Geneva - Czech rider Roman Kreuziger has failed in his effort to enter the Tour of Spain on Wednesday, after the Court of Arbitration for Sport upheld a provisional suspension amid a doping probe.
The CAS said it had rejected Kreuziger's appeal, which he filed on August 5 in a last-ditch effort to join this year's edition of the Vuelta, which begins on Saturday.
"In accordance with the rider's request and the UCI's agreement, the arbitration procedure was conducted on an expedited basis," the Swiss-based tribunal said.
Kreuziger's case was therefore heard on Wednesday by a three-member CAS panel of arbitrators from Austria, Sweden and Switzerland.
"Roman Kreuziger remains provisionally suspended pending a decision on his alleged anti-doping rule violation," the CAS said.
The full grounds for the ruling would be issued over coming weeks, it added.
On August 2, the International Cycling Union (UCI) provisionally suspended Kreuziger for an anti-doping rule violation based on his biological passport.
Kreuziger, 28, finished fifth on last year's Tour de France but was told by his team Tinkoff-Saxo that he would not be take part in this year's edition of the race after the problems were initially discovered.
He will now face disciplinary proceedings for the anomalies in his biological passport, which relate to the periods between March and August 2011 and April 2012 until the end of that year's Giro d'Italia.
At that time he was riding for the Kazakh team Astana.
Tinkoff-Saxo have criticised the fact that Kreuziger and his team were notified by the UCI less than 24 hours before he was due to start the Tour of Poland, without any solid evidence of any wrongdoing.
In addition to dashing his Tour of Spain hopes, the CAS decision is also set to hit his participation in the September 21-28 UCI World Road Championships in the Spanish city of Ponferrada.