Court confirms two year doping ban for Floyd Landis

By Alasdair Fotheringham

American Floyd Landis has lost his last battle to retain his 2006 Tour de France crown after the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) confirmed his two year suspension for doping on Monday.

Landis tested positive for artificial testosterone during the 2006 Tour, in which he had taken a spectacular victory largely thanks to a long breakaway over several Alpine climbs.

Stripped of his title and given a two-year ban by the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA), Landis made a final appeal to CAS against the sanctions.

Yesterday (Monday’s) verdict marks the final act of a two-year saga and one of the most high-profile anti-doping cases in the history of sport during which Landis has consistently insisted on his innocence.

CAS however, have merely confirmed the original USADA sentence. At the end of a 53-page document outlining the case CAS stated that Landis had failed to show that - as he alleged - the laboratory that carried out the testing had been responsible for procedural errors that caused his positive for artificial testosterone.

Landis will now have to pay $100,000 to the USADA in costs and will remain barred from racing until January 30th 2009.