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Tour victor Landis denies cheating

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Landis raises a toast as he celebrates winning his first Tour de France.

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(CNN) -- American cyclist Floyd Landis urged the media and public to "take a step back" and not rush to the assumption that he cheated his way to the yellow jersey in the Tour de France.

A drug test found unusually high levels of testosterone in his system.

"All I'm asking for ... is that I be given a chance to prove that I'm innocent," Landis said in a telephone conference call with reporters late Thursday from an undisclosed location in Europe. "I would like to be assumed innocent until proven guilty, since that's the way we do things in America."

Landis said he had not taken testosterone during the tour, and he also denied using performance enhancing drugs during his cycling career. He vowed to fight to clear his name and find an explanation for the abnormal test.

But while Landis said he still believes "there's a good possibility" of clearing his name, he conceded that with cycling's long history of doping controversies, "I wouldn't blame you if you were skeptical."

"Unfortunately, I don't think it's ever going to go away, no matter what happens next," he said.

On Wednesday, the International Cycling Union, known by its French acronym UCI, set off a wave of speculation by releasing a statement saying that a test sample taken from an unidentified rider in the Tour de France found an "adverse analytical problem."

Landis' racing team, Phonak, confirmed on Thursday that Landis was the rider and that the test of his sample detected an unusual ratio of testosterone to another hormone, epitestosterone. Landis will not be allowed to race again "until this problem is totally clear," and he will be dismissed from the team if the second test confirms the results of the first, Phonak said in a statement.

Both testosterone and epitestosterone are naturally occurring hormones, and levels can vary from person to person. However, according to the World Anti-Doping Agency, a high ratio of testosterone to epitestosterone can be an indication that a competitor is using anabolic steroids.

Under agency guidelines, a test that finds a ratio of 4-to-1 or higher is considered an adverse result.

Landis said he did not know what his ratio was because he had not seen the results. The cycling union and Phonak have also not disclosed the ratio.

Landis said he would formally ask Friday that a second sample, taken at the same time as the one that came up abnormal, be tested. He also said he is consulting with experts to try to discover why the test might have found high levels of testosterone in his system.

Among the possibilities that are being explored, according to Landis, are two medications he has been taking -- cortisone, to treat an injured hip, and a daily hormone pill for a thyroid condition called Hashimoto's disease, which was diagnosed two years ago.

He had a waiver from the UCI, the sport's governing body, to use cortisone. The thyroid medication did not require a waiver because it was not considered a performance-enhancing substance, he said.

Landis also said his testosterone-to-epitestosterone levels had not previously been checked, either by team doctors or his personal physician, so there was no way to tell how high the ratio might be naturally.

In an earlier interview with Sports Illustrated.com's Austin Murphy, Landis said he had retained the services of a Spanish doctor who has helped other riders prove that elevated testosterone levels were not related to doping, and he may undergo an endrocrine test to determine his natural levels. (Full story)

Pat McQuaid, president of the UCI, said if the second test confirms the initial results, "It would be a great disappointment and an unacceptable violation." But he said it would also show that the organization is "determined to continue its fight against doping with the greatest severity."

On the eve of this year's Tour de France, nine cyclists, including two pre-race favorites, were bounced from the event after being entangled in a doping investigation in Spain.

News of the abnormal test broke just four days after Landis, 30, raised his arms in joyous triumph on the Champs-Elysees, capping a spectacular and inspiring comeback in the grueling event and continuing the streak of American victories begun by seven-time champion Lance Armstrong.

The victory was particularly inspiring because Landis won despite a debilitating hip problem he has suffered since a 2003 crash,. He plans to undergo hip replacement surgery this fall.

"I had everything I could have possibly wanted and dreamed of," Landis said, who said the news about the test took him from "a very, very high to a very, very low."

"There was no way for me to tell myself that this wasn't going to be a disaster," he said.

The questionable test sample was taken from Landis after Stage 17 of the race, when a spectacular ride through the Alps put him back in contention for the event's vaunted yellow jersey.

In the 16th stage, Landis had a disastrous ride that dropped him from first to 11th place, more than eight minutes behind Spain's Oscar Pereiro.

After that poor performance, Landis said he thought he was no longer in contention, and he and his demoralized teammates dropped their usual pre-race preparations for the next day and instead sat around their hotel drinking Jack Daniel's whiskey before going to sleep.

The next day, though, he erased more than seven minutes of the deficit, getting him close enough to overtake Pereiro in the next stage and go on to victory.

Asked Thursday to explain that stellar performance, Landis said, "There are 20 stages on the tour, and every day there's a fabulous performance. So explain the other 19."

However, he said he was not suggesting that the Jack Daniel's might have had anything to do with the abnormal test, a idea he called "absurd."

Landis, who was preparing to race in the Netherlands when he found out about the test, declined to tell reporters where he was located in Europe, saying it would complicate making arrangements for him to return to the United States.

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