Paris: Floyd Landis’ chances of keeping his victory from the 2006 Tour de France took a nosedive on Tuesday when a French sports daily reported that varying levels of synthetic testosterone have been found in samples tested this week by French scientists.

On Monday the paper had reported that Landis’ B samples had been tested retrospectively following a request from the USADA.

A day later, the paper said the results from the French laboratory involved in testing seven of Landis’ samples revealed that “several” of those samples contained synthetic testosterone, albeit at lower levels than his original positive test. (AFP)