FanHouse Floyd Landis

Floyd Landis, who won the 2006 Tour de France only to have his title stripped when he tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs, has lost his final appeal of that positive drug test.

The Court of Arbitration for Sport dismissed his appeal today and also ruled that he must pay $100,000 to the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency to compensate the group for its legal fees related to Landis's appeal, although it's unclear whether the Court of Arbitration for Sport has the authority to enforce such a fine, or whether Landis -- who hasn't been able to earn a living in cycling since 2006 and has spent a fortune in legal fees for himself -- even has $100,000.

Landis's two-year suspension from cycling was upheld as well. Oscar Pereiro is now considered the 2006 Tour de France winner. The 2008 Tour begins this weekend.

It's official: Floyd Landis is no longer the 2006 Tour de France champion.

Landis lost the appeal of his positive drug test, as two of the three arbitrators who heard his case upheld the results, which found that Landis used synthetic testosterone.

The decision, handed down nearly four months after a bizarre and bitterly fought hearing, leaves Landis with only one more outlet to possibly salvage his title -- an appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

According to documents obtained by AP, and to be made public later Thursday, the vote was 2-1 to uphold the results, with lead arbitrator Patrice Brunet and Richard McLaren in the majority and Christopher Campbell dissenting.

The decision means Landis, who repeatedly has denied using performance-enhancing drugs, must forfeit his Tour de France title and is subject to a two-year ban, retroactive to January 30, 2007.

Landis, who has always maintained that he never used performance-enhancing drugs, becomes the first Tour de France winner ever stripped of his championship.

A story in today's Denver Post notes that Tour de France winners Lance Armstrong and Floyd Landis are expected to compete the Leadville Trail 100 bicycle race in Colorado next month. It will be the highest-profile event for Landis since it was revealed that he had failed a drug test after he won last year's Tour, and Armstrong's presence will give the event credibility in the eyes of sports fans.

Here's what I don't get: Why?

Why is Armstrong, considered a hero by hundreds of millions of fans around the world, associating with Landis, considered a disgrace by hundreds of millions of fans around the world? Why wouldn't Armstrong go as far in the opposite direction from Landis as he possibly can?

My best guess is that Armstrong wants the world to think Landis is innocent of taking performance-enhancing drugs, because if the public perceives the sport of cycling as dirty, the public will perceive Armstrong as dirty. But that's a mistake. As long as Landis is banned from international cycling, Armstrong shouldn't lend his own credibility to any event featuring Landis.

Seven-time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong doesn't think last year's Tour de France winner, Floyd Landis, is a cheater, but he also doesn't think he'll win his appeal.

"The arbitrators don't ever rule for the athletes," Armstrong said, according a story in Wednesday's edition of The Aspen Times. "Quite frankly, the system is set up against the athletes. Unfortunately for him, I don't think he did it. That's always been my position and still is today."

If Landis didn't do it, how did synthetic testosterone end up in his urine? Did someone intentionally sabotage his urine sample? If so, that's an incredibly serious crime that strikes at the heart of the credibility of the sport, and by proclaiming Landis's innocence, Armstrong is questioning his sport's credibility.

Another day, another revelation that a top cyclist (this time, Bert Dietz) used performance-enhancing drugs. And it gets me thinking: Is it humanly possible to win the Tour de France without using pharmacological enhancements?

I don't mean to impugn the past winners of the Tour, all of whom, until Floyd Landis, did so without testing positive for performance-enhancing drugs. But biking 2,000 miles over 20 days is such a grueling activity, and so many investigations have revealed the use of drugs in cycling, that it strikes me as impossible to believe that every winner before Landis won cleanly.

Carl Lewis once said that everyone was cheating in Olympic weight lifting, for the simple reason that the human body can't lift three times its weight without steroids. Is the same true in cycling?

I don't know. I hope not. But I'm starting to think extreme endurance events are so tainted by performance-enhancing drugs that we'll never trust that any Tour winner did so without cheating. And maybe that's because no Tour winner can do so without cheating.

Tour de France champion Floyd Landis testified in his arbitration hearing Saturday, and he said it was a substance other than testosterone -- whiskey -- that he used to help him prepare for his dramatic Stage 17 comeback at last year's Tour.

Landis outlined the strategy he used for his riveting comeback in Stage 17 - a plan he said had nothing to do with the synthetic testosterone he's accused of using, but one that was hatched over dinner and whiskey the night before.

"It helps with the tactical plan," Landis said, drawing laughs.

I'm a little surprised that Landis still feels free to joke about taking a substance to assist his performance in the Tour, but maybe that's just me. Although the reviews of Landis's testimony have generally been favorable, athletes never win these appeals. More interesting details will emerge, but we already know the final result: Landis will be stripped of his Tour title.

Previously at FanHouse:
The Dark Side Of American Cycling Is On Display Now
Floyd Landis: They Wanted Me to Rat Out Lance Armstrong
Floyd Landis Appeals Drug Test, Wants You to Pay for It

Floyd Landis will say anything. The list of excuses he's given for his positive drug test at last year's Tour de France is long and strange, and now he's attempting to portray himself as the brave soldier who could have saved himself by turning against America's cycling hero, Lance Armstrong.

Landis now says the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency offered him a short suspension if he could pull an Adriana La Cerva and provide evidence that Armstrong used performance-enhancing drugs, which is an allegation that has been made many times against Armstrong but has never been proven.

Of course, it could be true: The drug cops in the world of sports are fanatical enough that they'd love to be able to take down a star like Armstrong. But Landis has said so many things over the course of his drug appeals (is he still claiming synthetic testosterone got into his urine because he drank a lot of beer?) that it's hard to believe anything he says anymore. The appeals run out pretty soon, and then we won't have to hear from Landis anymore.