Floyd Landis Admits Doping, Accuses Armstrong

American Cyclist Stripped of 2006 Tour De France Victory Comes Clean in Emails to Cycling Officials, ESPN 

• Floyd Landis waves the U.S. flag as he rides down the Champs-Elysees avenue in Paris following the final stage of the 93rd Tour de France, July 23, 2006.  (AP Photo/Bas Czerwinski)

• PHOTO ESSAYTour Turmoil
  Floyd Landis' win in the Tour de France is called into question after failed drug test.

• STORIES
• Arrest Warrant Issued for Cyclist Landis
• Cyclist Landis Loses Doping Appeal

(CBS)  American cyclist Floyd Landis has admitted to doping throughout his professional career and said many of his top competitors, including Lance Armstrong, also used banned performance enhancing drugs.

Landis won but was stripped of the Tour De France victory in 2006 after tests showed drugs in his bloodstream. He had denied any wrongdoing until coming clean in emails sent to U.S. and world cycling officials in recent weeks, The Wall Street Journal reports.

Neither Landis nor his former teammate, seven-time Tour De France champion Armstrong, were available for comment to The Journal regarding the Landis' allegations against other cyclists.

Landis claims in the emails that it was Armstrong's coach who first introduced him to steroid use, and that he and Armstrong often discussed the use of steroids.

"He and I had lengthy discussions about it on our training rides during which time he also explained to me the evolution of EPO testing and how transfusions were now necessary due to the inconvenience of the new test," Landis said in an email, according to The Journal.

According to The Journal, which reviewed three of the emails Landis sent to officials, the cyclist expressed frustration at the inability of regulators to purge the sport of doping. He said he felt the need to speak out before his voice was weakened by the statue of limitations running out.

Landis told ESPN.com in a telephone interview Wednesday that he used performance-boosting drugs for most of his career, including for his ephemeral victory in the 2006 Tour.

Landis detailed to ESPN his regular use of synthetic testosterone, human growth hormone and blood transfusions during the years that he rode for the U.S. Postal Service.

A French judge issued an international arrest warrant for Landis in February in connection with a case of data hacking at a doping laboratory.

French judge Thomas Cassuto wanted to question Landis about computer hacking dating back to September 2006 at the Chatenay-Malabry lab.

It was that lab which months earlier had uncovered abnormally elevated testosterone levels in Landis' samples collected in the run-up to his 2006 Tour victory.