This article first appeared in the Lancaster New Era, Tuesday, Feb. 13:
Bicyclist Floyd Landis will be doing a tour this summer, but it will not be the Tour de France.
Landis is writing a book about his upbringing in Farmersville, winning last year’s Tour — the world’s most prestigious bicycle race — and about the charges of doping he has faced since then.
The book, “Positively False: The Real Story of How I Won The Tour de France,” which he is writing with Bicycling Magazine executive editor Loren Mooney, will go on sale in late June, two weeks before the start of this year’s Tour de France.
Landis pledged last week not to ride in this year’s Tour — or to race in France at all this year — in exchange for the French anti-doping authorities’ decision to wait until the American anti-doping officials decide his case. The American hearing is set for May 14.
Mooney was in Lancaster County last week to gather information for the first part of the book.
Landis’ mother, Arlene, said she spent several hours talking with Mooney about Floyd’s upbringing.
“It was basically things about his childhood and things that he would have done as a child,” Arlene Landis said this morning about the discussion.
Many of Mooney’s questions were the same as those asked by dozens of other journalists who descended on eastern Lancaster County last summer as Landis approached the finish line of the three-week bike race in Paris, agreed Mike Farrington.
Mooney also spent several hours last week with Farrington, owner of the Green Mountain Cyclery bicycle shop in Ephrata, where a teenage Landis used to hang out.
Mooney wanted to know about Floyd’s early years and his start in mountain-bike racing. She also wanted to know about what he was like when he was younger, Farrington said this morning.
That information will likely be new to people who only know of Landis from his most recent history.
“For most people outside of Lancaster County, Floyd’s early years are essentially unknown,” Farrington said.
Floyd’s early years will comprise the first third of the book, Arlene Landis said. The center section will chronicle last summer’s race and his come-from-behind victory.
The last section will be about the allegations that Landis used artificial testosterone to boost his performance, a charge which Landis has steadfastly denied.
That part will not be completed until the hearing is concluded, Farrington said Mooney told him. That means the last writing and editing will have to be done very quickly, before the June 26 release, he said.
“They want to have it as up-to-date as possible,” Arlene Landis said.
The book’s publisher, Simon Spotlight Entertainment, a division of Simon and Schuster, is taking advance orders. So is Amazon.com. Listed as a 256-page hardback, the book’s price is $24.95.
Arlene Landis said she believes it will be good for Floyd to get his side of the story into the public.
“I do think there is so much controversy. Everyone has their own opinions formed, but the truth will prevail,” she said.
