Tyler Hamilton's fight to clear his name will enter its final round in January, nearly a year-and-a-half after he was found positive for injecting donor blood at the Vuelta a España.

The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) announced on Monday it would listen to closing arguments on January 10 in Denver. A final decision will be made at the end of the panel's deliberations, which may last a few weeks.

Hamilton has asked the CAS, world sport's top tribunal, to overturn a two-year ban imposed last year.

Hamilton tested positive for illicit blood transfusions during the Tour of Spain last September just weeks after winning an Olympic gold medal in Athens and the US anti-doping agency handed down a two-year suspension in April.

Hamilton had also tested positive for blood doping after winning gold at Athens but the B sample for that test was destroyed when it was frozen.

And the International Olympic Committee ruled it could not strip Hamilton of his medal without a B sample as a back-up test.

Blood doping is a banned means of enhancing endurance by increasing the amount of oxygen-carrying red blood cells using one's own blood or that of a donor of the same group.

Hamilton has argued that the test used to determine blood doping had yet to be proven in an anti-doping context, and was unreliable.