Bas Czerwinski / AP

Floyd Landis carries the U.S. flag as he rides down the Champs-Elysees during the final stage of the Tour de France.

The first Tour apres Armstrong got off to a shaky start.

Not only was it missing the Texan’s characteristic dominance, it was missing some of the pre-race favorites, who were sent home over doping allegations even before the start.

Those riders included Jan Ullrich and Ivan Basso.

Landis’ 57-second margin over Pereiro, who was second, was the sixth-smallest in Tour history, and the tightest since LeMond’s record-low 8 seconds over Frenchman Laurent Fignon in 1989.

Germany’s Andreas Kloeden was third, 1:29 behind Landis.

Norway’s Thor Hushovd won the final stage of the three-week race, a 96-mile route from Sceaux-Antony to Paris. He had also won the Tour prologue on July 1.

For the finish Sunday, Russia’s Viatceslav Ekimov, 40, led the peloton — or rider pack — as it arrived for the first of eight laps on the famed Paris avenue to honor him as the Tour’s oldest rider. It was his 15th Tour — one shy of Dutch cyclist Joop Zoetemelk’s record.

Australia’s Robbie McEwen won the green jersey given to the best sprinter for a third time, and Denmark’s Mickael Rasmussen earned the polka-dot jersey awarded to the best climber for a second year. Italy’s Damiano Cunego, 25, won the white jersey as the best young rider.

Landis learned discipline at an early age.

His devout Mennonite parents, Paul and Arlene, shunned organized sports and were all about hard work. That, in turn, was passed onto their six children. Landis didn’t have much idle time, helping his dad at the car wash, fixing washing machines and mowing the lawn.

Though the family had a car and electricity in the house, they adhered to a simple life with no television or radio.

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“Riding my bike wasn’t the problem, it was just that I got obsessed with it,” Landis recalled during an interview with The Associated Press last week. “I don’t blame them for thinking that it was absurd that you want to ride your bike that much.”

Landis now lives in Murrieta, Calif., with his wife, Amber, and daughter.

Though he learned key lessons from Armstrong — for example, how to build a team around a single rider — he insists his drive was different from Armstrong, a cancer survivor. Fewer U.S. flags lined the famed Paris avenue for the finish this time, perhaps an indication that Americans didn’t think there was much of a chance for victory without Armstrong.

Landis showed them.

“Lance made it clear that he was motivated by showing people he could do something when they thought he couldn’t,” he said. “To me, I don’t think so much about whether people think I can or I can’t.

“It’s just that I was a competitive personality to begin with. I’m not trying to prove anything to the world.”