Floyd Landis's appeal of a doping ban that cost him the 2006 Tour de France title is scheduled to be heard by a Court of Arbitration for Sport panel on March 19, the rider's attorney said.

"We are really looking forward to appealing the decision and optimistic the CAS panel will view favourably for Floyd," Maurice Suh said in a telephone interview from Los Angeles.

The New York hearing is the American cyclist's final attempt to overturn a two-year doping ban.

Last year, a U.S. arbitration panel upheld findings by a French laboratory that Landis had used synthetic testosterone in winning the 2006 Tour.

"We will prove, once again, that the French laboratory's work violated numerous rules and proper procedure, rendering its results meaningless and inaccurate," Suh said last year in announcing Landis would appeal the U.S. panel's decision to CAS.

Reuters