Landis outcome months away

Disgraced American cyclist Floyd Landis has at least a three month wait before learning of his Court of Arbitration in Sport appeal's outcome. Landis' hearing with a CAS panel, held in the chambers of a Manhattan, New York law firm, concluded on Monday.

Post hearing submissions from both sides are due by April 18, before a decision is announces by international sport's highest court no earlier than June, according to an announcement from the organization. During this time CAS will study presentations and evidence submissions before making its final decision.

"The hearing in the CAS arbitration between the US cyclist Floyd Landis and the United States Anti-doping Agency (USADA) is over," announced a release from the Switzerland-based organisation. "The hearing started on Wednesday 19 March 2008 and went on until today (Easter Sunday excepted)."

"The CAS Panel will need some time to review this voluminous file and the post-hearing submissions, which are due on 18 April 2008, before delivering a final decision, which is not expected before June 2008," concluded the brief release.

Landis is appealing a decision by the American Arbitration Association not to overturn the sanction for his positive drug test from the 2006 Tour de France. The former Phonak rider raised eyebrows on the event's 17th stage with a comeback that was reported as "a comeback that defied logic". Just days after the conclusion of the event, which saw Landis awarded the prestigious yellow jersey, news broke that the American's anti-doping test had registered an abnormal testosterone to epitestosterone ratio.

Shortly after the AAA announced its decision last year, Tour organizer Amaury Sport Organisation (ASO) held a ceremony at which it awarded original race runner-up Oscar Pereiro (Caisse d'Epargne-Illes Balears) the winner's jersey. The ceremony, while held in the dim lighting of the Spanish sports ministry's chambers instead of the famed Champs-Elysées award ceremony, marked a monumental moment in the sport's history, with Landis becoming the first in its 94-year history to be officially stripped of the victory.

Landis hopes that the CAS panel, including David Williams of New Zealand, Paris attorney Jan Paulsson and New York lawyer David Rivkin, will overturn the two-one ruling against him by AAA.