Floyd Landis, the former teammate of Lance Armstrong, told the Wall Street Journal that Armstrong sold expensive racing bikes offered by the Trek Bicycle Corp., one of Armstrong’s most loyal sponsors, to fund an elaborate doping program.

Lance Armstrong has denied accusations made by Landis that have rocked the cycling world with a long-awaited doping confession.

From NYdailynews.com:

In a pair of articles posted on the Journal’s Web site Friday night, Landis says he was annoyed in 2004 to be forced to race on rickety old bikes while riding in support of Armstrong at the Tour de France. Landis says he then did some investigating and learned that the team was selling off newer bikes to help fund exotic cheating methods that included testosterone patches and blood transfusions.

Landis, who has cooperated with federal investigators probing cycling’s doping secrets, elaborated in the newspaper interview on the astonishing accusations he made against Armstrong and others in a series of e-mails he sent to cycling officials at the end of April.

Saturday Armstrong plans to start what he says will be his final Tour de France. He was presumably asleep near the race’s start in Holland when the new accusations from Landis went online. The 38-year-old Texan has been dogged by circumstantial evidence of doping throughout his long career, but has always proclaimed his innocence.

Armstrong has been accused of doping by Landis ever since Landis was stripped of his 2006 Tour de France title after testing positive for synthetic testosterone.