Floyd Landis, borrowed a page from Mark McGwire and Marion Jones, but took it to a Jose Canseco-type of level. He felt the need to ease his guilty conscience, just like the other lying drug cheats McGwire and Jones. But he decided to strafe his entire sport in the process, like Canseco.

Landis is quickly becoming the creepiest drug cheat in history.  First he came up with the lamest excuse ever after he tested positive at the 2006 Tour de France (shots of Jack Daniels? puh-leeze).

Then he took money (up to a million by some reports) from sympathetic cycling fans for his own legal defense – playing up his nice guy Mennonite background in the process. Way to trample on your family history, Floyd.

Next, in his USADA hearing, it was revealed that his manager tried to blackmail former champion Greg LeMond by threatening to reveal that LeMond was a victim of sexual abuse as a child.

And now, Landis has opened fire on his own sport and every big-name American cyclist in the middle of cycling’s biggest American moment.

Nice timing.

Smack during the Tour of California – as visible as professional cycling gets on U.S. soil – Landis dropped the bomb on the event’s star Lance Armstrong, reigning champion Levi Leipheimer,  leader David Zabriskie and icon George Hincapie. His implications included stories of blood stored in refrigerators inside Spanish closets and fabricated bus breakdowns in France so everyone could go all Twilight and get some fresh blood.

The result was more media in Visalia than the town may have ever seen. They swarmed the RadioShack bus on Thursday morning to get a comment from Armstrong, who’s been through the drill plenty of times before and said the expected things.

“We have nothing to hide,” Armstrong said. “We have nothing to run from.”

We can only guess if his concentration was impacted by the eventful morning. At mile 13.5 Armstrong crashed. He ended up sitting on the road stunned and bloodied, tried to ride again, then was taken to the hospital. He’s out of the Tour of California – and just five weeks before the Tour de France is scheduled to start, you have to wonder how ready he will be to compete against rival Alberto Contador.

Can’t you just see Landis high-fiving himself in the mirror? Maybe his slimy confession took down Lance, at least in some way?

It’s a sad legacy for a rider who was once so popular. I was at the Tour de France in 2004 in the Alps when Lance commanded Landis to “ride like you stole something” to beat German Andreas Kloden to the finish at Le Grand Bornand. That was when they were Postal teammates – and to hear Landis tell it, transfusion buddies. Two years later my family and I stopped everything on a beautiful beach morning in Maine to watch Landis’  not-to-be-believed day in the Tour de France.  We were right. It was not to be believed.

Last year during the Tour of California, I had an up close look at Landis who was trying to make a comeback. I was riding with his team, Ouch, while he struggled to stay with the pack. He couldn’t.

Now, as the rest of the cycling world passes him by, Landis is having his come-to-Jesus moment, saying he wanted to start confessing before the eight-year statute of limitations runs out (he said he started using in 2002).

“If I don’t say something now, then it’s pointless to ever say it,” he told ESPN.com’s Bonnie Ford, the best mainstream cycling writer in this country.

Every time a cheat confesses, we hear blather about being a forgiving country. That everyone should just step up and confess and everything will be okay. I’m not so sure. It’s not okay for McGwire right now – unless you live in St. Louis and wear your Cardinals jersey everywhere you go. It’s not okay for Jones.

And I don’t think it’s ever going to be okay for Landis. He’s too creepy.

We’re used to these accusations about cyclists.  Cycling is used to it. Lance is sure as heck used to it.  He said that Landis has been threatening to blackmail him with information for years – which seems plausible given Landis’ past blackmail tactics.

Armstrong has so far proved invincible and uncatchable. There are mountains of accusations, but they primarily come from others who have been caught in the drug-testing web and Armstrong never has been caught. While it’s not plausible to think that one clean man could dominate (totally and cruelly) a sport in which every other top rider was cheating. But the evidence on Armstrong remains purely circumstantial. I’ve had a couple of long and very interesting conversations with Armstrong, where I tossed out all my accusations. He’s got a rebuttal for each of them and makes his own case in convincing manner.

As I’ve always said, Lance Armstrong was the best. What he was the best at, you have to decide for yourself.

When creeps like Landis make accusations in the manner he did this week, it only makes Armstrong’s supporters that much more rabid, makes their hero seem above the fray.

“We like our credibility,” Armstrong said. “Floyd lost his credibility a long time ago.”

He’s right. With accusers like creepy Landis, Armstrong really doesn’t have to worry.

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