Landis, his doctor speak out against positive test result

MADRID, Spain -- His voice steady and his tone defiant, Floyd Landis vowed he would clear his name of allegations he cheated to win the Tour de France.

In his first public appearance since a testosterone imbalance showed up in a urine test and cast his title into doubt, the American cyclist said his body's natural metabolism -- not doping of any kind -- caused the result, and that he would soon have the test results to prove it.

"We will explain to the world why this is not a doping case but a natural occurrence," Landis said Friday from the Spanish capital.

Landis lashed out at the media for characterizing his plight as a drug scandal and said he wanted to "make absolutely clear that I am not in any doping process."

Later Friday, Landis' personal physician sought to clarify the nature of the test result and the possible benefits of the hormone in question.

"He does not have a high level of testosterone. That's not been documented. He has a high ratio of testosterone to epitestosterone in his urine," Dr. Brent Kay said.

Kay said the test could indicate elevated testosterone or low epitestosterone, or some other factor -- including handling or specimen contamination. Kay also said that using testosterone would hurt rather than help a cyclist.

"I think everybody needs to take a step back and look at what we're talking about. Because testosterone is a bodybuilding steroid that builds mass," Kay said. "It builds mass over long-term use of weeks, months, and even years.

"And it's crazy to think that a Tour de France professional cyclist would be using testosterone, particularly in the middle of a race. It's a joke. Every sports medicine expert, physician, trainer, scientist that I've talked to in the last day, have really the same opinion, 'No way. This is a joke.'"