The Continental racing team run by Floyd Landis is folding after just one season.
Floyd’s Pro Cycling, a development team Landis set up with cash from the Lance Armstrong lawsuit, launched at the start of 2019 to help North American riders progress up the ranks.
Landis, a former doper turned whistleblower, is ending his headline sponsorship of the Canadian-registered team at the end of the year and management have been unable to find a replacement sponsor, with the co-owner announcing the team’s closure on Tuesday (November 12).
The team was initially due to be named after Landis’s legal hemp and cannabidiol business in Colorado, Floyd’s of Leadville, but he was forced to change the name because of cannabis laws in Canada.
General manager and co-owner of Floyd’s Pro Cycling, Scott McFarlane said: “Unfortunately CanAm Cycling, the management company running Floyd’s Pro Cycling, was unable to secure a title sponsor for 2020 and so the team will cease operations at the end of this year.
“Floyd Landis supported our team at a time when North American road racing needed it and when he could have easily used that money to support the growth of Floyd’s of Leadville. His decision to be the title sponsor of our team was in part an act of loyalty to [sports director] Gord Fraser and a sincere wish to help young riders on our team.
“His focus for the time being has moved on from road racing and the title sponsorship of our team was perhaps a final gesture before turning his full attention to his business. Every single one of us involved with this team was so lucky to meet Floyd at this moment in his life and we wish everyone at Floyd’s of Leadville nothing but success.”
The team was hugely successful in its first and only season, racking up 34 wins and three national titles, making it into the Tour of Utah, and taking the overall at the 2.1 category Tour de Taiwan.
Landis, a key rider in the Armstrong era turned whistleblower, retired from racing in 2011 but returned to that world as a team boss.
The 44-year-old most famously won the 2006 Tour de France, but was stripped of the victory after he tested positive for testosterone.
In a wide-ranging interview with Cycling Weekly last year, Landis revealed he wanted to set a new team for young riders so “something positive can come out of the last 12 years.”
The cash for the new team, around $700,000 or £500,000, comes from money handed to Landis after a lawsuit against his former team-mate and doper Lance Armstrong.
After Landis blew the whistle on Armstrong’s use of performance enhancing drugs in 2010, Armstrong paid $5million to the government in a settlement.
>>> ‘The cycling world loses a monument, an icon’: Stars pay tribute to Raymond Poulidor
As the person who first filed the lawsuit back in 2010, Landis was eligible for up to 25 per cent of the payout.
The team was made up from the DNA of the folding Canadian Continental outfit Silber Pro Cycling.
McFarlane thanked DS Gord Fraser, the sponsors and national federation Cycling Canada for supporting the team.
He added: “I want to thank all the riders who made 2019 memorable on and off the bike.
“In the meantime, Floyd’s Pro Cycling had a good run but unfortunately, it’s time to move on."
Nightmares, niceties and gnarl: 10 years of the Transcontinental Race
Why the best commute will always be aboard my old steel fixie
