Floyd Landis Test Positive -- A Black Eye
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by user BigPPup
As if the sport of competitive cycling could afford to take another hit, it has sustained perhaps the final blow to put the sport out of its misery this morning. Newly crowned Tour de France Champion Floyd Landis has tested positive for high levels of testosterone and blood doping. The announcement came from his Phonak team just a day after officials announced they had an unidentified rider who failed a drug test earlier this week.
Floyd Landis was supposed to be the next Lance Armstrong. He mounted an impressive comeback on the final days of this year's Tour de France and took home the championship on Sunday. Landis was battling a degenerative hip condition that caused him excruciating pain. He was planning to have a hip replacement as soon as September to help ease the pain. Throughout the Tour de France Landis refused to take painkillers for his condition because he feared something in the pills may be detected and considered a steroid. Turns out he already had something else in his system beside painkillers.
This positive test is a huge black eye on a sport that already had its top 20 competitors banned from competition just a week before the Tour de France began because of positive steroid test. With a sport that has become so corrupt and plagued with controversy and scandal one has to wonder what does this mean for Lance Armstrong. Was he really that good? Or was he just that good at getting away with it?
Date
Thu 07/27/06, 6:42 am EST
