PARIS, Aug 5 - American Floyd Landis is likely to lose his Tour de
France title after a second drugs sample confirmed a positive test for excessive
amounts of the male sex hormone testosterone.
A statement issued by the International Cycling Union (UCI) on Saturday
said Landis's B sample taken after his win in the 17th stage on July 20 had
confirmed a doping offence.
Landis, who again denied ever taking drugs, was immediately sacked by his
Swiss team Phonak.
He will now probably become the first rider ever to be stripped of the Tour
de France title for doping, lose 450,000 euros ($575,700) prize money and face a
two-year ban from the sport.
"Landis will be dismissed without notice for violating the team's internal
Code of Ethics," Phonak said in a statement.
"Landis will continue to have legal options to contest the findings. However,
this will be his personal affair and the Phonak team will no longer be involved
in that."
In a statement on his Web site the 30-year-old American said he had never
taken a banned substance.
"I have never taken any banned substance, including testosterone. I was the
strongest man in the Tour de France, and that is why I am the champion," Landis
said.
"I will fight these charges with the same determination and intensity that I
bring to my training and racing. It is now my goal to clear my name and restore
what I worked so hard to achieve."
EXPERTS
His lawyer Howard Jacobs said he was waiting to receive full laboratory
documentation for the B test.
"In consultation with some of the leading medical and scientific experts, we
will prove that Floyd Landis's victory in the 2006 Tour de France was not aided
in any respect by the use of any banned substances," Jacobs said.
Landis and Jacobs will also question the UCI's premature release of the A
sample findings and the anonymous leak of the carbon-isotope test results to the
New York Times on July 31, the statement said.
