Danish cyclist Michael Rasmussen lost his appeal yesterday against a two-year ban for avoiding drug tests.

The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) upheld a decision by the Monaco Cycling Federation last June to suspend the 34-year-old rider's racing license.

Rasmussen is banned until 25 July and cannot race in this year's Tour de France, which begins 4 July.

"The CAS panel confirmed that a two-year suspension was the appropriate sanction in Mr. Rasmussen's case," the court said in a statement.

The ban started the day the Rabobank team removed Rasmussen from the 2007 Tour when he was leading the overall race and seemed certain to win. The team said Rasmussen lied about his whereabouts when he missed pre-race doping tests.

The CAS panel of three lawyers, which held a five-hour hearing last November, said Rasmussen violated the sport's anti-doping rules by repeatedly trying to avoid testing teams from the Danish Anti-Doping Agency.

The panel ruled that he failed to say where he could be found in April 2007, was late giving information of his whereabouts in June 2007, then deliberately lied about where he would be on 21 June - two weeks before the 2007 Tour began.

Rasmussen later acknowledged he lied when telling cycling's governing body, the UCI, he had been in Mexico.

Rasmussen said his Rabobank team knew he was actually in Italy and France.

The rider and team took their dispute to a Dutch court, which awarded Rasmussen compensation of e665,000 ($862,000) for wrongful dismissal.