Floyd Landis

An international sports court upheld doping charges Monday against cyclist Floyd Landis, affirming a laboratory finding that he had taken an illicit dose of testosterone to win the 2006 Tour de France and all but ending his nearly two-year campaign to clear his name. The three-member panel of the Switzerland-based Court of Arbitration for Sport also upheld Landis' two-year suspension from competition, backdated to Jan. 30, 2007. That means he will be eligible to resume racing Jan. 29.

The defense team for U.S. cyclist Floyd Landis has asked a French anti-doping agency to postpone its scheduled proceedings against the 2006 Tour de France champion until after his appeal of doping charges brought by international authorities is complete, a spokesman for Landis said Friday. The request parallels one made by the World Anti-Doping Agency, or WADA, which supervises the enforcement of sports doping regulations worldwide but cannot force a sovereign government to play by its rules.

French authorities agreed Thursday to suspend their investigation of doping charges against Tour de France champion Floyd Landis after Landis agreed not to race in France for the rest of this year. The decision will allow the California cyclist to focus on his appeal of charges brought under the international sports doping system and prosecuted by the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA). That appeal hearing is scheduled to open May 14 before a panel of three arbitrators.

The French laboratory that produced incriminating doping results against Tour de France champion Floyd Landis may have allowed improper access to the American cyclist's urine samples, lab documents show -- one of a number of errors that could jeopardize the case against Landis. A similar error, committed by the same lab in 2005, resulted in the rare dismissal of doping charges against Spanish cyclist Inigo Landaluze in December.

An arbitration panel has ruled against Tour de France champion Floyd Landis on two procedural issues, complicating his defense against charges that he illicitly doped with testosterone during the 2006 race. By a 2-1 vote, with the arbitrator appointed by Landis, attorney Christopher Campbell, in the minority, the panel gave U.S. anti-doping officials permission to retest samples of Landis' urine that have already been ruled clean.

The doping case against Tour de France champion Floyd Landis erupted in renewed controversy Monday as a French sports newspaper reported that retests of several of the cyclist's old urine samples showed evidence of drug-taking, and Landis contended that his representatives had been prevented from fully witnessing the disputed tests.

In a sign of a widening split on the arbitration panel overseeing the doping case against cyclist Floyd Landis, two of the arbitrators, including the one representing the prosecutors in the case, excluded Landis' arbitrator from their deliberations in a key ruling last week. The excluded arbitrator, Bay Area attorney Christopher L. Campbell, vehemently protested in a written dissent that the others had not informed him they intended to confer on the matter before they issued the ruling May 1.

Tour de France winner Floyd Landis on Thursday said U.S. anti-doping authorities offered him a reduced penalty in his own doping case last year if he would provide evidence incriminating cycling superstar Lance Armstrong, a former teammate. Landis said he was so offended by the overture that he refused to respond. He said the offer was communicated to his Agoura Hills-based attorney, Howard Jacobs, by Travis Tygart, general counsel to the U.S.

Cyclist Floyd Landis could not have mounted a more feeble opening defense against contentions he doped to win the 2006 Tour de France.

It was supposed to be the case against American cyclist Floyd Landis, but from opening statements through early testimony it was also the case against a controversial Paris lab. And the challenge is likely to continue throughout the public hearings that opened Monday in Malibu into allegations that Landis used performance-enhancing drugs to win the 2006 Tour de France. A Cornell University scientist said he was "very favorably impressed" by the Paris lab, which he strongly defended.