Floyd Landis is stretching his cycling season into November with his participation in the Tour of the Southland next month.
Landis, a Lancaster County native, will compete with the five-man cycling-nzshop.com-bioSPORT team in the six-day, nine-stage tour which begins Nov. 2 on New Zealand’s South Island, the Associated Press reported Thursday.
The announcement sparked immediate debate among Kiwis. “Should disgraced cyclist Floyd Landis be allowed on the Tour of Southland,” the New Zealand Herald asks.
Landis won the 2006 Tour de France but was disqualified and banned for two years after testing positive for synthetic testosterone. He returned to cycling at the Tour of California in February.
Race Director Bruce Ross said there had been opposition in some circles to the American’s inclusion in the New Zealand race, which is sanctioned by cycling’s world body, the UCI.
“I’ll be treating his entry like every other entry,” Ross said. “I realize there’s a background. He’s served his time. He’s another entry in the Tour of Southland, a very exciting one, (and) it’s great that he wants to come here.”
