Former Tour de France winner Jan Ullrich banned for 2 years

Geneva - Former Tour de France winner Jan Ullrich was Thursday banned by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) for two years and stripped of his third-place finish in the 2005 race for blood doping.

"The CAS has found Jan Ullrich guilty of a doping offence. As a consequence, Jan Ullrich is sanctioned with a two-year period of ineligibility starting retroactively on 22 August 2011. Furthermore, all results achieved by the athlete on or after 1 May 2005 until his retirement (in February 2007) are annulled," CAS said.

The 38-year-old German, who won the Tour de France in 1997 and retired in 2007, will lose his podium finish in the 2005 race, which was won by Lance Armstrong, and his victory in the 2006 Tour de Suisse. Spanish rider Francisco Mancebo moves up from fourth to third in the 2005 Tour.

Ullrich linked up with Spanish doctor Eufemiano Fuentes' for doping operations "on multiple occasions" and paid him 80,000 euros for his services, the CAS ruling said.

CAS rejected the International Cycling Union's request for a lifetime ban and retroactive ban from 2002 onwards, saying that a doping suspension at the time after being caught for a stimulant did not warrant such a harsh second sanction.

Cycling's governing body appealed to CAS to challenge a decision by Switzerland's Olympic Committee to decline responsibility for prosecuting the former Swiss-based rider.

Ullrich won an Olympic gold medal in the road race at the 2000 Sydney Games. He also took silver in the time trial.