Floyd Landis is back in the saddle again

Doug Pensinger, Getty Images

Floyd Landis was invited by his friend and team sponsor, Dr. Brent Kay, to join Team OUCH. He jumped on board and prepared for the season with six months of hard training, biking between 400 and 600 miles per week.

Competing again after a two-year suspension that stripped his Tour de France title, Floyd Landis has a new hip and a new appreciation for his sport.

By RACHEL BLOUNT, Star Tribune

Last update: June 9, 2009 - 7:09 AM

As Floyd Landis raced through the Tour of California, he found his mind drifting. After two years of forced exile from cycling, he just wanted to look around and take it all in: the rush of competition-fueled adrenaline, the power of his surgically replaced hip, the sharpness of the air during the brutal mountain climb on the final day. ¶ Landis hadn't really noticed the simple joys of his sport in years. He sped through 15 seasons on the European circuit until 2006, when a failed drug test and his deteriorating hip stopped his career short. With his two-year ban complete and his body revitalized, Landis comes to this week's Nature Valley Grand Prix with renewed appreciation for the view from the saddle.

Now part of Team OUCH, Landis resumed his racing career at February's Tour of California and will ride exclusively in American events this year. He would like to race in France again and perhaps compete with his young team in Europe. At this point, though, he is relishing more immediate pleasures.

"It was difficult to focus on the race, because I just wanted to appreciate being there,'' said Landis, who finished 23rd overall in the Tour of California. "It was a different experience than I'd had in the previous 15 years. I had never been forced to stay away.

"Physically, I wasn't able to do as well as I wanted. But I was happier than I'd been in a long time. It was really refreshing.''

Landis reached the pinnacle of pro cycling with his victory in the 2006 Tour de France, and his hard fall came almost immediately.

Riding on a right hip that had degenerated after he broke it in a 2003 accident, his stunning rally in Stage 17 set him up to become the third American to win the storied race.

Only five days later, it was announced that Landis failed a drug test for synthetic testosterone.

He eventually was stripped of his Tour de France title and was barred from competition for two years. He denied the charges, and while he mounted a long, expensive and ultimately unsuccessful appeals process, he had a high-tech Birmingham hip implant and spent six weeks recovering at his home in southern California.

At that point, Landis said, he wasn't thinking about returning to competition. He just wanted to be fully mobile and pain-free.

But last year, Landis contemplated a comeback, even though he knew he would face skeptics.

"I like to race, and I didn't want my career to end on that kind of a note,'' he said. "I would always have questions about what might have been. There are always going to be people who have an opinion. I just wanted to race again.''

A friend of Landis, Dr. Brent Kay, had recently become the primary sponsor of Team OUCH and invited Landis to join. He prepared for the season with six months of hard training, putting in 400 to 600 miles a week.

Landis' suspension ended in January, clearing the way for him to race through a packed schedule that ends in September. He was welcomed warmly by spectators at the Tour of California and said after racing about 40 times through eight events this season, he feels "normal'' again.

In some ways, Landis will never be the same. He said he is less trusting than he used to be and hesitates to give people the benefit of the doubt. But his hip feels so good he sometimes forgets which one was damaged, and racing in his home country for the first time since 2000 has been an unexpected delight.

Mostly, Landis feels grateful to be back on two wheels.

"That first race, I just wanted to stop and enjoy it,'' he said.

"Getting my hip fixed, that's something that couldn't have been done 20 or 30 years ago. I feel lucky. I'm having a great time.''

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