It is the end of the line for Floyd Landis almost two years since his tainted Tour de France win. Floyd’s latest court case was at the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Lausanne, Switzerland, but the case was thrown out and now Landis has nowhere else to turn.

Landis was looking to get his 2006 Tour title back after being stripped of it after testing positive for testosterone following his Stage 17 win. The biggest disaster for Landis now is that he must repay $100,000 towards the legal fees of the USADA as well as his own legal fees. The total could top $2 million. Landis wont be eligible to race again until January 2009, if he does in fact chose to race again.

Landis may well believe he is innocent, he may well be innocent or he may have just believed there were enough loop holes to clear him, but he probably should have let it lie after his first defeat and taken what money he had left and walked into the sunset. By the time 2009 rolled round a lot of people might have forgotten and forgiven and he could have found a ride again. Now however, Floyd Landis is fresh in peoples memories and that can only hurt now that he has lost his case again.

Make no mistake about it, Landis’ case exposed plenty of holes in the anti-doping agency and its procedures, they were left red faced, but it wasn’t enough to hide what the courts said were the facts that Landis still cheated.

Who knows what the future holds for Floyd. He spent last summer riding Mountainbike Marathons, but that will never pay off his legal fees.

Landis may not race again, but he’s not done fighting [ESPN]

Category: Pro Road Racing » Doping, Floyd Landis, Tour de France |

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