Five years ago, fans of Floyd Landis gave his Floyd Fairness Fund hundreds of thousands of dollars to help the discredited 2006 Tour de France champion fight doping allegations.

Rob Wolfe recalls paying about $75 to join Landis on a May 2007 "Keep the Faith" bike ride benefiting the fund.

After a 20-mile spin in the countryside around Ephrata, riders shared picnic food and snapped pictures with the world-class athlete from Farmersville.

"My wife got her helmet signed by him," Wolfe recalled. "It was cool." There was a slight pause over the phone from Millersville. "He sort of fell out of grace with a lot of people" since then.

Landis vehemently denied cheating after a 2006 Tour test for synthetic testosterone came back positive.

He spent his life savings battling the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency for nearly four years, holding town hall-style meetings here and elsewhere and co-authoring a 2007 book proclaiming his innocence. Then, in 2010, he confessed that he had often used performance-enhancing drugs.

He accused former U.S. Postal Service teammate Lance Armstrong and other top riders of doing the same.

The FFF was established in 2006 to help Landis raise money to clear his name. It was closed out in late 2007.

In August, a federal magistrate in San Diego, Calif., agreed to dismiss the wire fraud case against Landis –– and excuse him from jail –– if he pays back FFF donors within three years.

Landis, who is divorced and reportedly living in the small mountain town of Idyllwild, near Palm Springs, Calif., told ESPN.com at the time that he welcomed a "concrete procedure for repayment.

"I can never undo what happened," Landis said, "but to the extent that there are ways such as this that I can try to rectify things, I'll be more able to focus on the future and living an honest life after having done them."

The 36-year-old Landis last raced professionally in 2010.

His attorney, Leo Cunningham of Palo Alto, Calif., could not immediately be reached for comment.

Some local contributors say they aren't expecting a check in the mail.

"As far as [giving] the money back," said an employee of East Earl-based Shirk's Bike Shop, who asked to remain anonymous, "I'm not sure how they're going to do it."

Donors' addresses often were not recorded, he explained.

"I'm not really worried about it," the employee added. "It wasn't that much. ... It is what it is."

According to news reports, about 1,500 FFF donors, who gave a total of $478,354, were identified through financial records describing their contributions by check and PayPal accounts.

The court will allow Landis to reduce his debt if donors waive what they're owed.

All of which makes for a tender topic in Lancaster County.

Several of Landis' earlier supporters did not return phone calls or could not be reached for comment last week.

Among them were Dan Garrett, Landis' former economics teacher at Conestoga Valley High School. Garrett traveled with Landis' parents, Paul and Arlene Landis, to the cyclist's 2007 doping hearing in California.

Mike Farrington, owner of Green Mountain Cyclery in Ephrata and a longtime friend and mentor of Landis, did not respond to a message after the purpose of the call was explained to an employee.

Landis followers who could be persuaded to talk offered differing views, some harsh.

But Landis also retains some empathy capital here, particularly after other cycling icons toppled this summer:

In August, the USADA said it would impose on Lance Armstrong a lifetime racing ban and strip him of his record seven Tour de France titles after he announced he'd quit fighting doping charges.

Also that month, admitted doper Tyler Hamilton was relieved of his 2004 Olympic cycling gold.

Two weeks ago, Hamilton and co-writer Daniel Coyle came out with a tell-all autobiography, "The Secret Race," accusing Armstrong of helping to engineer an elaborate, years-long doping scam.

"Who knows if he doped or not," Wolfe said.

Armstrong remains a hero to Wolfe because of his cancer-fighting charity work. Landis does not.

"I guess you could say I was a fan," said Wolfe, who once waited two hours in line to get autographed copies of Landis' book, "Positively False: The Real Story of How I Won the Tour de France."

Wolfe concedes that Landis is gifted, as is any other top-level cyclist.

"When we went on that ride," Wolfe recalled, "he's going along at a 20 mph pace and he isn't even huffing."

"But Floyd, I think he wronged too many people," Wolfe added. Had he immediately owned up, "I think everyone would have forgotten about it."

Still, Wolfe said he feels for Landis' family and, to a degree, Landis himself.

"Hopefully, he can go on with his life," Wolfe said.

Greg Kreider, owner of Era Ski & Bike, said he believes the court agreement is "admirable" and "part of the healing process" for Landis.

Robert Allen, who said he knows Landis casually from races, was of the same mind.

"I believe him" when he said he confessed so he could start setting his life straight, said the Orange Street Velo owner in Lancaster.

Landis is arguably a more sympathetic figure now that the cycling scandal has "been blown open so wide," Allen said.

"He took the fall for a lot of people," surmised Allen, who said he thinks Landis was long under pressure from the cycling industry to keep mum about doping.

"He was a young guy from Lancaster County that really tried to make something happen." He went down the doping road too far to easily come back, Allen said. "I don't feel he's a bad guy."

jrutter@lnpnews.com