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Floyd Landis sets up his own pro cycling team

Canada-registered Floyd's of Leadville team will start racing at UCI Continental level next year...

Floyd Landis, who was stripped of his 2006 Tour de France win for doping and later provided testimony that helped bring down his former team mate Lance Armstrong, is launching his own cycling team.

Jason Gay of the Wall Street Journal reports that Landis will be using around $750,000 of the money he was awarded for initiating the whistleblower case against Armstrong to set up the team.

Armstrong settled the case, which was based on the alleged use of federal funds in the shape of sponsorship of his former US Postal Service team to finance its doping programme, for $5 million in April this year.

The UCI Continental team will start racing next year, and will be run by Gord Fraser of the Canadian team Silber Pro, which is being wound up at the end of this season. The new team will also be registered in Canada.

Landis said: “I have a conflicted relationship with cycling, as everybody knows, but I still like it 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.”

Speaking of his past, he said: “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.”

The team, which will be sponsored by the Floyd’s of Leadville legal hemp and cannabidiol (CBD) business, is aimed at bringing on young riders.

.Fraser, who rode alongside Landis at the Mercury team from 1999 to 2001, said: “Floyd’s passionate about cycling. I’d agree he’s had his ups and downs, but hopefully with this new step, he’s going to find the reason why he started racing.”

Landis is aware that his moving back into the sport, albeit in a largely hands-off role, won’t be universally popular.

“They can put me in the same bracket as everyone else they want to go away, but at the end of the day, rather than yelling and screaming on the internet about how I should go away, they could go out and find some other sponsors to help them promote the sport,” he maintained.

“Those people are going to continue to talk like that, and that’s just who they are.”

Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.

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15 comments

Avatar
Organon | 6 years ago
3 likes

The other Doctor is in hibernation until May.

Floyd might be a cheat, but there is something about that belly that says 'trust me.' 

Avatar
ridein | 6 years ago
1 like

Did Floyd ever repay back his crowd-funding supporters for his TdF doping defense?

Avatar
Rapha Nadal replied to ridein | 6 years ago
1 like

ridein wrote:

Did Floyd ever repay back his crowd-funding supporters for his TdF doping defense?

I believe that part of the settlement was used for this very purpose.

Avatar
Scoob_84 | 6 years ago
4 likes

Quite funny that his racing team will literally be funded by dope. 

Avatar
Derk Davies replied to Scoob_84 | 6 years ago
1 like

Scoob_84 wrote:

Quite funny that his racing team will literally be funded by dope. 

Thats the first thing I thought. But absolutely great that cannabis and hemp products are starting to become normalised. It's an amazing product with thousands of uses. It seems 80% of everything contains palm oil, it could be hemp oil and far better for our enviroment. Plus lots of medical benefits. Great stuff. Looks like Floyd is doing good things.

Avatar
hawkinspeter replied to Derk Davies | 6 years ago
1 like

Tim K wrote:

Scoob_84 wrote:

Quite funny that his racing team will literally be funded by dope. 

Thats the first thing I thought. But absolutely great that cannabis and hemp products are starting to become normalised. It's an amazing product with thousands of uses. It seems 80% of everything contains palm oil, it could be hemp oil and far better for our enviroment. Plus lots of medical benefits. Great stuff. Looks like Floyd is doing good things.

...and it makes listening to his "The Wall" album even better!

Avatar
Derk Davies replied to hawkinspeter | 6 years ago
1 like

hawkinspeter wrote:

Tim K wrote:

Scoob_84 wrote:

Quite funny that his racing team will literally be funded by dope. 

Thats the first thing I thought. But absolutely great that cannabis and hemp products are starting to become normalised. It's an amazing product with thousands of uses. It seems 80% of everything contains palm oil, it could be hemp oil and far better for our enviroment. Plus lots of medical benefits. Great stuff. Looks like Floyd is doing good things.

...and it makes listening to his "The Wall" album even better!

Sunburn?

Avatar
hawkinspeter replied to Derk Davies | 6 years ago
0 likes

Tim K wrote:

hawkinspeter wrote:

Tim K wrote:

Scoob_84 wrote:

Quite funny that his racing team will literally be funded by dope. 

Thats the first thing I thought. But absolutely great that cannabis and hemp products are starting to become normalised. It's an amazing product with thousands of uses. It seems 80% of everything contains palm oil, it could be hemp oil and far better for our enviroment. Plus lots of medical benefits. Great stuff. Looks like Floyd is doing good things.

...and it makes listening to his "The Wall" album even better!

Sunburn?

That was a Muse song, wasn't it?

Avatar
theDoctor | 6 years ago
0 likes

Sphincter sniffin Team Sky fanboys however...

Avatar
Yorkshire wallet | 6 years ago
1 like

Website must have another doctor that hates Froome and Sky. These things happen.

Avatar
The_Vermonter | 6 years ago
5 likes

Good for Floyd and for the cyclists that'll get jobs in this team. I'm sure people will be bothered that he is in cycling and that is their problem. The idea former-dopers cannot have a place in the sport is childish. Even Lance Armstrong has a place in the sport and to deny him a place in the sport is counterintuitive to the long-term health of the sport. 

Avatar
theDoctor | 6 years ago
3 likes

Haters gonna hate but I reckon Floyd's a legend.

Avatar
Yorkshire wallet replied to theDoctor | 6 years ago
3 likes

theDoctor wrote:

Haters gonna hate but I reckon Floyd's a legend.

Don't you hate team Sky members for their imaginary crimes but yet this guy's a legend?

Avatar
theDoctor replied to Yorkshire wallet | 6 years ago
1 like

Yorkshire wallet wrote:

Don't you hate team Sky members for their imaginary crimes but yet this guy's a legend?

I don't hate Team Sky members for crimes - real or imaginary - and never said i did, dumbass. What - is every story on here something to do with Team Sky?

And - yeah - Floyd's a legend.

Avatar
Yorkshire wallet | 6 years ago
3 likes

He forgot his pedals.

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