Floyd Landis

This is Floyd Landis, the "winner" of last year's Tour de France, Tour of Georgia, Tour of California, and I think Paris Nice. I've always liked Floyd because he's a kind of anti-Lance. Where Armstrong is studied, calculating and carnivorous in his approach, Landis always seemed to be more of a seat of his pants kind of guy. His victory in stage 17 of the '06 TDF was as inspiring as any athletic achievement I'd ever seen, and it seemed as though the torch had been passed from Armstrong to Landis when Floyd won the Tour last year.

Then came the positive testosterone test and Landis' claim that maybe it was the beers and Jack Daniels he drank the night before his stage victory. See, even in the midst of a scandal, there was still something to like about him. I mean Jack and beers the night before a big mountain stage?

This was commissioned by Bicycling Magazine in the days after Landis was still thought of as the legit winner of the '06 Tour de France, and it was to be used as the cover. The day after, Landis' test for testosterone came back positive, so I changed the mood of the piece to a more somber tone. It was bumped to the interior as a small spot illustration.