Italy's Alessandro Petacchi will miss this year's Tour de France after the Court of Arbitration for Sport banned him until August 31 for testing positive for excess salbutamol in the Giro d'Italia last year.

The CAS said in a statement it had imposed a one-year ban on Petacchi but had backdated the start to November 2007 and had also taken into account two months already served.

Petacchi, who had a medical certificate to use a set amount of salbutamol in his asthma inhaler, was set to skip this month's Giro anyway because of bronchitis but will now miss July's Tour de France.

The Italian Olympic Committee's anti-doping prosecutor charged Petacchi with doping in July but the 34-year-old cyclist argued any overuse of salbutamol during the Giro had been human error.

The Italian Cycling Federation had backed Petacchi and rejected the prosecutor's request for a one-year ban, meaning the case went to CAS.

Reuters