The much-anticipated mountain bike match up of Tour de France champions Lance Armstrong and Floyd Landis at the Leadville Trail 100 race this Saturday will not happen.
Race organizers announced Tuesday that Armstrong, the only seven-time Tour winner, has a scheduling conflict and will not be at the start line. This is the second time it has been reported that Armstrong was out of the on-again, off-again match up.
The race, billed as “the race to the sky,” is 50 miles out and 50 back on dirt and double-track dirt roads. The course climbs 14,000 feet with steep grades and serious descents. The turn-around, at 10,200 feet, follows a seven-mile climb. Landis will be among 1,000 racers.
When Landis announced in December that he would return to mountain bike racing at Leadville, his coach, Robbie Ventura, said Landis would train to win. To do so, Landis would have to perform much better than his lackluster rides in the Teva Mountain Games in June.
The Teva mountain bike race and time trail were Landis’ first races since he won the Tour de France in July 2006. He was fired from his team and his license suspended a few days later after allegations surfaced that he had taken synthetic testosterone to improve his performance. Landis has denied those charges. A ruling from an arbitration panel hearing in California in May is still pending. That ruling could come any day. Landis could be stripped of the Tour title.
Landis, a Farmersville native, started racing mountain bikes as a teen near Brickerville. He was the junior national champion after graduating Conestoga Valley High School. He switched to road racing in 1998.
Along with being two of only three Americans to win the Tour de France, Armstrong and Landis were team mates on the former U.S. Postal cycling team.
Landis will likely ride Saturday’s race in the Smith & Nephew kit that he has been wearing on rides in recent months. The company, which is one of the Leadville race sponsors, is the maker of Landis’ replacement hip which he received in September.
