Positively False: The Real Story of How I Won the Tour de France (Hardcover)

~ (Author), Loren Mooney (Contributor)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

THE SERIES OF EVENTS surrounding Floyd Landis's 2006 Tour de France was as improbable as anything in the history of sports: He showed up nine seconds late for the race's opening prologue, donned the leader's yellow jersey twelve days later, and lost his lead only to regain it in remarkable fashion just before the Tour's final stage into Paris. Winning the Tour should have been the culmination of a life's dream, but a mere three days later, Landis was accused of using banned performance-enhancing drugs. Released by his team and threatened with the removal of his Tour title, Landis went from winning the most prestigious race of his career to being unfairly labeled as a cheater, a liar, and a doper.

Positively False is at once a memoir and a powerful indictment of the unchecked governing bodies of cycling that have compromised theintegrity of the sport as a whole. From leaving the Mennonite community of his youth in order to pursue his passion for cycling, to riding alongside Lance Armstrong for three years -- with whom he shared the same work ethic and competitive desire -- Floyd Landis details the highs and lows of his career with unabashed honesty. It is this same honesty with which he will clear his name once and for all, as he lays bare the inner workings of the cycling world -- a place where athletes are subject to the antiquated science, flawed interpretive protocols, and draconian legal processes of the anti-doping agencies -- and finally lays to rest the scandal that threatened to destroy everything he's worked so hard to achieve....

About the Author

Floyd Landis began his professional cycling career in 1995, one yearafter graduating from Conestoga Valley High School. In 1997 he was the Men's Under-23 National Champion. In 1998 Landis made the switch to road cycling. He has completed the Tour de France every year since 2002. Floyd Landis lives in Murrieta, California, with his wife, Amber, and their daughter, Ryan.

Loren Mooney is the executive editor of Bicycling magazine. Her writing has appeared in Sports Illustrated, Reader's Digest, New York, and other magazines and books. Mooney covered her first Tour de France in 2006. She lives in New York City.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Simon Spotlight Entertainment (June 17, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1416950230
• ISBN-13: 978-1416950233
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.8 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.9 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (58 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #260,511 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

41 of 51 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars No doubt in my mind . . ., June 22, 2007

By	soyboy42 "vegan dude" (Blue Bell, PA) - See all my reviews

Before reading this book, I had really only heard the repeated statements in the mainstream press that Floyd Landis' drug test results from Stage 17 of last year's Tour de France revealed a testosterone to epitestosterone ratio (T/E) of 11:1, far above the allowable 4:1 ratio. But there was something about Floyd that made me feel he was not the type of athlete who would using doping to win. So when this book came out, I immediately purchased it in order to hear Floyd's side of the story.





What you get in this book is a very open, honest, and engaging telling of Landis' cycling history, for example: his first bicycling experiences as a boy; his first races in the U.S. and abroad; the accident that injured his hip; his experiences riding alongside Lance Armstrong and other greats; his major cycling victories leading up to his win in last year's Tour de France. Throughout the narrative, Landis and Loren Mooney weave in text about Floyd's personal life, including his Mennonite background (for example, how he snuck out late at night to bike since his father had intentionally filled his day with chores), how he met his wife, and even his taste for heavy metal music like AC/DC and Metallica to psyche himself up (he also often winds down with some Johnny Cash). I really felt that I knew Floyd well after reading this book.





The overall impression I got from his life story confirmed my gut feelings from before--this is not the type of person who would feel the need to cheat to win. With Floyd, what you see is what you get. He has nothing to hide. As he tells the story of his doping case, it becomes increasingly clear that the French Lab responsible for his Stage 17 blood test was run much like the Keystone Cops--mixing up sample numbers, not following there own rules for what constitutes a positive sample, and inconsistent when compared to other international labs (for example, the same samples run in an Australian lab and also at UCLA would have been judged as negative).





In a nutshell, this book is a great read--I stayed up late a couple nights because I could not put it down--and after reading it I find it impossible to believe that Floyd Landis cheated. If anything, the French Lab that ran his urine tests at last year's Tour should lose it's certification and be banned from future Tour's.





Read this book if you want to know the truth about Floyd Landis' 2006 Tour de France victory. Highly recommended!

18 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Landis takes his case to the public, July 14, 2007

By	Paul Allaer (Cincinnati) - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

"Positively False: The Real Story Of How I Won the Tour de France" (306 pages) is basically divided in 3 parts: Floyd's Mennonite upbringing in Pennsylvania and his humble beginnings in bike racing; his years in the big time, including his 2 years as a member of Lance Asrmstrong's team and of course his subsequent Tour vicotry; and his battle with the US Anti-Doping Agency.

Floyd on Armstrong: "Lance had his own way of being a jerk in the peloton to get what he wanted. ... He never yielded, so other riders other riders stayed out of his way." Floyd writes openly about how much money he makes over the years, for example his bonus the first time he was on the Armstrong team that won the tour in 2002 was $90,000.

The last 150 pages of the book are devoted to the doping allegation. Lance makes a very convincing case that there were serious errors with the doping test and the subsequent procedures. It is very telling to me that Eddy Merckx, the most successful bike racer of all time, has come out in public in support of Landis, as has Lance Armstrong as recently as last week (but hastily adding that he thinking that the USADA will suspend Landis anyway). In the last chapter, Floyd addresses the public arbitration hearing that took place in May, including the dramatic Gerg Lemond incident.

This is an enjoyable book, and highly recommended for fans of professional bike racing. Landis is a good guy, and what has happened has changed his life (and career) forever. It also has a profound impact on the Tour itself. We are in the midst of the 2007 Tour, and general interest in the Tour here in the US has dropped dramatically, which saddens me as a long-time Tour de France admirer. I hope we'll see Landis again in the Tour some day.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A great read, and convincing, February 5, 2008

By	Andrew Kent (Westborough, MA) - See all my reviews

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I remember watching on TV the day Floyd Landis bonked famously on a Tour de France climb. I thought, "He's smart to give in to it. He'll have a great day tomorrow." We've all been there. A bad day very often precedes a great day, and vice versa. Thanks to his power meter data, it's clear that what appeared to be an inhuman turnaround the next day was actually a combination of smart team tactics, hard training (he was well within his normal hard load), physiologic recovery, and cagey use of water (dumped over his head to create a cool microclimate for himself). A sloppy French lab then created, purposely or inadvertently, a false positive, and an unfair process made it impossible (unclear if this is true yet) to rectify. It's sad how science is being used to advance causes these days, but it's nothing new. Even religion has dressed itself up as science in an attempt to advance its world view. Landis' book is refreshing. He's painfully blunt at times, and a tone of honesty permeates the storytelling, which is brisk by the way. This book reads clearly, you can hear Floyd's voice, and it is hard to put down. I enjoyed it thoroughly. After reading this and previously having read Arnie Baker's analyses and the ruling from the first arbitration panel (which captures enough lab flaws to leave you scratching your head at the fact that it still resulting in a guilty verdict), I believe that Floyd is innocent, and that he is being railroaded by a system out of control. A great cycling book.