57 Facts About Floyd Landis

Floyd Landis was born on October 14,1975 and is an American former professional road racing cyclist.

Floyd Landis finished first at the 2006 Tour de France, and would have been the third non-European winner in the event's history, but was disqualified after testing positive for performance-enhancing drugs.

Floyd Landis turned professional in 1999 with the Mercury Cycling Team, joined the US Postal Service team in 2002, and moved to the Phonak Hearing Systems team in 2005.

Until 2010, Floyd Landis maintained his innocence and mounted a defense.

Floyd Landis was suspended from professional competition through January 30,2009, following an arbitration panel's 2-to-1 ruling on September 20,2007.

Floyd Landis appealed the result of the arbitration hearing to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, which subsequently upheld the panel's ruling.

On May 20,2010, after almost four years of contesting the allegations, Floyd Landis admitted to doping, and revealed that Lance Armstrong and many other top riders who rode on his team doped as well.

Floyd Landis is the second child and oldest son of Paul and Arlene Landis.

Floyd Landis graduated from Conestoga Valley High School in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, in 1994.

Floyd Landis was raised in a devout Mennonite family and community.

Floyd Landis used his first bike to ride while out fishing with his best friend but quickly learned to enjoy riding for its own sake.

Floyd Landis raced wearing sweatpants because his religion forbade wearing shorts.

Disturbed at his son's participation in what he considered a "useless" endeavor, Floyd Landis's father tried to discourage him from racing his bike by giving him extra chores.

Floyd Landis's father received a tip that his son had been going out at night; he did not appreciate his son's passion for cycling and thought he might be getting into drugs or alcohol.

Floyd Landis often followed Landis at a distance to make sure he was not getting into trouble.

Floyd Landis later became an enthusiastic supporter of his son and described himself as one of Floyd's biggest fans.

Floyd Landis told friends he would win the Tour de France one day.

At age 20, Floyd Landis moved to Southern California to train full-time as a mountain biker.

Floyd Landis soon established a reputation for toughness, once finishing a race riding on only his rims.

Floyd Landis performed well enough on the road that Lance Armstrong recruited him to US Postal and chose Floyd Landis to ride alongside him as a domestique during his Tour wins from 2002 to 2004, part of his then-record seven Tour titles.

In each of these Tours, Floyd Landis served as Armstrong's lieutenant, or chief domestique, pushing the pace in the mountains to break the pack before Armstrong took off on his own to win the stage.

Floyd Landis's performance led some observers to peg him as a possible team leader and future winner of the Maillot Jaune.

Floyd Landis left US Postal later that year after receiving a better contract offer from the Phonak squad.

Floyd Landis kept the ailment secret from his teammates, rivals, and the media until an announcement was made while the 2006 Tour was underway.

Floyd Landis called his first place in the General Classification "a triumph of persistence" despite the pain.

Floyd Landis was stripped of his win on September 20,2006.

Floyd Landis underwent hip resurfacing on September 27,2006, receiving a Smith and Nephew Birmingham metal-on-metal hip joint.

On July 27,2006, the Phonak Cycling Team announced a urine sample submitted by Floyd Landis tested positive for an unusually high ratio of the hormone testosterone to the hormone epitestosterone after his performance in stage 17 of the 2006 Tour de France.

Floyd Landis denied doping and placed faith in a test using his backup sample.

Witt and Floyd Landis shared the same cycling coach, and Witt was instrumental in Floyd Landis's transition from mountain biking to road bicycle racing.

Witt and his wife attended the 2006 Tour de France and were in Paris with Floyd Landis to celebrate his victory.

Witt's North Park restaurant was adorned with Floyd Landis memorabilia, including two of Floyd Landis's jerseys.

Floyd Landis was banned from the sport for two years, dated retroactively to January 2007.

Floyd Landis appealed the decision of the committee to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

In September 2008, Floyd Landis moved in US federal court to vacate the CAS arbitration award, contending that the procurement of the award was tainted by partiality and conflicts of interest.

Floyd Landis contested the $100,000 US "costs" award, characterizing it as a disguised punitive award.

Floyd Landis appealed to supporters to donate "anything they could" to help him pay his reportedly $2 million legal bill, while denying his involvement in doping.

Floyd Landis reached an agreement with federal prosecutors over allegations that he fraudulently solicited donations for a defense fund he set up to fight doping charges.

Floyd Landis appeared before a federal judge on August 24,2012, for a "deferred prosecution" hearing at which he agreed to pay restitution.

Floyd Landis left the OUCH team at the end of 2009, stating he wished to ride the longer, tougher stage races offered in Europe and internationally that better suit his strengths.

Floyd Landis then raced the Tour of Southland in New Zealand in November 2009, with local team CyclingNZshop.

However, after Floyd Landis admitted to doping himself and accused many other prominent American cyclists of doping, the Bahati Team began to fall apart, and Floyd Landis competed in the July 2010, Cascade Cycling Classic in Bend, Oregon, as a lone rider without a team.

Floyd Landis was unable to find a team in the next months, and in January 2011, decided to end his career.

On May 20,2010, midway through the 2010 Amgen Tour of California, The Wall Street Journal reported that Floyd Landis had sent a series of emails to senior cycling and anti-doping officials in which he admitted to doping from June 2002 through his victory in the 2006 Tour de France.

Floyd Landis had asked Messick to be allowed last-minute entry to the 2010 race; when Messick refused, Floyd Landis released his allegations regarding cycling to the media.

Floyd Landis accused several former teammates, including Lance Armstrong and George Hincapie, of using EPO and blood transfusions in the 2002 and 2003 seasons.

Floyd Landis alleged that he assisted Levi Leipheimer and Dave Zabriskie in taking EPO before the Tour of California one year.

The 2006 Tour de France was the only race to produce evidence Floyd Landis had ever used banned substances.

Floyd Landis stated that Armstrong told him in 2002 that US Postal Service Pro Cycling Team director Johan Bruyneel had made a "financial arrangement" with the International Cycling Union to ensure that details of a positive test on Armstrong remained confidential.

Floyd Landis filed a federal whistleblower lawsuit against Armstrong under the federal False Claims Act, where he alleged that Armstrong and team managers defrauded the US government when they accepted money from the US Postal Service.

In July 2011, Floyd Landis gave an interview to Graham Bensinger in which he described his plans and training to race professionally in NASCAR.

Floyd Landis reached a deal to avoid being prosecuted for the fraud charges as long as he paid the restitution.

Floyd Landis is portrayed by American actor Jesse Plemons in the 2015 film The Program, directed by Stephen Frears and starring Ben Foster as Lance Armstrong and Chris O'Dowd as David Walsh.

Floyd Landis opened a cannabis company in Colorado in mid-2016.

In October 2018, Landis announced that he would launch a new UCI Continental cycling team sponsored by his cannabis business, Floyd's of Leadville.

Floyd Landis indicated that funding for the team would come from the bulk of the money he received from the settlement of the Lance Armstrong whistleblower lawsuit, and that it would be managed by Gord Fraser.

In November 2019 Floyd Landis announced the team would be folding after one year of operation.