Report: Tour winner fails follow-up test for synthetic testosterone

Tour de France champion Floyd Landis got more bad news Monday – a report that follow-up tests on his backup urine samples found traces of synthetic testosterone.\nBut he refused to confirm the results and said the report on the Web site of French newspaper L’Equipe was yet another result of unethical maneuvers engineered by those who want him stripped of the Tour title.\n“In any other industry or field, their failures would be construed as criminal negligence,” Landis said during a teleconference Monday.\nLandis’ attorney, Maurice Suh, said he has received some documentation from the tests done on the “B” samples at a lab outside of Paris, but it was not complete.\n“We need to understand fully from the lab what they did before we’re comfortable about saying what they declared to be ‘adverse,’” Suh said.\nDuring the 2006 Tour, Landis tested positive for elevated testosterone to epitestosterone levels after he won the 17th stage. The 31-year-old cyclist, who repeatedly has denied doping, faces the loss of his title and a two-year ban if an arbitration panel upholds the positive test.\nTravis Tygart, general counsel of the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency that is prosecuting the case against Landis, said agency rules prevented him from discussing active cases.\nThe “B” samples were tested at the behest of USADA, which is trying to bolster evidence for Landis’ May 14 arbitration hearing. The most recent tests used a technique that can distinguish synthetic from natural forms of testosterone, a male sex hormone.\nPierre Bordry, president of the French anti-doping agency, told The Associated Press the tests were concluded this weekend but he didn’t know the result because they were sent directly to the USADA.