for a solo win that moved him from 11th to third overall. Despite a degenerative hip condition that will require surgery, he regained the leader's yellow jersey two days later.

Phonak's statement came a day after the UCI, cycling's world governing body, said an unidentified rider had failed a drug test during the Tour. The team said Landis would ask for an analysis of his backup sample "to prove either that this result is coming from a natural process or that this is resulting from a mistake."

Landis told Sports Illustrated for a story posted on its Web site Thursday that he didn't cheat.

"No, c'mon man," he said when asked if he used some kind of testosterone patch to gain an advantage.

He added that he "can't be hopeful" that a second test will exonerate him. "I'm a realist," he said.

Max Basile, brother-in-law of Tour de France winner Floyd Landis, talks about Landis' test results Thursday, July 27, 2006, from the balcony of Landis' home in Murrieta, Calif. Landis' stunning Tour de France victory was thrown into question Thursday when his team said he tested positive for high testosterone levels during stage 17 of the race.
AP - Jul 27, 5:41 pm EDT
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Elevated testosterone is common among pro cyclists, Landis told the magazine, and he is consulting with a Spanish doctor who has helped other riders clear their names. Landis also raised the possibility that a small amount of hormone he's been taking for a thyroid condition or the cortisone shots he gets for hip pain skewed the result.

Still, he said he "wouldn't hold it against somebody if they don't believe me."

It wasn't immediately known when the backup sample will be tested, but Phonak manager John Lelangue said the team would ask for that to happen in the next few days.

"He will be fighting ... waiting for the B analysis and then proving to everyone that this can be natural," Lelangue said in a telephone interview.

Arlene Landis said it could take two weeks for the results of the backup test to be made public.

"Of course he wasn't happy about it, but they're spoiling everything he's supposed to be doing right now," she said. "Why couldn't they take care of this before they pronounced him the winner? Lance (Armstrong) went through this too. Somebody doesn't want him to win."

"Why do they put you through two weeks of misery and spoil your crown? My opinion is when he comes on top of this everyone will think so much more of him. So that's what valleys are for, right?"

USA Cycling spokesman Andy Lee said that organization could not comment on the matter until the process is complete. Carla O'Connell, publications and communications director for the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, also had no comment.

UCI spokesman Enrico Carpani said Landis was notified of the test Wednesday morning. He said the cycling body doesn't require analysis of the "B" sample, but that Landis requested it.

"We are confident in the first (test)," Carpani said. "For us, the first one is already good."

"It is obviously distressing," Tour director Christian Prudhomme said at a Paris news conference, stressing the backup test still must be done. Prudhomme said it would be up to the UCI to deretmine penalties.

Under World Anti-Doping Agency regulations, a ratio of testosterone to epitestosterone greater than 4:1 is considered a positive result and subject to investigation. The threshold was recently lowered from 6:1. The most likely natural ratio of testosterone to epitestosterone in humans is 1:1.

A banner welcoming home Tour de France winner Floyd Landis hangs at the front gate of the gated community where Landis lives in Murrieta, Calif. Thursday, July 27, 2006. Landis' stunning Tour de France victory was thrown into question Thursday when his team said he tested positive for high testosterone levels during stage 17, when the 30-year-old American champion began his stunning comeback with a gritty charge into the Alps.
AP - Jul 27, 5:22 pm EDT
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Testosterone is included as an anabolic steroid on WADA's list of banned substances, and its use can be punished by a two-year ban.

Testosterone can build muscle and improve recovery time when used over a period of several weeks, said Dr. Gary Wadler, a member of the World Anti-Doping Agency and a spokesman for the American College of Sports Medicine. But if Landis had been a user, his earlier urine tests during the tour would have been affected.

"So something's missing here," Wadler said. "It just doesn't add up."

Landis wrapped up his Tour de France win on Sunday, keeping the title in U.S. hands for the eighth straight year. Armstrong, long dogged by doping whispers and allegations, won the previous seven. Armstrong never has tested positive for drugs and vehemently has denied doping.

On Thursday, Armstrong was riding in RAGBRAI, an annual bike ride across Iowa that attracts thousands of riders.

At the first break in Sully, Iowa, about 50 miles southeast of Des Moines, Armstrong had little to say at the Coffee Cup Cafe, where he grabbed a slice of coconut cream pie and a big glass of ice water.

When asked about Landis, Armstrong told The Associated Press: "I'm not here to talk about that."

Landis' inspiring Tour ride reminded many of fellow American Tyler Hamilton's gritty 2003 performance. Hamilton, riding for team CSC, broke his collarbone on the first day of the Tour but rode on, despite the pain, and finished fourth overall.

But, a year later, Hamilton, then riding for Phonak, tested positive for blood doping at a Spanish race and now is serving a two-year ban. He has denied blood doping.

Speculation that Landis had tested positive spread earlier Thursday after he failed to show up for a one-day race in Denmark on Thursday. A day earlier, he missed a scheduled event in the Netherlands.

On the eve of the Tour's start, nine riders -- including pre-race favorites Jan Ullrich and Ivan Basso -- were ousted, implicated in a Spanish doping investigation.

The names of Ullrich and Basso turned up on a list of 56 cyclists who allegedly had contact with Spanish doctor Eufemiano Fuentes, who's at the center of the Spanish doping probe. Landis was not implicated in that investigation.

Associated Press writers Michael Rubinkam in Ephrata, Pa., Lalo Villar in Vigo, Spain, and Todd Dvorak in Sully, Iowa, and AP Sports Writers Arnie Stapleton in Denver, Jamey Keaten in Paris and Melissa Murphy in Sully, Iowa, contributed to this report.