Aug. 1 (Bloomberg) -- Just when sports fans thought it was safe to believe -- OK, to admire and trust -- Floyd Landis and his out-of-whack testosterone kick us in the teeth.

Here we go again with dirty drug samples and denials. This time, however, the usual cynics and curmudgeons have company. Even true believers who hailed the Tour de France winner as a shining example of how things should be now have doubts about Landis. Who can blame them?

Landis was touted as the kid from a modest Mennonite family who beat a bum hip to be the best. He was that rare breed in sports these days: an undisputed feel-good story. Until he wasn't.

``It's hard to get your head around that maybe this was fraudulent,'' says Robert Rhodes, assistant editor of the Newton, Kansas-based Mennonite Weekly Review, a national publication that covers the Mennonite community.

At a time when sports fans are conversant in such things as human growth hormone and blood doping, how can people be sure of what they see on the court, the field or even on a bicycle ascending into the Alps? Especially a bicycle.

After all, the past three winners of cycling's major races in Europe are linked with taking drugs to boost performance. Roberto Heras, who won the Tour of Spain, is banned. Ivan Basso, implicated in a blood-doping scandal, was suspended on the eve of the Tour, as was favorite Jan Ullrich.

Landis, for a nanosecond anyway, restored the public's faith in man's ability to accomplish great feats, to test the limits with an effort that seemed, well, superhuman.

Pleading Innocence

Landis pedaled into the hearts and minds of those watching the Tour, an iconoclast offering purity to a sports world contaminated with the likes of Barry Bonds, Tim Montgomery and a cesspool of sullied superstars.

In an instant, though, warm and fuzzy turned cold and farcical.

For the record, Landis says he didn't cheat, that he never used performance-enhancing drugs. At least he didn't wag his finger like Rafael Palmeiro, who declared his innocence before Congress and then tested positive for steroids.

Sitting before a melange of microphones and cameras, his baseball hat turned backward, Landis last week begged for time and truth.

``I ask not to be judged, much less to be sentenced by anyone,'' was his plea.

He deserves that. Every athlete does. Let's see what his backup urine sample reveals this week. Should it come back clean, there will still be doubters. Landis says so himself. His victory, even if allowed to stand, will be forever questioned, he concedes.

Epic Climb

To understand how far Landis may fall, we must review how high he climbed.

He dominated the 17th stage of the race by more than five minutes, astonishing cycling aficionados and catapulting himself into contention after a horrific showing the previous day. Cycling historians were left jaws agape, marveling at what they termed an epic performance.

Landis had them captivated at the offices of the Mennonite Weekly Review, where Rhodes and his staff were tracking their favorite racer's progress on the Web. He actually had Americans talking about a Tour de France that didn't include Lance Armstrong.

``We were practically on our feet,'' Rhodes says, referring to Landis's stage 17 performance. ``We just couldn't believe it.''

There's that word again. Believe.

It used to be that blind trust, or perhaps naivete, made belief in the accomplishments of athletes so easy. At the 1980 Olympics, when a rag-tag bunch of American college hockey players upset the Russians, sportscaster Al Michaels asked viewers if they believed in miracles. We did believe, and in guts and determination.

Parade Postponed

When a gimpy Kirk Gibson played World Series home-run hero in 1988, Jack Buck shouted that he didn't believe what he just saw. Only he did believe, in Gibson's ability to do great things.

But do we believe anymore? Do we hold out hope? The parade in Landis's home town of Farmersville, Pennsylvania, has been postponed indefinitely. Belief has been suspended, pending further results.

``I'm certainly not convinced that Floyd necessarily did anything wrong,'' Rhodes says. ``At the same time it's a painful possibility.''

Just days after news of Landis's positive test went public, sprinter Justin Gatlin tested positive, too. His coach says the co-world-record holder in the 100 meters was set up by a massage therapist.

``We look on with disbelief instead of astonishment,'' Rhodes says.

You'd better believe it.

(Scott Soshnick is a Bloomberg News columnist. The opinions expressed are his own.)

To contact the writer of this column: Scott Soshnick in New York at ssoshnick@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: August 1, 2006 04:00 EDT