Doping Ban Upheld

Posted June 30, 2008, 1:33 pm in Cycling
Credit Growing Bolder

The yellow jersey has officially been revoked. The Court of Arbitration for Sport has upheld a decision made after the 2006 Tour de France which stripped Floyd Landis of his title. And if that's not enough, the court admonished Landis, saying that he not only tried to question the positive doping test that started the controversy, he alleged serious problems with the lab itself. The CAS panel released a 58-page decision, saying that Landis tried to embarrass the lab, even after an investigation showed that there was no evidence of lies, fraud, forgery or cover-ups.

The decision comes just days before the first leg of the 2008 Tour de France, and also upholds a two-year ban levied against Landis for cycling. It's scheduled to end in January of 2009. Through appealing the ban, Landis had hoped to get his title back, and bring attention to what he considers a flawed system, but this now appears to be the end to an extremely expensive, very long case in modern cycling history.

Landis gained worldwide attention with his 2006 win, because he made an amazing comeback in Stage 17. That comeback was later revealed to be the result of Landis' taking of synthetic testosterone.

To learn more, and to read the CAS panel's entire ruling, click here.

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