The aughties started with all the promise of the a millennium. We had survived the Y2K scare, the economy was rolling right along and everyone thought things could only get better.We were wrong.This decade in Lancaster County has been marked by perhaps the worst tragedy in its histo......

It's a bit belated, but let's welcome back Lancaster County native Floyd Landis to the sport of competitive cycling.Landis made his return last month in the Tour of California, a race he won in 2006. Landis didn't win this time, but, then again, neither did Lance Armstrong, who......

(AP) — Floyd Landis is coming back to cycling and says his sport will be better for it.The Farmersville native's feel-good story came to halt when Landis was stripped of his 2006 Tour de France victory following a doping scandal and a protracted fight in courts around the world. ......

Lancaster County native Floyd Landis reportedly is preparing for his return to professional bicycle racing more than two years after he won the Tour de France. Landis, 32, who grew up in Farmersville, has been negotiating with the Momentum Sports Group, the company that operates the Health Net-......

Floyd Landis is preparing his own comeback.The Lancaster County native who won the 2006 Tour de France but then had his title stripped for a positive doping test is looking to return to a team run by Momentum Sports Group."We are in negotiations with Floyd Landis to ride for th......

Floyd Landis, the Lancaster County native who won the 2006 Tour de France then had the title stripped from him, sounded a defiant tone Monday, but there may be little he can do about the international court ruling against him. The Switzerland-based Court of Arbitration for Sport upheld Landis&#......

Rich Ruoff doesn't care what the Court of Arbitration for Sport says about Farmersville native Floyd Landis' winning performance in the 2006 Tour de France."That wasn't chemically enhanced," said Ruoff, a Lancaster County bicycling enthusiast and race promoter. "......

An international court this morning put an end to Lancaster County native Floyd Landis' attempts to clear his name from charges that he cheated to win the 2006 Tour de France bicycle race. The Switzerland-based Court of Arbitration for Sport upheld last year's ruling of a U.S. arbitr......

Another year. Another cable-news spotlight on Lancaster County. In 2005, it was David Ludwig killing his teenage girlfriend's parents in Lititz. In 2006, it was Jesse Dee Wise killing six family members in Leola — followed by Charlie Roberts killing five Amish schoolgirls in......

Lancaster County residents looking back on 2007 will remember this year as being particularly violent, considering the notorious slayings of the Haines family and popular businessman Ray Diener. They will recall a community on edge as the killers remained on the loose. But they might also recal......

Move on, Floyd. You're not going to get a fair shake. Supporters of Lancaster County native Floyd Landis say they're still standing behind their hometown hero but feel he should finally quit the long, costly battle to clear his name and regain the 2006 Tour de France title. &q......

An arbitration panel ruled against Floyd Landis Thursday, stripping the Farmersville native of his 2006 Tour de France title and banning him from competitive cycling for two years.The panel ruled Landis used performance-enhancing drugs to win cycling's most prestigious title.The......

The panel of arbitrators who heard Lancaster County native Floyd Landis' doping case have concluded that he took testosterone to enhance his performance in the 2006 Tour de France.

The Associated Press reported getting an advance copy of the U.S. anti-doping agency finding. The new......

Floyd Landis was late, but that didn't stop the estimated crowd of 500 fans from giving the Farmersville native and 2006 Tour de France cycling champion a warm welcome when he finally arrived at Barnes and Noble Booksellers in the Red Rose Commons on Friday evening. Landis had a good excuse......

The line started at the Cookbook Nook. It snaked through Atlases and Teens and Europe and Nutrition and New Fiction and International Travel and ran through the main corridor dissecting the store, where best-sellers and classics are arranged on tables. There were at least 500 people, queue......

Bicyclist Floyd Landis, the embattled winner of the 2006 Tour de France, said Friday he has about four to five years left to compete at a championship level before age takes its toll."I do want to race more," the Farmersville native said during an interview with the Intelligencer......

A sport utility vehicle driven by the wife of bicyclist Floyd Landis was struck from behind by a pickup truck Friday in the 200 block of South Reading Road, Ephrata Borough, police said.Amber Landis, a California resident, was attempting to turn left from the northbound lane into the Green......

Farmersville native Floyd Landis was declared the winner of the 2006 Tour de France bicycle race; in short order he also declared a "loser," that is, a cheater. Landis has spent more than $1 million in the last 10 months to defend himself against allegations of doping. His latest......

(AP)Attorneys for Floyd Landis have acknowledged the upcoming release of the Tour de France winner's tell-all book violates the gag order in his arbitration case against the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency.In a recent letter written to the arbitration panel, Landis' attorneys give arbitrat......

Austrian cyclist Bernhard Eisel sprinted to the finish line on North Queen Street, battling harsh elements all day, to capture the victory in the Tom Bamford Lancaster Classic Sunday.Eisel, riding for Team T-Mobile, held off a tough charge at the end of Sunday afternoon's race by Uzbek......

For local supporters of Tour de France winner Floyd Landis, the vigil continues. After sitting through nine days of testimony in Landis' doping hearing, which ended last week, six supporters — including Landis' parents — must wait for as much as two months before a ruling....

