Do You Think He Did It? An Orange Coast Magazine Writer Answers the Question That Dogs Him About Dethroned Tour de France Champion Floyd Landis

NEWPORT BEACH, Calif., March 12 /PRNewswire/ -- The final chapter in the ongoing saga of dethroned Tour de France champion Floyd Landis begins March 19, at a hearing before the international Court of Arbitration for Sport. But one man -- Orange Coast magazine writer Martin Dugard -- already has made up his mind about Landis.

Dugard, whom Landis asked to help write a book that would tell his side of the story, ultimately declined the cyclist's offer, and in the March issue of Orange Coast he explains his reasons in a story that readers won't soon forget. A preview of the article is available on www.orangecoastmagazine.com.

"'Do you think he did it?' It's a question I hear all the time, from friends and total strangers, at cocktail parties and lacrosse games, and just recently over a white tablecloth lunch at Chapman University in Orange," Dugard, of Rancho Santa Margarita, writes in the March issue of Orange Coast. "I usually duck [it]."

Not this time. In "Doubting Floyd," Dugard, who has covered the Tour de France since 1999, reveals his startling conclusions about the man who rode headlong into the center of the world doping controversy during the 2006 Tour with "the most daring and astonishing ride anyone could remember ... Just two days after being crowned champion, the Tour de France announced it no longer considered him the winner. The urine samples taken just after his ride into Morzine had tested positive. Rather than return to America as a hero -- like Lance -- Floyd did the perp walk on Leno and Larry King ... Floyd became a punch line."

"Dugard's story is a riveting and authoritative account of Landis' character, and it all leads to an inevitable answer to the question Dugard so often is asked," says Orange Coast Editor-in-Chief Martin J. Smith. "The answer may shock you."

Headquartered in Newport Beach, Calif., Orange Coast is owned by Emmis Publishing. The company's California properties also include Los Angeles magazine and Tu Ciudad Los Angeles magazine.

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Emmis is an Indianapolis-based diversified media firm with radio broadcasting and magazine publishing operations. Emmis Publishing includes Los Angeles Magazine, Tu Ciudad Los Angeles, Orange Coast, Texas Monthly, Indianapolis Monthly, Cincinnati Magazine, Atlanta Magazine and Country Sampler. Emmis owns 21 FM and two AM domestic radio stations serving the nation's largest markets of New York, Los Angeles and Chicago, as well as St. Louis, Austin, Indianapolis and Terre Haute, Ind. Emmis also owns a radio network, international radio stations, an interactive business and ancillary businesses in broadcast sales.