ZURICH: Tour de France winner Floyd Landis's testosterone levels were found to be unusually high in an official doping test during the race, the Phonak cycling team announced on Thursday.
The Swiss-based team said on its website that it was notified by the International Cycling Union (UCI) on Wednesday of "an unusual level of Testosteron/Epitestosteron ratio in the test made on Floyd Landis after stage 17 of the Tour de France."
The US rider will ask for a counter analysis in the coming days, it added. The B sample test will be again carried out by France's national anti-doping laboratory at Chatenay-Malabry.
The test was done on the evening of his victory in the 17th stage of the Tour de France to Morzine when he managed to claim the mountainous stage victory after a 130km solo breakaway.
The 30-year-old American regained the yellow jersey two days after winning in Morzine and won the race overall in Paris on July 23.
The news comes as mystery surrounded the whereabouts of the American champion after he withdrew from two races in the Netherlands and Denmark the day after cycling's world governing body UCI announced a rider on the Tour had failed a doping test.
The ANP Dutch news agency said Landis pulled out of a race in Chaam on Wednesday evening after medical advice but this reason for not appearing was not confirmed by race organisers.
It was also discovered that Landis would not be coming to Thursday's Grand Prix Jyske Bank race, the Danish organisers said in a statement.
Landis did show top form however to win the Stiphout criterium in the Netherlands on Tuesday night.
On Wednesday, the UCI had said in a statement: "The adverse analytical finding received this morning relates to the first analysis, and will have to be confirmed either by a counter-analysis required by the rider, or by the fact that the rider renounces to that counter analysis.
"The World Anti-doping Code and the Anti-doping Rules of the UCI do not allow to make the name of the concerned rider public, as well as other information that may allow identification."
This year's Tour was rocked by a drugs scandal on the eve of the race which saw 13 riders, including pre-race favourites Jan Ullrich and Ivan Basso, barred from taking part after they were implicated in a Spanish blood-doping ring.
It was the latest in a series of high-profile drugs controversies to tarnish cycling over the past decade, with the Tour de France being particularly hard hit.
