Landis ready to race

Landis'feel-good story came to halt when he was stripped of his 2006 Tour deFrance victory following a doping scandal and protracted fight incourts around the world.

He said on Thursday he feels "like a kid again" knowing that his two-year ban from cycling will end next week.

"In my mind, it's already behind me," Landis said in an interview with The Associated Press. "I'm not dwelling on that at all."

Landiswas barred for using synthetic testosterone in the latter stages ofcycling's showcase race three years ago. He contends the testing systemwas flawed, but he has no means left to fight other than to resumeracing.

He will ride for the OUCH cycling team and debut at theTour of California next month, starting what he plans to be at leasttwo years with OUCH, which opens its training camp on Friday.

"This isn't some kind of statement to shut down the critics or any kind of changing-the-world project of mine," Landis said.

"Thisis me doing what I've trained myself to do for the last 15 years, and Ihope that the people that follow bike racing get a better show thanwhat they've had the last couple years."

His return comes on the heels of seven-time Tour champion Lance Armstrong resuming his own racing career.

"Idon't think our two returns to the sport are that similar, other thanwe haven't raced in a while," Landis said. "I wish him the best."

Armstrong's plan is to ride in France this year but Landis wasn't sure if he'll ever return to the sport's premier event.

"Idon't have any goals to, but I wouldn't say that I don't ever want to,"Landis said. "I would prefer to see how racing in the United Statesgoes and if I really do enjoy it as much as I expect to, I'll set newgoals."

Landis says he feels as good as ever, in large partbecause his right hip was now pain-free. He underwent hip resurfacingsurgery two years ago, relieving the bone-on-bone pain that plagued himfor years, even during that 2006 Tour.

Following what a panelof arbitrators decided months earlier, the Court of Arbitration forSport ruled last summer that Landis was evaluated using "less thanideal laboratory practices," but still concluded that he doped before astunning victory in Stage 17 of the 2006 Tour.

He was 8 minutesbehind Spain's Oscar Pereiro to start that day. After that stage,Pereiro's lead was a mere 30 seconds, and Landis eventually prevailed.

"Thebest performance in the modern history of the Tour," was how formerTour director Jean-Marie Leblanc described Landis' effort at the time.It led to the Tour's biggest scandal.

Eventually Landis becamethe first Tour champion to be stripped of his title. During histwo-year exile, there were a lot of days where Landis thought he wasfinished.

He still doesn't trust a drug-testing system that heinsists was rigged against athletes, and he can see the irony of hisreturn exposing him to that system.

"There were times I didn't want to race because I lost the fun that I remembered bicycle racing to be," he said.

"But I've got a goal now, a race to focus on, and a good team around me. So those feelings are gone."