French media have reported that American Floyd Landis has declined a U.S.Anti-Doping Agency request to release remaining urine samples from lastsummer’s Tour de France for additional testing.

Landis, who is scheduled to appear before a USADA panel in May, hadbeen asked to permit the release of remaining B-samples for tests to detectthe presence of exogenous testosterone.

Landis tested positive for an elevated testosterone/epitestosteroneratio following his spectacular come-from-behind stage17 victory at the Tour. The win ensured his overall title at the Tour,but that win was called into question within days of his podium appearancein Paris.

On Thursday, L’Equipe reported that Landis and his legal teamrejected a USADA request to allow the same Carbon Isotope Ratio (CIR) testused on the stage 17 sample to be used on remaining B samples from earliertests.

Landis submitted eight urine samples during the Tour de France and,with the exception of the stage 17 sample, none of those triggered a callfor follow-up testing. The World Anti-doping Code calls for a B sampleto be tested if the result of an A sample test shows a testosterone/epitestosterone ratio in excess of 4-to-1. Normally the body produces both at about the same rate and the average adult male will show a T/E ratio of about 1-to-1.

Landis’s stage 17 sample showed an 11-to-1 ratio, a figure confirmedby the counter-analysisof the B sample. The French national doping lab at Châtenay-Malabrydid a follow-up CIR test to determine whether that imbalance was triggered by the presence of exogenous testosterone. That test, too, cameback positive.

In preparation for the May hearing, USADA officials reportedly issueda request that Landis release the remaining B samples for additional CIRtesting. Because the original A samples were destroyed when those wereinitially tested, Landis's permission is required to carry out follow-uptests on the untested urine. According to L'Equipe Landis's legalteam declined the request.

Since news of the stage 17 result broke just days after the Tour, Landishas mounted a vigorousdefense, pointing to labeling errors and other problems at the Châtenay-Malabrylab as reasons to consider his test results suspect. Indeed, Arnie Baker,a retired doctor and longtime coach and adviser to Landis, said he andother experts retained by Landis have picked holes in the case againstthe rider.

"The results are not reliable. The whole document is riddled with errors,"said Baker. "The sample was clearly contaminated and mislabeled. I'm notsure whose urine I'm looking at here.

"This whole thing is so full of errors I don't know what to think exceptI can't call it a positive test," Baker added. "I don't think the USADAshould be looking at sanctions. I think WADA should be looking to improvepractices."

USADA officials have declined to comment on similar assertions in thepast.

"Unfortunately, as a case gets played out in the media, people willonly ever see one side of that story," USADA general counsel Travis Tygartsaid in November. "Our rules don't allow us to comment. We're not goingto comment, as long as those are the rules."