Landis agrees not to ride in'07 tour de France

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http://msn.foxsports.com/other/story/6437522?MSNHPHMA0

PARIS (AP) - Floyd Landis won't take part in the Tour de France, or any other race in France, this year.

Last year's Tour champion agreed Thursday not to race again in France until 2008, and in return the French anti-doping agency postponed its decision on whether to suspend him from competing in France for a maximum of two years.
"Floyd is pleased that the AFLD has agreed with his council's request that they suspend this proceeding," spokesman Michael Henson said.

Earlier, AFLD president Pierre Bordry said Landis "understood perfectly that if he didn't act today, we would start the procedure immediately."

Landis will go before the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency on May 14 and, following that, the AFLD will deliver its verdict in June.

"We will let Landis defend himself as he wishes," Bordry said.

Both parties are satisfied, but the actual ruling on whether he'll be cleared or suspended seems as distant as the Alpine peaks Landis so flamboyantly scaled last summer before his world hit rock bottom.