PASADENA, California, Feb 21, 2009 – Floyd Landis, back from a two-year drugs ban and hip surgery, isn’t sure just where his cycling comeback will take him, he only knows he doesn’t want to look back.

The 33-year-old American waged an expensive and ultimately futile battle to clear himself of a doping violation that cost him the 2006 Tour de France title.

He returned to competition this week at the Tour of California, and said after Saturday’s penultimate stage that the daily challenge of the race was enough for now.

“I missed bicycle racing,” he said of his motivation for returning. “I spent a large part of my life doing it. It feels good to be back.

“I don’t know exactly what the long term goals are at his point. Like in any stage race, it gets to the point where your goals become very short-sighted. Like right now, I’m going to try to find a place to lay down.

“Hopefully, after the race is over I can re-assess what I want out of this.”

Landis makes his return in a race that also features another American on the comeback trail – iconic seven-time Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong.

Armstrong, 37, is riding for the top-flight Astana team in a campaign that is slated to include the Giro d’Italia and Tour de France.

Landis, who once rode with Armstrong at US Postal, is riding for the OUCH team, sponsored by his personal physician Brent Kay.

Kay’s osteoarthritis medical center performed reconstructive surgery on Landis’s ailing right hip.

So far, Landis said, a return to Europe’s great races don’t figure in his plans.

“We’re a continental team, so I don’t know what options we have as far as racing in Europe,” he said. “We don’t have any aversion to racing in Europe, but we don’t have any plans to do so.

“As far as whether I’d be welcomed back, it’s hard to say,” added Landis, who was equally unsure whether he might even be barred from competing in some races.

“Same answer, really,” he said.

For now, Landis said, he was enjoying the challenge of racing, the feeling of racing with a healthy hip, and the fans flocking to the Tour of California in a way that would once have been unheard of for a cycle race in the United States.

“It’s certainly touching to come out and have so many people out cheering for us all. To see that in the United States so close to home is very satisfying,” he said.

Wherever his comeback takes him, Landis insisted Saturday that he only wanted to look ahead, inviting questions only about “the present and future.”

Asked if he found a lot of people wanted to question him about the past, Landis smiled and deflected the query.

“I am not going to answer questions about questions about the past,” he
said. And then he stood up an walked out.

At this point Bicycle.net is still waiting for the one on one interview that Mr. Landis promised us at the Stage 8 final. So Floyd, when should we come down to Temecula?

Photo by: VeloImages.com / Bicycle.net