Landis’ appeal of fortune rejected

In the end, the Court of Arbitration saved its harshest criticism for the cyclist from Murrieta, Calif .

ASSOCIATED pRESS

Floyd Landis used the arbitration process as public theater to try to prove a point and regain his reputation.

In the latest attempt that almost certainly will be his last, the anti-doping establishment slapped down the one-time 2006 Tour de France winner once more, ruling Landis didn’t play fair, on the bike or in the hearing room.

A three-person panel at the Court of Arbitration for Sport agreed with a previous panel’s decision, ruling Monday that Landis’ positive doping test at the Tour two years ago was, indeed, valid.

He will not regain the title he won with a stunning comeback in Stage 17, a rally many thought was too good to be true and that turned out to be fueled by synthetic testosterone.

Thus ended Landis’ long, bizarre, very public, multimillion-dollar journey through an arbitration process he claimed is rigged against athletes. As one final insult, CAS also told Landis he must pay $100,000 toward the legal fees of the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency.

“I am saddened by today’s decision,” Landis said in a statement. “I am looking into my legal options and deciding on the best way to proceed.”

In its 58-page decision, the panel at sports’ highest court said the French lab that analyzed Landis’ positive test results followed international standards, disagreeing with one of Landis’ key accusations.

Much like the arbitration panel that ruled on this case before, CAS conceded the lab used some “less than ideal laboratory practices, but not lies, fraud, forgery or cover-ups,” the way the Landis camp had alleged.

In the end, the panel saved its harshest criticism for the 32-year-old cyclist from Murrieta, Calif. CAS said his lawyers tried to muddle the evidence and embarrass the French lab, and continued on that course even after the evidence was shown not to exist.

The strategy continued all the way through the closing briefs.

“The Panel has found no evidence at all to sustain any of these serious allegations,” the decision read. “Moreover, the Panel is surprised that such serious allegations should be pursued in the closing brief when it must have been clear at the end of the hearing that there was no evidential basis from expert testimony or otherwise to support them.”

The decision comes just six days before the start of the 2008 Tour.

Landis’ legal options include going to the Swiss Federal Tribunal, but that rarely used strategy has never resulted in a substantial change in a CAS decision. Just last week, sprinter Justin Gatlin tried to fight a CAS decision regarding his eligibility for the upcoming Olympics in American court, but judges ruled they had no jurisdiction in the case.