American cyclist Floyd Landis has lost his last resort appeal to retainhis 2006 Tour de France title after the Court of Arbitration for Sportruled his positive doping test from the race was valid.
TheSwiss court's three-member panel announced its verdict Monday,dismissing Landis's appeal of a two-year ban for a positive result forsynthetic testosterone. The court panel deliberated the case for threemonths following a hearing in New York.
Sports' highest courtconfirmed that Landis is suspended until January 29, 2009. He was alsoordered to pay $100,000 toward the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency's expensesto fight the case.
Landis said he is "saddened" by the decision and is looking into his legal options and deciding on the best way to proceed.
Landistested positive for testosterone after winning the 17th stage of the2006 Tour de France with an incredible breakaway through the Alps. TheAmerican rider is the first to be stripped of the Tour de France titlefor a doping violation.
Landis has vehemently denied usingperformance enhancing drugs, blaming the French lab for mistakes thathe says caused an inaccurate result on his sample.
In its58-page decision, the court said the lab used some, quote, "less thanideal laboratory practices, but not lies, fraud, forgery or cover-ups,"which is what Landis had alleged.