http://www.velonews.com/news/fea/11346.0.html
American Floyd Landis, who is expected to be stripped of the Tour de France yellow jersey for testing positive after this year's race, said Saturday his cycling career may be practically over.
Landis won the race in spectacular fashion this year to succeed his now-retired compatriot Lance Armstrong, the iconic seven-time winner of the world's biggest bike race.
However days after his triumph it emerged that Landis had tested positive for the banned male sex hormone testosterone after his spectacular victory on stage 17, which resurrected his bid for the yellow jersey.
Landis, who grew up in a strict Mennonite Christian community in Pennsylvania, has always protested his innocence. And while weighing up his future, he told the Belgian press that even if he
is cleared by an American arbitration body early in the new year, he will likely miss the coming season.
"There's a minute chance of me racing again in 2007," the 31-year-old is reported as saying in Belgian dailies Het Laatste Nieuws and Het Gazet van Antwerpen. "Even if I'm not suspended, who will want to sign me?"
Landis's positive test prompted his former team, Phonak, to pull out of cycling. Their place in cycling's Pro Tour series was on Friday awarded to Swedish-Belgian outfit Unibet.
"And if they suspend me for two or four years - a humiliation which I hope doesn't happen - it's over for me." he added. "As things stand now, I don't see myself as a bike racer."
Landis has claimed that inconsistencies by the French laboratory which analyzed his samples led to his positive result.
And he claims he is now fighting for his personal reputation, and not just his career.
"I've never taken testosterone, I would have been stupid to because you just can't get away with it (in doping tests)," he said. "What it comes down to is that I'm being accused of stupidity more than
doping."
If found guilty, Landis would be the first rider in the modern era to be stripped of the Tour de France's yellow jersey. In the event, it will be handed to his former teammate Oscar Pereiro of Spain.
"Even if I'm proved innocent, my reputation is ruined," he lamented.
Ahead of the festive season, Landis - whose father-in-law committed suicide, in still unclear circumstances, not long after the news of his positive test became public - said he wants a simple wish for Christmas.
"To have a day without any worries," he said. "This whole affair has ruined my life. My father-in-law committed suicide. There must be a link to what happened.
He was my best friend and my biggest supporter."
American Floyd Landis, who is expected to be stripped of the Tour de France yellow jersey for testing positive after this year's race, said Saturday his cycling career may be practically over.
Landis won the race in spectacular fashion this year to succeed his now-retired compatriot Lance Armstrong, the iconic seven-time winner of the world's biggest bike race.
However days after his triumph it emerged that Landis had tested positive for the banned male sex hormone testosterone after his spectacular victory on stage 17, which resurrected his bid for the yellow jersey.
Landis, who grew up in a strict Mennonite Christian community in Pennsylvania, has always protested his innocence. And while weighing up his future, he told the Belgian press that even if he
is cleared by an American arbitration body early in the new year, he will likely miss the coming season.
"There's a minute chance of me racing again in 2007," the 31-year-old is reported as saying in Belgian dailies Het Laatste Nieuws and Het Gazet van Antwerpen. "Even if I'm not suspended, who will want to sign me?"
Landis's positive test prompted his former team, Phonak, to pull out of cycling. Their place in cycling's Pro Tour series was on Friday awarded to Swedish-Belgian outfit Unibet.
"And if they suspend me for two or four years - a humiliation which I hope doesn't happen - it's over for me." he added. "As things stand now, I don't see myself as a bike racer."
Landis has claimed that inconsistencies by the French laboratory which analyzed his samples led to his positive result.
And he claims he is now fighting for his personal reputation, and not just his career.
"I've never taken testosterone, I would have been stupid to because you just can't get away with it (in doping tests)," he said. "What it comes down to is that I'm being accused of stupidity more than
doping."
If found guilty, Landis would be the first rider in the modern era to be stripped of the Tour de France's yellow jersey. In the event, it will be handed to his former teammate Oscar Pereiro of Spain.
"Even if I'm proved innocent, my reputation is ruined," he lamented.
Ahead of the festive season, Landis - whose father-in-law committed suicide, in still unclear circumstances, not long after the news of his positive test became public - said he wants a simple wish for Christmas.
"To have a day without any worries," he said. "This whole affair has ruined my life. My father-in-law committed suicide. There must be a link to what happened.
He was my best friend and my biggest supporter."
