Floyd landis (Farmersville, United States, 46 years old) is the vivid portrait that sometimes life offers second chances. Proof of this is that the American touched the glory in cycling with the Conquest of the Tour de France in 2006, he went down to hell for his positive in testosterone and redirected his destiny by earning a living as an entrepreneur. A roller coaster of emotions.
Landis belonged to that generation of cyclists in the United States who, hand in hand with Lance Armstrong, they signed one of the blackest eras in cycling history. So much so that the Tour erased them from the map (that is, from the track record), as if they had never existed. And Floyd was not very different from the Vandevelde, Andreu, Hincapié and company, some cyclists with little talent that overnight came to dominate the ‘race of races’. The one from Pennsylvania gave his first steps with the bicycle in MTB, where he did shine until he was proclaimed national champion in the junior category. That success, before taking the leap to the road as a professional in 1999, caught the attention of Armstrong, who later recruited him to his team: the US Postal.
With the departure of the team of several riders who had been fundamental for Armstrong during the conquest of his first Tours, such as Tyler Hamilton, the arrival of Landis was key for the one from Texas. So much so that he became his friend and faithful squire on the road until signing his seventh title in the Big Boucle in 2005. The following year, With Armstrong retired, Landis picked up the baton to extend America’s supremacy on the Tour. And he did it thanks to a stratospheric performance in Morzine, by escaping almost from the start, after giving 10 minutes with respect to Oscar Pereiro the previous day. With that ‘miraculous’ recovery and his huge final time trial, Landis climbed to the top of the podium in Paris, but the joy was a matter of hours …
Four days later the bomb jumped: Landis had tested positive for testosterone in the doping control after Morzine’s ‘feat’. The then Phonak broker appeared before the media to explain, in a shaky and unconvincing tone, that the Your positive substances were naturally originated by your own body. It was the beginning of the end… In September 2007 justice was served and Pereiro was proclaimed winner of the Tour, including a two-year sanction for Landis for doping.
Revenge and new life
Floyd served his sanction, out of competition for two seasons, and He asked his old friend Lance for help to get back into the upper echelons of cycling, precisely to return to the ranks of RadioShack, the new team that Armstrong and Johan Bryuneel assembled in 2010. But to Landis’ surprise, Lance ‘spat in his face’, so he had to settle for putting An end to his sports career that same year in the modest continental Bahati Foundation Pro Cycling Team. But contrary to what happened with other former teammates and rivals of Armstrong whom he had reported for doping and who did nothing against the Texan, Landis did not sit idly by …
At the end of 2010, Landis confessed to having doped during his sports career and accused Armstrong of doing the same. After Floyd pulled the blanket, one after the other, testimonies from former colleagues of Lance in the US Postal accused him of doping. The famous ‘USADA report’ (The United States Anti-Doping Agency) was blunt and the UCI took action on the matter, dispossessing Armstrong of all his Tour de France victories. With his revenge consummated, Floyd took a radical turn in his life when he opened a Cannabis sales business in Colorado, a state where this substance was legalized in 2014, called Floyd’s of Leadville. He did so well in this project that with the benefits obtained he created the Floyd’s Pro Cycling, cycling team that saw the light in 2019. Time will tell if it ends up being a sports redemption of the opportunist Floyd …