PARIS - Floyd Landis’s chances of keeping his victory from the 2006 Tour de France took a nosedive on Tuesday when L’Equipe reported that varying levels of synthetic testosterone have been found in urine samples tested this week by French scientists.

Landis won the world’s biggest race in dramatic fashion last year, rebounding from a spectacular collapse on stage 16 to cap a 130km breakaway with victory on stage 17.

It was after stage 17 that one sample from the American cyclist tested positive for elevated levels of the male sex hormone, which is produced in the body but which also exists in a synthetic (exogenous) form.

On Monday L’Equipe had reported that “B” samples belonging to the American had been tested retrospectively following a request from the US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA).

A day later, L’Equipe said the results from the French laboratory involved in testing seven of Landis’s samples revealed that “several” of those samples contained synthetic testosterone, albeit at lower levels than his original positive test.

In a bid to back up their findings from the positive test which snared Landis after the Tour de France, scientists at the Laboratoire National Depistage de Dopage’s (LNDD) laboratory at Chatenay-Malabry outside Paris took a more profound approach to the testing of Landis’s seven urine samples.

Doping controllers are usually only alerted to the presence of testosterone in a sample when the ratio of testosterone/epitesterone is found to be at a level or four or over. In adult males the ratio is usually around one.

The fact that only one of Landis’s samples from last year’s Tour de France was over the threshold of four led to further testing, his positive result and the ensuing scandal.

However the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) showed their faith in the French system by sanctioning the laboratory to carry out tests on his B samples.

When testing samples, for example for synthetic testosterone - which in sport can be used to enhance strength or endurance - scientists can use a Mass Spectrometer device.

According to L’Equipe, the LNDD used the device to ascertain that several of Landis’s samples from last year’s Tour contained synthetic testosterone, albeit at levels that were not sufficient to warrant a “positive” test.

Representatives of Landis, who were present at the tests in Paris, have already complained that they were denied access during the testing of two of the American cyclists’s samples.

Landis spokesman Michael Henson said: “The analysis of two of the samples was carried out in the absence of any representative for Floyd Landis.

Tour de France race director Christian Prudhomme said the race has now taken a step closer to finding a winner for 2006 — Spaniard Oscar Pereiro finished second.

And ahead of Landis’s hearing with the American anti-doping authorities, scheduled for May 14, the Frenchman gave his unstinting support to the French laboratory.

“I’m not surprised (in the results), because I’ve always had confidence in the tests carried out at Chatenay-Malabry,” said Prudhomme.

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