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Phonak team sack Landis after test
 Landis has protested his innocence to the UCI and to his Phonak team. PARIS, France -- The Phonak team have sacked Tour de France winner Floyd Landis following the American's positive test for the male sex hormone testosterone. "Landis will be dismissed without notice for violating the team's internal Code of Ethics," Phonak said in a statement. "Landis will continue to have legal options to contest the findings. However, this will be his personal affair and the Phonak team will no longer be involved in that. "Team owner Andy Rihs deeply regrets this development. At present, he is clarifying with all parties involved what consequences this may have for his company ARcycling AG, the operator of the Phonak Cycling Team. "Andy Rihs and Team Manager John Lelangue will make in-depth statements regarding this matter at a media conference to be held in the next couple of days." Meanwhile, Landis continued to protest his innocence. "I have never taken any banned substance, including testosterone. I was the strongest man in the Tour de France, and that is why I am the champion," Landis said in a statement on his Web site. "I will fight these charges with the same determination and intensity that I bring to my training and racing. It is now my goal to clear my name and restore what I worked so hard to achieve." His lawyer Howard Jacobs said he was waiting to receive full laboratory documentation for the "B" test. "In consultation with some of the leading medical and scientific experts, we will prove that Floyd Landis' victory in the 2006 Tour de France was not aided in any respect by the use of any banned substances," Jacobs said. Landis and Jacobs will also question the UCI's premature release of the A sample findings and the anonymous leak of the carbon-isotope test results to the New York Times on July 31, the statement said. 
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