Tour De France Winner Flunks Drug Test

Floyd Landis of the US checks the clock as he crosses the finish to place second of the 7th stage of the 93rd Tour de France cycling race, a 52-kilometer (32.3-mile) individual time trial between Saint-Gregoire and Rennes, western France, in this Saturday, July 8, 2006 file photo. Tour de France winner Landis failed to show up for a one day race in Denmark on Thursday July 27, 2006 a day after missing a scheduled event in the Netherlands. (AP Photo/Christian Hartmann) (Christian Hartmann - AP)

LONDON -- Tainted at the start, the Tour de France may have been tainted at the finish, too. Floyd Landis' stunning Tour de France victory was thrown into question Thursday when his team said he tested positive for high testosterone levels during stage 17, when the 30-year-old American champion began his stunning comeback with a gritty charge into the Alps.

The Phonak team suspended Landis, pending results of the backup "B" sample of his drug test. If Landis is found guilty of doping, he could be stripped of the Tour title, and Spain's Oscar Pereiro would become champion.

It wasn't immediately known when the backup sample will be tested.

Efforts to reach Landis were not immediately successful. But Arlene Landis said her son called Thursday from Europe and told her he had not done anything wrong.

"He said, 'There's no way,'" she said in an interview with The Associated Press at her home in Farmersville, Pa. "I really believe him. I don't think he did anything wrong."

Second-place finisher Pereiro said he was in no mood to celebrate.

"Should I win the Tour now it would feel like an academic victory," Pereiro told The Associated Press at his home in Vigo, Spain. "The way to celebrate a win is in Paris, otherwise it's just a bureaucratic win."

The Swiss-based Phonak team said it was notified by the International Cycling Union (UCI) on Wednesday that Landis' sample showed "an unusual level of testosterone/epitestosterone" when he was tested after stage 17 of the race last Thursday.

"The team management and the rider were both totally surprised of this physiological result," the Phonak statement said.

The 30-year-old Landis made a remarkable comeback in that Alpine stage, racing far ahead of the field for a solo win that moved him from 11th to third in the overall standings. He regained the leader's yellow jersey two days later.

Landis rode the Tour with a degenerative hip condition that he has said will require surgery in the coming weeks or months.

Phonak's statement came a day after the UCI, cycling's world governing body, said an unidentified rider had failed a drug test during the Tour.