Local supporters of Floyd Landis are organizing a May 12 fundraising ride to help the Farmersville native pay for his legal battle to retain his Tour de France crown. The "Keep the Faith" ride will benefit the Floyd Fairness Fund, which was established in January to help Landis battle dopin......

The Floyd Fairness Fund is pleased to announce the "Keep The Faith Ride" on Saturday, May 12 to be hosted at Petra Christian Fellowship in New Holland. Event begins at 10 a.m., registration at 9 a.m. The "Keep The Faith Ride" is a fund raising event to support the 2006 Tour de France Champion, ......

Melanie Sensenig of New Holland wanted to help Floyd Landis fight his legal battle to keep the Tour de France crown.But she was a few bucks short."I'm not someone who can donate thousands of dollars," Sensenig, 29, said.So she came up with the idea of Keep the Faith Ride, a M......

Lancaster County native Floyd Landis received a full-minute standing ovation Sunday night from 300 friends, family and supporters in his long-delayed homecoming. The Tour de France winner was embraced by the crowd, who seemed puzzled by the doping allegations made against the bicycle racer afte......

About 300 friends, fans and former neighbors welcomed back a hometown hero Sunday night in northern Lancaster County.Floyd Landis, the embattled Tour de France champion bicyclist who lived in the county until he was 20, is back in town for a few days.Sunday night, he spoke publicly ......

An immovable rock meeting an irresistable force. That's how Arnie Baker frames Floyd Landis' battle against the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency. The agency has a perfect conviction rate, Baker explained. But then, until winning the 2006 Tour de France, Landis had a squeaky clean drug-te......

Call it chill with the champ. For people interested in just meeting and mingling with Tour de France winner Floyd Landis, those who are convinced he is innocent and don't need to hear his defense presentation, or for those who could not get tickets to Sunday's sold-out event, a second e......

Floyd Landis has always been written off prematurely. But he's never given up. And as he seeks to defend his 2006 Tour de France title amid doping allegations, Landis is undertaking a marathon of town hall meetings across the country to present his case and raise money for his legal defe......

The doping case against Tour de France champ Floyd Landis appears to be getting thinner and thinner by the day. The latest twist in the seven-month-old saga? The controversial French laboratory that handled the Farmersville native's positive drug tests made several errors that, in the ......

Farmersville native Floyd Landis will skip the Tour de France — and all other cycling races in France this year — as part of an agreement with French anti-doping authorities in a case that could strip him of cycling's most prestigious title."I think we all knew this wa......

More than 100 people watched as Paul Landis approached the microphone inside a large banquet room at the Farm and Home Center in Lancaster.

His face had appeared on television screens around the world this summer when his son, Floyd, first won the Tour de France and then had the title str...

“As a native of nearby Farmersville, his personal connections to the people of Lancaster County run deep,” a posting on the Web site said of Landis. The bicyclist will be donating funds to assist victims of the tragedy. The posting also encourages others to visit the Coatesville Savings Bank Web ......

Do you believe Floyd Landis? If so, you can sign a petition to support him.

A story on the bicycle Web site, www.bikebiz.co.uk, tells of a petition that is being circulated to support Landis, the Farmersville native who lost the Tour de France title because he failed a drug test. The......

Outside of stalwarts such as Mike Farrington, his longtime friend and Ephrata bike shop owner, and his family in Farmersville, few have spoken in Landis’ defense. Yet, one cycling expert is backing him without reservation. ESPN commentator John Eustice, a former racer and cycling Hall of Fame ......

Landis, 30, has been in the world’s spotlight for more than two weeks — first as the winner of the grueling three-week bicycle race, then as allegations surfaced that a urine sample taken during the race had an elevated level of testosterone. The results of a second urine sample test were release......

In his first public response since a second test result was announced Saturday morning supporting initial findings, Landis appeared on four major network morning shows to dispute the findings, which showed an elevated testosterone level and the existence of synthetic testosterone in his system w...

A week later, according to his Web site, floydlandis.com, the 30-year-old Tour de France winner had plunged to the “depths of scandal.”


Ditto for his hometown of Farmersville.


Landis has vowed to contest findings by the French Chatenay-Malabry lab that his urine con...

The samples contained synthetic testosterone, indicating that it came from an outside source. "I have received a text message from Chatenay-Malabry lab that indicates the 'B' sample of Floyd Landis' urine confirms testosterone was taken in an exogenous way," Pierre Bordry, who heads the French an......

And a close friend of Floyd Landis and his Farmersville parents reiterated her conviction that the Tour de France winner would be proven innocent of doping charges. But as a second lab test, as expected, showed Landis had an unnatural ratio of testosterone during a pivotal stage of the race, at l......

Pierre Bordry, who heads the French anti-doping council, said the lab found that testosterone in Landis' urine samples came from an outside source. "I have received a text message from Chatenay-Malabry lab that indicates the 'B' sample of Floyd Landis' urine confirms testosterone was taken in an ......

The samples contained synthetic testosterone, indicating that it came from an outside source. "I have received a text message from Chatenay-Malabry lab that indicates the 'B' sample of Floyd Landis' urine confirms testosterone was taken in an exogenous way," Pierre Bordry, who heads the French an......

