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The ruling, handed down nearly four months after a bizarre and bitterly fought hearing, leaves the American with one final way to possibly salvage his title -- an appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

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Floyd Landis addressed his fans in a letter on his Web site Tuesday, saying that having his 2006 Tour de France title stripped by an arbitration panel served some good because "we have shown that the anti-doping system is corrupt."

Last week, an arbitration panel voted 2-1 to uphold Landis' positive doping tests from last year's Tour de France. It means he is stripped of the title and banned from cycling for two years, retroactive to Jan. 30.

Landis said he is considering his options, which include a possible appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport or legal action.

"If any good has come out of this, we have shown that the anti-doping system is corrupt, inefficient and unfair," he wrote. "The content of this decision unfortunately highlights this once again. The straightforward and clear dissent in support of my case contrasts sharply with the scientifically flawed and illogical majority decision against me.

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Floyd Landis will appeal a decision that took away his title in the 2006 Tour de France for failing a drug test.

It is Landis' last chance to retain his 2006 Tour de France title.

Landis told ESPN.com on Wednesday his decision to appeal an arbitration panel's split vote against him in his doping case was easy "once I got myself together and made sure I had the energy to do it."

In a note on his Web site, Landis said that he will appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport to overturn decision by a U.S. Anti-Doping Agency arbitration panel that upheld the results of his initial failed test.

"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 wrote on his Web site. "Doping in sport seems to continue to get worse under the current anti-doping system, and this is only a part of the huge amount of proof that the WADA/USADA system needs a total overhaul.

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Floyd Landis lost his final chance to retain his 2006 Tour de France title Monday, the last step of a long, multimillion-dollar process that poked holes in the anti-doping establishment but ultimately left the cyclist as just another convicted cheater.

A three-person panel at the Court of Arbitration for Sport upheld a previous panel's decision, ruling his positive doping test during the Tour two years ago was, indeed, valid. Landis also must pay $100,000 toward the legal fees of the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency.

"I am saddened by today's decision," Landis said in a statement. "I am looking into my legal options and deciding on the best way to proceed."

In its 58-page decision, the CAS panel said the lab that analyzed Landis' positive test results used some "less than ideal laboratory practices, but not lies, fraud, forgery or cover-ups," the way the Landis camp had alleged.

In the end, the panel saved its harshest criticism for Landis, who it said essentially tried to muddle the evidence and embarrass the French lab, and continued on that course even after the evidence was shown not to exist.

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Two years, close to $4 million spent by both sides combined, and an unquantifiable amount of collateral damage later, Floyd Landis' doping case rolled across what is normally the administrative finish line on Monday. The Court of Arbitration for Sport released its ruling upholding a lower panel's opinion that Landis was guilty as charged of using synthetic testosterone to boost his performance in the 2006 Tour de France.

It wouldn't be accurate to say the result completely stunned Landis or his legal team, but the tone surprised them.

After CAS' ruling Monday, Floyd Landis has 30 days to appeal to the Swiss Federal Court.

Unlike the first panel, which split 2-1 on conviction and scolded the French lab that handled Landis' test samples for having done sloppy work, the three CAS arbitrators reserved their wrath for the 32-year-old cyclist, who has been fighting to retain his Tour title since a few days after he won it.

In an unprecedented move, the panel ordered Landis to pay $100,000 in legal costs, saying his defense team raised numerous issues the panel considered unfounded -- or "barely arguable," in their exact words. You don't have to read between the lines of the scathing rationale to understand the arbitrators felt their valuable time had been wasted.

Landis doesn't see it that way, and for that reason and a few others, we may not have seen the last of this case.