Phonak
Floyd Landis won the prestigious Tour de France in 2006 as the leader of
the Phonak bicycle team, but his win was marred when he tested positive
for synthetic testosterone. The highlight of the Tour was Landis's
sensational ride in stage 17, when his solo breakaway over the French
mountains beat the field by nearly six minutes. Even more remarkably,
Landis rode with a degenerating right hip: he announced during the Tour
that he would have hip replacement surgery later in 2006. Landis grew
up in a Mennonite family in Pennsylvania and began riding mountain bikes
as a teen. He moved to California at age 20, switched to road bikes,
and turned pro in 1999. He rode with the U.S. Postal (later Discovery
Channel) team from 2002-2004, helping teammate Lance Armstrong
win the Tour de France each year, before switching to Phonak in 2005.
Landis's winning time in the 2006 Tour was 89 hours, 39 minutes and 30
seconds. However, the week after Landis's big win, the Phonak team
announced that he had tested positive for excessive levels of
testosterone after his stunning 17th stage. After a second test also
showed elevated testosterone levels, he was fired by his team and faced
the loss of his 2006 title. Landis denied having taken testosterone and
is conducting an ongoing legal fight to have the test results
overturned.
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