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Floyd Landis

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File:Flloydlandis.jpg
Floyd Landis en route to victory in 2006 Tour of California.

Floyd Landis (October 14 1975, Farmersville, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania) is a professional road bicycle racer.

A time trial specialist, as well as a strong climber, Landis turned pro in 1999 with the Mercury squad. He joined Lance Armstrong's U S Postal Service team in 2002, and moved to the Phonak Hearing Systems team in 2005.

In the 2005 Tour de France, Landis finished ninth overall in the General Classification, his highest finish ever in the Tour.

In the 2006 Tour de France, Landis wore the yellow jersey (maillot jaune), denoting the overall race leader, in Stages 11 and 12.

2006

Landis started the 2006 season very strongly, with overall wins first in the Amgen Tour of California, and then in the prestigious Paris-Nice, both week-long stage races. Winning Paris-Nice gave Landis 52 points in the UCI ProTour individual competition, starting him off in first place for 2006. Landis continued with his display of strength with another overall win in the Ford Tour de Georgia April 18 to 23, where he not only won the time trial, but did not lose any time to anyone on the most difficult climbing stage, Brasstown Bald, (where Tom Danielson beat him across the uphill finish line, but with the same time).

2006 Tour

Landis had an unusual start at the 2006 Tour de France. When it was his turn to leave the start house of the prologue, Floyd was not even there, having suffered a cut tire on his difficult-to-change rear disc wheel. He rushed to the start house and started about 6 or 7 seconds later. He finished ninth, just 9 seconds behind winner Thor Hushovd. Landis encountered further technical difficulties following the Stage 7, 52 kilometre individual time trial to Rennes: a handlebar malfunction forced him to switch bikes midway through the race. Nevertheless, Landis managed to finish second, one minute behind T-Mobile's Serhiy Honchar of the Ukraine, while also gaining an important time advantage over other top contenders for the overall victory in this year's Tour as it headed into the first mountain stages. He capitalized on this in the second mountain stage, taking third, and putting himself in the yellow jersey.

The performance of Landis in this Tour is all the more remarkable given that he is afflicted with a hip ailment, advanced osteonecrosis, which was revealed in an article in the New York Times during the 2006 Tour de France. Landis kept the ailment secret from his teammates, rivals and the media for 20 months, and plans to undergo a hip replacement following the Tour. He is medically approved to take cortisone for this injury, a medication otherwise prohibited in professional cycling for its known potential of abuse. A disadvantage he has is the loss of the two teammates Santiago Botero and José Enrique Gutierrez due to doping allegations in the Operación Puerto around physician Eufemiano Fuentes.

Personal

Born to a traditional Mennonite family, Landis now lives with his family in Murrieta, California, north of San Diego.

Major results

2006 - Phonak Hearing Systems
2005 - Phonak Hearing Systems
  • 3rd overall and Stage 3 win – Tour de Georgia
  • 9th overall – Tour de France
  • 11th overall – Dauphiné Libéré
    • 4th, Prologue and Stage 3 – Dauphiné Libéré
    • 5th, Stage 4 – Dauphiné Libéré
    • 12th, Stage 6 – Dauphiné Libéré
2004 - U.S. Postal Service


2003 - U.S. Postal Service
2002 - U.S. Postal Service
2001 - Mercury Pro Cycling Team
2000 - Mercury Pro Cycling Team
1999 - Mercury Pro Cycling Team
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