Landis' Last Stand: Floyd Tries One Last Time to Clear His Name

Once again, Floyd Landis had his day in court, as he exercised his final right to appeal in regards to his positive doping test in the 2006 Tour de France. Landis has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars over the past two years in an attempt to have his positive doping result overturned, but as of yet the Pennsylvanian hasn't been able to turn the tides in his favor.

Landis rode like a super human in the 2006 Tour, and then tested positive

With his final chance at appeal, Landis will depend on the talent to his lawyer, Maurice Suh, in hopes that the Court of Arbitration for Sport will see things his way and overturn his ban. Landis' lawyers will no doubt pull out all the stops to prove the innocence of the deposed Tour de France champ.

Hamilton won gold in the Olympics and then was banned for doping

The cycling world has watched Landis swim upstream over the last few years, and will no doubt shake their heads sadly when the CAS panel once again finds Floyd guilty. In cycling, once you are accused or found guilty of doping, you find very few friends within the cycling realm. Landis no doubt has learned this over the past few years.

The worst part about all of this is that the cycling public will never really have closure. Sure, Landis will be considered guilty according to the governing bodies of sport, but he'll never admit that he doped. Like Tyler Hamilton, Landis will continue to profess his innocence, even after being convicted numerous times. But what can we expect from Landis, he learned from the best in the world how to cheat and how to deny---Lance Armstrong.

Heras probably started doping with the Kelme teams in the early 90's

Armstrong won seven Tours de France. He was a world champion. He survived cancer. He beat known dopers by large margins, including Marco Pantani, Ivan Basso and Jan Ullrich. But he didn't dope? His former teammates Hamilton, Landis, Roberto Heras, Frankie Andreau, all admitted or were found to have doped. But did Armstrong? No, cries his fan base and huge legal team. Lance just worked harder than everyone else. Bullcrap. Total bullcrap. There is no way Armstrong could have defeated the likes of Rasmussen, Basso and Ullrich unless he had some sort of help. As a matter of fact, if he was doping, he was probably using blood transfusions as his method. But like Hamilton and Landis, Armstrong would never admit he doped, even if he did. He made far too many millions of dollars to admit the truth now.

Armstrong en route to his first Tour win in 1999

And it's that same with Landis. He figures that if he continues to deny, public opinion will be on his side in the long run. Unfortunately, that's just not true. Real cycling fans, while not eager to admit it, realize that Landis et all did in fact dope. As a matter of fact, almost ALL riders in the 90's doped. It was a doping culture. But we, the American cycling public, are to believe that these Americans are being held to the fire unjustly? Maybe some fans will accept that line of bull, but not this one. Sad but true, Landis, Hamilton, and even those that have never been convicted, are guilty no matter what they may say over the years.