The embattled Tour de France winner, Floyd Landis, has been summoned to a hearing before the French...
Floyd Landis (Image credit: Bettini Photo)
The embattled Tour de France winner, Floyd Landis, has been summoned to a hearing before the French anti-doping agency, AFLD to be held on February 8. Landis, whose urine sample returned an 'adverse analytical finding' for exogenous testosterone after stage 17 of the 2006 Tour, faces action by the US Antidoping Agency (USADA) as well, but no date has been set for that hearing.
Unlike the USADA hearing, which will ultimately decide whether Landis will be sanctioned over the test results, the AFLD hearing will only decide whether Landis will be allowed to compete in France. However, this could mean that even if Landis is cleared by USADA, he could still be prohibited from racing the Tour de France by the AFLD. This would be a major blow to the American who recently expressed his desire to win the Tour again.
Landis has been busy with a public relations campaign to argue his innocence, and will likely be represented by one of his lawyers at the hearing in Paris, according to AFP reports. He recently appeared in Virginia where an auction was held to raise money for his defense through the 'Floyd Fairness Fund', and it appears that he will have extra incentive to fill the coffers now that he faces legal proceedings on two continents. According to Reuters, Landis hopes to raise more than $2 million through the fund.
Laura Weislo has been with Cyclingnews since 2006 after making a switch from a career in science. As Managing Editor, she coordinates coverage for North American events and global news. As former elite-level road racer who dabbled in cyclo-cross and track, Laura has a passion for all three disciplines. When not working she likes to go camping and explore lesser traveled roads, paths and gravel tracks. Laura specialises in covering doping, anti-doping, UCI governance and performing data analysis.
