Floyd Landis will take the case to clear his name for illegal doping at the 200 Tour de France to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), the cyclist said on his website on Wednesday.
Landis, who has been stripped of his Tour de France title, will ask the Lausanne-based CAS to overturn the decision handed down on September 20 by a panel of three US arbitrators, who ruled 2-1 that Landis was guilty of using synthetic testosterone during his triumphant Tour campaign.
“We were surprised by the ruling when it came down,” said Landis’s lawyer Maurice Suh in an interview with Bicycling. “When we left that courtroom, it was our impression that USADA had not carried their burden of proof at all. We thought it would have been difficult for the arbitrators to find in favor of them.”
US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) officials and Landis’s attorneys gave evidence to the three-man arbitration panel over nine days in May during which time the US cycling star maintained his innocence despite testing positive for synthetic testosterone.
“Knowing that the accusations against me are simply wrong, and having risked all my energy and resources – including those of my family, friends and supporters – to show clearly that I won the 2006 Tour de France fair and square, I will continue to fight for what I know is right,” Landis said on an item posted on the FloydFairnessFund website, through which he has raised money for his defense.
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