Cyclist Richard Virenque will miss
the 2001 Tour de France after his appeal against a nine-month suspension for taking performance-enhancing drugs was rejected today.
But the end of his ban - linked to the doping scandal that rocked the 1998 Tour de France - was brought forward to August 14th from the original date of October 30th by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) because of bans he had already served.
Virenque, five times "King of the Mountains" in the Tour de France, was suspended for nine months starting February 1st and fined 4,000 Swiss francs ($2,418) by the doping board of the Swiss cycling federation on December 29th.
The ruling followed Virenque's confession in October in a court hearing in Lille that he had knowingly taken performance-enhancing drugs.