Some of the testosterone found in Tour de France winner Floyd Landis' "A" sample is from an external source and not his body's, The New York Times reported on Tuesday, quoting an unidentified UCI official.

The carbon isotope test on the first of Landis' two urine samples taken after his 17th stage win in last month's Tour indicates the presence of synthetic testosterone, said the official with knowledge of the results from France's Châtenay-Malabry anti-doping laboratory.

The UCI said Tuesday that Châtenay-Malabry laboratory has agreed to extend its normal operating hours to complete the counter anaylis by Saturday.

"We have done everything to ensure that all goes quickly and the laboratory has agreed to extend its opening hours until Saturday," UCI spokesman Enrico Carpani told AFP.

Landis has said that he expects the second sample to return a similar result to the first but insists that he is innocent. The results, if confirmed, could make Landis the first Tour champion to be stripped of his title in more than 100 years.

If found positive, the 30-year-old American could also be banned from the sport for two years and from riding on a ProTour team for an another two. Landis, however, said he is innocent and promised a concerted effort to prove it.

"I'd like to make it absolutely clear that I'm not in any doping process," he said on Friday.

The UCI official told The New York Times that the carbon isotope ratio test differentiates between natural and synthetic testosterone, which after Landis's surprising 17th stage win was found to be more than twice the four-to-one ratio that is allowed.

The newspaper said that Landis's personal doctor Brent Kay acknowledged that his initial test showed a ratio of 11-to-one, but cautioned that it was "not off the chart" and could be due to natural causes, bacterial contamination, alcohol consumption before the test or contamination of the specimen during testing.

Landis on Monday moved to accelerate the testing process by asking the Châtenay-Malabry laboratory to go ahead and test the B sample before it shuts down for France’s annual two-week summer holiday at the end of the week.

Landis has said that he expects the second sample to return a similar result to the first but insists that he is innocent.

"I ask not to be judged and much less to be sentenced by anyone," Landis said last Friday.

"I will proceed to undergo all of these tests" to show the levels "are absolutely natural and produced by my own organism", he promised on Friday.

The American added that he wished to state "categorically that my Tour win was exclusively due to many years of training and dedication" to his sport.

"I declare convincingly and categorically that my winning the Tour de France has been exclusively due to many years of training and my complete devotion to cycling.

"I was the strongest guy. I deserved to win, and I'm proud of it."

If Landis was stripped of his title he would be the first ever champion to suffer that fate since the top four finishers of the 1904 Tour were disqualified for cheating.

Last year’s Vuelta a España title changed hands after Liberty Seguros’s Roberto Heras was found positive for EPO. Russian Denis Menchov (Rabobank) is now listed as the official winner of that race. If Landis is ultimately disqualified, Caisse d'Epargne's Oscar Pereiro will receive the yellow jersey.
VeloNews.com editor Charles Pelkey contributed to this report