Landis: Tour win due to 'heart,' not drugs
http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/07/28/landis.lkl/index.html
Floyd Landis tells Larry King, "This is not a doping case, but a natural occurrence."
(CNN) -- Tour de France champion Floyd Landis said Friday that his victory in the world's most-famous bike race last week had nothing to do with cheating.
It was "heart and determination and 15 years of hard work" that paid off, Landis told CNN's "Larry King Live" in an interview Friday from Madrid, Spain.
The 30-year-old American tested positive for the male sex hormone testosterone -- a possible sign of the use of steroids -- after an astounding comeback to win stage 17 in the French Alps, just a day after a disastrous showing that all but knocked him out of contention. (Watch Landis tell King why this wasn't really a positive test result -- 3:52)
"I'd love to continue in this sport. It's been my passion and my dream, and it's a beautiful sport," Landis said. "I would love to keep racing, and I'm going to do my best to defend my dignity and my innocence."
Landis reiterated to King a claim he made at a news conference earlier in the day: He has never taken performance-enhancing drugs and he has no idea why the test indicated his testosterone levels were abnormal.
"This is not a doping case, but a natural occurrence," the 30-year-old American cyclist told reporters at the news conference. "I declare convincingly and categorically that my winning the Tour de France has been exclusively due to many years of training and my complete devotion to cycling."
After the 17th stage, Landis gave a urine sample that showed the ratio of testosterone to another hormone, epitestosterone, in his system was abnormally high. Specific results haven't been released, but the World Anti-Doping Agency categorizes a ratio of 4-to-1 or higher as an adverse result.
A high ratio can indicate that a competitor is using anabolic steroids, according to the anti-doping agency. But the ratio can naturally vary among people, and Landis said his normal levels have never been recorded.
"It's not a positive test in the same criteria of finding something" introduced from outside the body, Landis said. "What this test shows is an abnormal ratio of two naturally occurring substances."
Landis conceded that the storybook nature of his win has increased suspicion. Competing with an injured hip and thyroid condition, Landis had a disastrous ride the day before he made up 8 minutes on the leader and put himself in position to win.
Despite the circumstances, there is nothing suspicious about the victory, Landis said.
"It was my dream. And when you get to that point when you're inspired, and you're somewhere you've always dreamt of being and nothing else matters, you can push yourself to limits you couldn't push yourself to before," he said.
Landis was tested eight other times during the race -- six times before the abnormal test result and twice afterward -- and he has not been told that any of those tests had unusual outcomes, he said.
Regardless, Landis' physician, Dr. Brent Kay, said that testosterone would have done nothing to help Landis win the race.
"Testosterone is a body-building steroid that that builds mass over long-term use of weeks, months or even years," Kay said. "It's crazy to think that a Tour de France professional cyclist would be using testosterone, particularly in the middle of a race. It's a joke."
Also, the abnormal ratio could mean a low epitestosterone level rather than a high testosterone level, Kay said.
Landis had been taking two medications during the race -- injections of cortisone to deal with a chronic hip injury and a thyroid hormone used to treat a condition known as Hashimoto's disease, with which he was diagnosed two years ago.
Kay said it appears unlikely that either medication could have caused the result.
Landis had a waiver to take cortisone; the thyroid medication did not require a waiver because it is not considered a performance-enhancing substance.
Landis said he will request that a second sample, taken at the same time as the one with abnormal levels, be tested. If the results are confirmed, he could be stripped of his Tour de France victory and face disciplinary action from the sport's governing body, the International Cycling Union.
In the meantime, his cycling team, Phonak, has pulled Landis from the racing circuit and announced that he will be dismissed from the team if the second test confirms the results of the first.
