Landis not ready to ride into sunset

Three years ago this week, his legs aching and his lungs on fire, Floyd Landis staged one of the greatest comebacks in the history of the Tour de France.

In the French Alps summit of Morzine, Landis climbed four killer passes in five hours 23 minutes and 36 seconds, cutting his deficit from 8:08 to 30 seconds in the grueling 17th stage.

Days later, he rode up the Champs-Elysses, a parade on either side, as the winner of the fabled event. But three days after that, he was stripped of the title when tests showed he had abnormally high levels of testosterone in his system.

Floyd Landis: 'I love the sport, I feel great and I still have tremendous competitive fire.' (Getty Images)

Landis denied the doping but was banned from competitive cycling until this year.

"It was humiliating, devastating," Landis said in his only interview on the anniversary of his epic solo breakaway. "I fought the test results but to no avail."

•  Tour de France coverage

His improbable ride that day was all the more remarkable because he was experiencing severe hip pain and avascular necrosis to the femur head (diminished blood supply -- remember Bo Jackson?) as a result of a training accident in 2003.

Landis wrestled with what do -- a complete hip replacement would have all but ended his chances to be a world-class cyclist again when his suspension was lifted this January. Landis decided to have a relatively new operation called the Birmingham Hip Resurfacing, which was performed in October of 2006 by surgeons from Smith and Nephew, the British jointmaker.

In hip-joint resurfacing, only the surface of the hip socket and femur ball are replaced. It is kind of a cap at the end of worn-out bone, sparing much of the original joint. I know a little about this because I shattered my hip in an accident 15 years ago and had three subsequent successful operations by Dr. Steve Nicholas at Lenox Hill in New York. But this procedure wasn't an option.

"It changed my life," said Landis, who hopes to compete in the Tour de France next year. "I've ridden almost 20,000 miles on my new hip. I have completely recovered."

Landis competed in the Tour of California earlier this year and finished in the top 25. He wants to be the first athlete in history to return to peak performance with an artificial hip. And he's picked perhaps the most difficult sport to accomplish such a feat.

"It's not totally about redemption," Landis said. "I love the sport, I feel great and I still have tremendous competitive fire."

Landis has been watching the Tour de France with renewed interest. As Lance Armstrong's "domestique", or support rider, for three years (2002-’04), when Armstrong won consecutive titles, Landis is hoping both men will be competing for the yellow jersey next year.

"It's great what Lance is doing, even if he doesn't win," Landis said. "He's a leader, mentally and physically -- there is just no quit in him."

Landis idolized Armstrong growing up in rural Pennsylvania, the son of strict Mennonites. By his own admission, he spent all his time on the bike, "eating, sleeping, breathing cycling."

He won the first mountain bike race he entered. In 1993, he was crowned the junior national champion and told his friends he would one day win the Tour de France. His life was everything he'd wanted it to be. But all that changed with the suspension.

"I lost everything," Landis said. "I didn't want to ride, my dream had been broken."

He wasn't exaggerating.

The ban cost him his Tour de France title, the $575,000 first prize, his professional cycling license, his sponsors and his reputation.

"I didn't know if I could make a comeback," he said. "But I didn't want my career to end on that note.”

After two years of exile from cycling, Landis is back to riding five to six hours a day, from the mountains in Colorado and Utah to long rides up the California coast. He has raced in eight events this year, and after spending 15 years on the European circuit, he's happy to be racing at home.

"It's refreshing, I'm pain free and happier than I've been in years," said Landis, who spent hundreds of thousands of dollars defending himself, only to lose two doping arbitration hearings. He still maintains his innocence and thinks of himself as the 2006 Tour de France champion.

"I'm proud of what I did in that Stage 17, and I know I won the race," Landis said. "I'm sure there will always be people who question it, and that's their right. I'm coming back because I still love to race."