Floyd Landis, the American former cyclist stripped of his 2006 Tour de France victory for doping, is establishing a professional cycling team from the settlement he received as the whistleblower in the US government’s lawsuit against Lance Armstrong.
Landis received a two-year ban after excessive levels of testosterone were found in his system during the 2006 Tour, and after years of denials he eventually admitted doping in 2010, implicating his former teammate Armstrong of using EPO and blood transfusions.
Last year the US government announced a civil lawsuit against Armstrong for recouping huge sponsorship payments while doping, and in April the matter was settled when Armstrong agreed to pay $5m – of which Landis received $1.1m as a whistleblower.
Landis now plans to use the remaining money of around $750,000 after legal bills to develop a small team below World Tour level called Leadville Pro Cycling Team, which will take in some of the former staff of the recently wound-down Silber Pro and will focus on youth development.
“I have a conflicted relationship with cycling, as everybody knows, but I still like it,” Landis told The Wall Street Journal. “And I still remember what it was like to be a kid, and race on a domestic team. It was some of the best years of my life.
“I’m contrite about what happened, but you can never go back and change the decisions you made. At the very least, people can see that I’m ready to move on. Maybe it sounds odd, but it’s kind of some closure for me.”
