Floyd Landis Back, Signs with OUCH presented by Maxxis

Floyd Landis is coming back to professional cycling to race with the domestic OUCH presented by Maxxis team, formerly Health Net. The OUCH sponsorship (a sports medicine center in California) will look to showcase Landis as an example of someone who can lead a full and healthy life with a hip transplant. Whether Landis will be able to garner the same results that he did before his suspension for doping is still unclear.

During his suspension, Landis often remarked that he was done with cycling. Approached by a fan at the Tour of California in 2008, Landis had some quirky remarks of pictures shown to him from his Phonak days. "Oh, this is when I was a bike rider!", Landis remarked at seeing pictures of himself from his Phonak days. These statements, as well as a general loss of fitness, made it seem as though the former stage race threat wasn't coming back.

But after all has been said and done, Landis will in fact return, and he'll be a part of a pwerful domestic OUCH lineup that boasts reigning NRC champion Rory Sutherland and reigning US cyclocross champ Tim Johnson. Although Landis has not announced his schedule for 2009, all signs point to a February start at the Tour of California as his comeback race. He is eligible to begin racing again January 30, 2009.

If Landis does choose California as his comabck race, he will be pitted against arch rival Lance Armstrong, who is also on the comeback track. There is little love lost between Armstrong and Landis, despite the fact that Landis helped Armtrong to two of his seven Tour de France wins. Maybe now that a few years have passed, Landis and Armstrong will be able to bury the hatchet. If not though, their spat could provide ample fodder for the media at the Tour of California as a renewal of a rivalry.

Like many riders who have been suspended, Landis will face the harsh glare of disgruntled fans and media in his comeback attempt. But it should not be forgotton that Landis has every right to compete again, after having served his full two year suspension. Now, the trick for landis will be to get back to his winning ways as soon as possible, especially considering that he is 32 and has only several years left to re-build his tainted image.