Warm reception for Landis

Los Angeles - Floyd Landis, with a two-year doping ban now behind him, returns to competition at this month's Tour of California energised by the warm embrace he has received from his OUCH cycling team-mates.

Sidelined from the sport since being stripped of his 2006 Tour de France title after failing a dope test, the American is eager to prove himself on the most competitive race in the United States and has already impressed his new colleagues with his fitness.

"Floyd has been tearing us apart the last few days and there's obviously a lot of passion there at the moment," OUCH rider Rory Sutherland, 26, told Reuters.

"He's getting back his self-belief after two years not being in the sport and fitness-wise I think he's right up there. His addition to the team is definitely a huge impact.

"One of the reasons we all do cycling and love it so much is the team aspect," added the Australian, who won a second consecutive National Racing Calendar championship title in 2008.

"So to be back in the fold is a really good feeling for him and he's really enjoying that part of it. Now he can gauge how he is doing, and he's doing just fine."

American Pat McCarty, who rode with Landis on the Phonak team in 2006, has been taken aback by his team mate's fitness level after two years away from competition.

"I was surprised at how lean and fit he looks and how good he looks on the bike, especially with his hip," McCarty, 27, said. "He's super smooth as always and he looks ready to do well. He's a good guy and it's great to have him on the team."

Landis suffered from a degenerative hip condition, which gave him constant pain during the 2006 Tour de France before he had resurfacing surgery in September of that year.

"That was a very positive thing that's been taken care of," Landis told Reuters. "In the years before that, for three years, I was dealing with osteoarthritis from a fracture of my hip.

"After the hip resurfacing, it took about two or three months of rehab to get it functioning properly and then the flexibility kept improving for probably a year. But the main thing is that the pain was gone.

"The real problem was not so much a functional issue with the hip, it was an arthritis problem. The fact that the pain is gone means I can now sleep at night," he added with a smile.

Landis, whose doping ban ended on Jan. 30, believes he is in good physical shape for the Feb. 14-22 Tour of California.

"Certainly I haven't had trouble in the past with long periods of training before races and I am generally motivated enough to make that work," the 33-year-old said.

"All things considered, it's as good as it could be right now. The races will come and we will have to adjust things as we go. Right now, I am just excited to be thinking about it."

Tour of California champion with Phonak in 2006, Landis is eager to prove himself once again at an elite level.

"It feels good to be back in shape and have something to focus on," he said. "This is a good opportunity for me to race here in the US and I haven't done that since back in 1999.

"This is more about me racing my bicycle again because I like to do it and because I am a cycling fan, to feel the feeling that you get from competition and the excitement of being around a race.

"It's not a mission to prove anybody wrong or make somebody feel as if they didn't keep me down," added the American, who has been involved in a protracted bid to prove his innocence in courts around the world for much of the last two years.

He tested positive for synthetic testosterone after winning the 17th and penultimate stage of the 2006 Tour de France, but has consistently denied wrongdoing and blamed procedural mistakes by the French laboratory for his positive test.

Although the return of Landis to competition is bound to spark a negative reaction in some quarters, OUCH captain Tim Johnson says the team are prepared for it.

"Having Floyd come back and to be a part of our team is just that," the 31-year-old American added. "He is joining a team that had already been in existence. As he's come on, he has helped to shape some of the formation of the team.

"He's bringing a lot of experience, he's bringing talent and ability and is going to allow us to be competitive at the biggest races in the country. This is a huge change for us."