Floyd Landis has said he has naturally high testosterone levels and claims he can explain why he failed a doping test the day he won the stage to Morzine in this year?s Tour de France.
Nervously reading a statement and answering questions in a press conference in Spain on Friday afternoon that was transmitted live on CNN, BBC World and Fox new channels, Landis denied ever having taking performance enhancing drugs.
?The main reason for this press conference is because of the information that has been spread both yesterday and today in Europe and the USA about a certain physiological result that appeared in one of my urine samples in a test carried during the Tour de France,? he said.
?The result is no other than an alteration in the relation of testosterone to epitestosterone and should not have made any kind of effect expect to have made an endocrinological study by the medical services of the UCI.?
?As always since I?ve cycled, my physiological parameters of testosterone and epitestosterone are high, as of those of any other sportman and in special cases, as in mine, for natural reasons this level is higher still.?
?Therefore I?d like make it absolutely clear that I?m not in any doping process. In this particular case nobody can talk about doping and for this reason I ask all the media in Europe and in the United States that they know how to interpret and understand where we are.?
"I understand that the administrative protocols of the UCI and WADA established in these cases that the sportsman must under go an endocrinological study to determine that the levels of testosterone and epitestosterone are high as is the case of other cyclists and in other sports.?
?This is what we?re going to do: After what I have just said, I ask first that the case not be directly treated as a doping case. Second that in the same way as other sportmen have done this, I?ll proceed to undergo all these tests and controls the UCI and WADA feel are necessary to accredit that the levels I had during the Tour and during all my career are absolutely natural and produced by my own organism. Thirdly, until such research has been carried out, to which every sportsman is entitled, I ask not to be judged and much less to be sentenced by anyone.?
?Consequently I declare convincingly and categorically that my win in the Tour de France has been exclusively due to many years of training and my complete devotion to cycling, to the sacrifice of my entire life to carry out my dream, a dream of thousands of kilometres, that I have completed with absolute respect for the cleanness of this sport. A cleanness that I will keep respecting during my sports career and in particularly in the next competition that I will participate in, since I inform you that my intention is to compete normally during this year depending when my hip operation will take place as all of you know.?
"I WAS STRONGEST IN TOUR"
Answering questions, Landis confirmed he will ask for his B sample to be tested, revealed that he has been tested 19 times during the season and insisted he deserved to win the Tour de France.
?I?ll call for the counter analysis in the next few hours and will have a representative there to be sure that everything is done correctly. I do not know the exact date of when it will be done. The public will be know immediately when the B sample is tested, I see no reason to wait on that.?
?I don?t think it has any irony on which day it occurred. I was tested six other times during the Tour and 14 other times in every other race I did during the season.?
"I was the strongest guy on the stage and in the race and I deserved to win. I was determined to win. I set off that day to win the stage. I didn?t know about gaining any time, my goal was to win the stage and I?m proud of it. I?m surprised and disappointed that this process has began but I?m as confident as ever and I?m proud that I won the Tour because I was the strongest guy there and that?s my position.?
Landis will appear on Larry King Live on CNN on Friday night and is then is expected to travel home to California.
