http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2007/more/09/20/bc.cyc.landisdecision.ap/index.\
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PARIS (AP) -- Floyd Landis lost his expensive and explosive doping case Thursday
when arbitrators upheld the results of a test that showed the 2006 Tour de
France champion used synthetic testosterone to fuel his spectacular comeback
victory, The Associated Press has learned.

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 Jan. 30, 2007.

The ruling, handed down nearly four months after a bizarre and bitterly fought
hearing, leaves the American with one final way to possibly salvage his title --
an appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

If Landis doesn't appeal, he'll be the first person in the 105-year history of
the race to lose the title because of a doping offense.

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

"Today's ruling is a victory for all clean athletes and everyone who values fair
and honest competition," U.S. Anti-Doping Agency CEO Travis Tygart said.

It's a devastating loss for Landis, who has steadfastly insisted that cheating
went against everything he was all about and said he was merely a pawn in the
anti-doping system's all-consuming effort to find cheaters and keep money
flowing to its labs and agencies.

Landis didn't hide from the scrutiny -- invited it, in fact -- and now has been
found guilty by the closest thing to a fair trial any accused athlete will get.

Landis, who has a month to file his appeal, is still weighing his legal options,
according to a statement released by his legal team.

"This ruling is a blow to athletes and cyclists everywhere" Landis said. "For
the Panel to find in favor of USADA when, with respect to so many issues, USADA
did not manage to prove even the most basic parts of their case shows that this
system is fundamentally flawed. I am innocent, and we proved I am innocent."

Despite the result, it's hard to see this as a total victory for the U.S.
Anti-Doping Agency, which prosecuted the case. This was a costly affair for the
agency, and it exposed flaws in the system.

In its 84-page decision, the majority found the initial screening test to
measure Landis' testosterone levels -- the testosterone-to-epitestosterone test
-- was not done according to World Anti-Doping Agency rules.

But the more precise and expensive carbon-isotope ration analysis (IRMS),
performed after a positive T-E test is recorded, was accurate, the arbitrators
said, meaning "an anti-doping rule violation is established."

"As has been held in several cases, even where the T-E ratio has been held to be
unreliable ... the IRMS analysis may still be applied," the majority wrote. "It
has also been held that the IRMS analysis may stand alone as the basis" of a
positive test for steroids.

The decision comes more than a year after Landis' stunning comeback in Stage 17
of the 2006 Tour, one that many people said couldn't be done without some kind
of outside help. Flying to the lead near the start of a grueling Alpine stage,
Landis regained nearly eight minutes against the leader, and went on to win the
three-week race.

"Well, all I can say is that justice has been done, and that this is what the
UCI felt was correct all along," Pat McQuaid, leader of cycling's world
governing body, told The Associated Press by telephone. "We now await and see if
he does appeal to CAS.

"It's not a great surprise considering how events have evolved. He got a highly
qualified legal team who tried to baffle everybody with science and public
relations. And in the end the facts stood up."

Spanish rider Oscar Pereiro, who finished second to Landis in the 2006 Tour,
said he hadn't officially heard the news yet.

"You never want to win a competition like that," he said. "But after a year and
a half of all of this I'm just glad it's over."

Landis insisted on a public hearing not only to prove his innocence, but to
shine a spotlight on USADA and the rules it enforces and also establish a
pattern of incompetence at the French lab where his urine was tested.

Although the panel rejected Landis' argument of a "conspiracy" at the
Chatenay-Malabry lab, it did find areas of concern. They dealt with chain of
command in controlling the urine sample, the way the tests were run on the
machine, the way the machine was prepared and the "forensic corrections" done on
the lab paperwork.

"... the Panel finds that the practises of the Lab in training its employees
appears to lack the vigor the Panel would expect in the circumstances given the
enormous consequences to athletes" of an adverse analytical finding, the
decision said.

The majority repeatedly wrote that any mistakes made at the lab were not enough
to dismiss the positive test, but also sent a warning.

"If such practises continue, it may well be that in the future, an error like
this could result in the dismissal" of a positive finding by the lab.

In Campbell's opinion, Landis' case should have been one of those cases.

"In many instances, Mr. Landis sustained his burden of proof beyond a reasonable
doubt," Campbell wrote. "The documents supplied by LNDD are so filled with
errors that they do not support an Adverse Analytical Finding. Mr. Landis should
be found innocent."

And in at least one respect, Landis, who spent an estimated $2 million on his
defense, was exonerated because the panel dismissed the T-E test. But in the
arbitration process, a procedural flaw in the first test doesn't negate a
positive result in follow-up tests.

"An arbitration panel is entitled to rely entirely on the IRMS analysis as an
independent and sufficient basis for finding that an anti-doping rule violation
has occurred," the decision said.

In his dissent, Campbell latched onto the T-E ratio test, among other things, as
proof that the French lab couldn't be trusted.

"Also, the T-E ratio test is acknowledged as a simple test to run. The IRMS test
is universally acknowledged as a very complicated test to run, requiring much
skill. If the LNDD couldn't get the T-E ratio test right, how can a person have
any confidence that LNDD got the much more complicated IRMS test correct?"

It was confusion like this that led to the system receiving the harsh review
Landis was hoping for during a nine-day hearing in Malibu, Calif., in May.

But Landis also took his share of abuse, and ultimately, USADA still improved to
35-0 in cases it has brought before arbitration panels since it was founded in
2000.

This was a nasty contest waged on both sides, with USADA attorneys going after
Landis' character and taking liberties in evidence discovery that wouldn't be
permitted in a regular court of law. And Landis accused USADA of using a
win-at-all-costs strategy and prosecuting him only to get him to turn on
seven-time winner Lance Armstrong, who has long fought doping allegations that
have never been proven.

Addressing "problematic behavior on the part of both parties," the panel wrote
it would not revisit the conduct of either side.

"They are just part of the litigation war games the parties counsel engaged in
between themselves," the decision said.

More than the complex, turgid scientific evidence, the hearing will be
remembered for the Greg LeMond brouhaha.

The hearing turned into a soap opera when the former Tour de France winner
showed up and told of being sexually abused as a child, confiding that to
Landis, then receiving a call from Landis' manager the night before his
testimony threatening to disclose LeMond's secret to the world if LeMond showed
up.

LeMond not only showed up, he also claimed Landis had admitted to him that he
doped. That was the only aspect of the LeMond testimony the panel cared about.

"The panel concludes that the respondent's comment to Mr. LeMond did not amount
to an admission of guilt or doping," the majority wrote.

This year's Tour began without the official defending champion, and the
traditional "No. 1" jersey wasn't handed out when the race began in London. It
only got worse as doping allegations and suspicions devastated the 2007 Tour.
Three riders, including former overall leader Michael Rasmussen, and two teams
were expelled during the three-week race.

At 31, Landis has vowed he hadn't given up on cycling -- he raced in small,
nonsanctioned events in Colorado this summer -- even hoping to some day wear the
yellow jersey again.


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