However, Landis is "certain he hasn't ingested any prohibited substance," said lawyer Jose Maria Buxeda. "He knows there is a natural explanation to the (initial) finding.

"He's pretty sure we will be able to prove, if this result is confirmed, that it is due to natural causes, to a natural r...

Disbelief. Then gloom. In conversations around our dinner tables, with neighbors and at work, we can’t and won’t accept the fact that this man who was our hometown hero may have taken testosterone to boost his performance and win the Tour de France. The story is still being written on Landi......

But even in the face of damaging new details, they are clinging to hope the Farmersville native has naturally high levels of testosterone and will be proven innocent — title or no title. “The bottom line is the truth,” said Tammy Martin, a family friend who has served as their spokeswoman. Mar......

At least not yet.

As the world waits for the results of a second test to be released Saturday, supporters believe only Landis should be aware of the results.

Mike Farrington, a longtime friend of Landis and owner of Green Mountain Cyclery in Ephrata, said Thursday that the public s...

Results of the second or "B" sample are set to be released on Saturday and attorney Howard Jacobs said until they are made known, "there is not even a formal doping charge that has been filed against Mr. Landis." Jacobs said he was "troubled by the actions of the UCI, and how they have spoken out......

The parade, which is slated to begin at the Farmersville Fire Co. and end at the square in Ephrata, is “on hold,” said Doupe, pending the outcome of the well-chronicled doping scandal Landis is now facing.

Landis, who came back from 11th place to capture the most prestigious cycling race in t...

Landis, a Farmersville native, and the other top riders in the Tour de France rode conservatively today in preparation for Saturday’s decisive time trial. Landis, 30, is expected to win Saturday’s time trial and take the overall lead in the 23-day, 2,160-mile race. A decisive victory will put him......

Scott Haverstick called it "a once-in-a-generation" occurrence.

It turns out, the two local bicycling enthusiasts were witnessing the maturation of a potential Tour de France champion.

Floyd Landis, a Farmersville native, leads cycling's main event after enduring Thursday's 128-mile gr...

Floyd Landis became acquainted with that feeling Wednesday during the 16th stage of the Tour de France.

A late-stage breakdown may have doomed the Farmersville native's chances of winning professional cycling's most prestigious race.

"I think he bonked," said Mike Farrington, a longtim...

A day after winning the Tour de France bicycle race, Farmersville native Floyd Landis said Monday he already is caught in the whirlwind of television appearances and media interviews. Landis, 30, said he stepped down from the podium in Paris Sunday after winning the three-week race and into a par......

Dick Shellenberger, chairman of the commissioners, said Farmersville residents Paul and Arlene Landis, Floyd's parents, are expected to attend Wednesday's meeting of the board to receive a proclamation from the commissioners.

"This is something very special for a county person to be invol...

His mother, Arlene, greeted visiting bicyclists offering their congratulations that morning, shortly before Floyd himself called home to report that he had tested positive for an abormally high level of testosterone. At 9 a.m. — just before the news broke — a group of 30 cyclists from Berks Count......

Landis was suspended Thursday morning from his Phonak Cycling Team after a drug test conducted during the Tour de France, which he won, revealed "an unusual level of testosterone," according to Phonak's Web site.

The disputed test was given July 20, when Landis responded to the previous d...

Landis’ decisive performance in today’s 35.4-mile individual time trial — 1 minute and 29 seconds ahead of former race leader Oscar Pereiro of Spain — leaves little doubt that he will be standing atop the podium in Paris after Sunday’s largely ceremonial procession into the city. “It was a long w......

Then I came into work Thursday morning to hear the breaking news of Landis testing positive for high levels of testosterone.


The results were from a sample done after Stage 17, a premier alpine interval when Landis made up a big chunk of time to move from 11th to third place. That surge p...

He’d never be that stupid. And besides, the French hate it when Americans win the Tour de France. Lancaster County is standing firmly behind their local hero, Floyd Landis, as he fights charges that he cheated to win the world’s most grueling and famous bike race by taking illegal testosterone......

The Green Mountain Cyclery in Ephrata was dressed in the same colors.

A collection of local Landis supporters stopped by the cyclery in July to paint messages of encouragement on the windows of the bike shop.

"We put (the display) up to wish him good luck and to let everyone know t...

“That’s our boy,” he commented to the woman ahead of him in line. “IT SURE IS,” she responded enthusiastically. She then told Landis that she had a room in her Pottstown home full of Floyd Landis photos and memorabilia. Paul Landis was a little taken aback. He and his wife, Arlene, have com......

Then she carefully avoids media and family so she won’t know the race’s outcome when she watches the replay. Phyllis Stacks was on vacation the week of July 4th but didn’t go anywhere. “I wanted to watch the tour,” she said. “If the phone rings during the race, I get upset.” Tammy Martin pu......

Then a near-catastrophe struck.

Landis had a flat rear tire late in Stage 6 on Sunday, briefly knocking him out of the lead pack. But Landis took advantage of the protection from his Phonak team, including teammate Ignacio Gutierrez, who quickly stopped to give one of his tires to Landis. ......