Gonzales draws 2-year suspension
Former Vuelta a España winner Aitor Gonzalez was suspended for two years Friday on doping-related offenses after the Court of Arbitration for Sport upheld an appeal by the UCI.

Spaniard Gonzalez, the 2002 winner, tested positive for methyltestosterone during the Vuelta last year and during an earlier out-of-competition test in August 2005.

The Spanish cycling federation decided only to fine him in May after he presented a research report saying that a food supplement he had been taking had been contaminated.

However, the CAS said in a statement that Gonzalez could not have ignored the risks of taking the supplement following repeated warnings given by sports authorities about such products.

"The CAS arbitrators have admitted the facts presented by Aitor Gonzalez but have considered that he did not act without fault or negligence in using a doubtful food supplement, prescribed by an occasional doctor and purchased in a fitness center," the CAS statement read.

The ban will apply from September 28, 2005, when Gonzalez stopped competing.

The UCI had filed its appeal with CAS in June, requesting the two-year suspension.

Longo aiming for seventh Olympics
Veteran French cyclist Jeannie Longo said Friday that she hopes to compete in her seventh Olympic Games in Beijing.

The 48-year-old former Olympic champion has just signed a new contract with Austrian team Uniqa.

"It's true that if I'm going to start training again, it might as well be for two years," Longo told Le Dauphiné Libéré newspaper. "It's not unrealistic to think about it (competing in Beijing) if I'm in form."

But she added: "Now that I'm nearing my 50s things can change enormously from one year to the next."

Longo, the reigning French road-race and time-trial champion, has competed in every Olympics since women's cycling was introduced to the program in 1984.

She won the Olympic road race title in 1996 after taking the silver four years earlier in Barcelona.

She also won silver in the road time-time in Atlanta and bronze in the same event in Sydney.