Boulder - Three-ring binders sit on Tyler Hamilton's desk, forming a near-total eclipse of the wall behind it. The eight of them could very well carry the clippings of a cycling career that, if all had gone according to plan, would put him in France this summer as a possible roadblock to Lance Armstrong's seventh consecutive Tour de France title.

But the binders carry more uplifting words than anything out of a news- paper or magazine. They are e-mails from hundreds of doctors, researchers - even medical students - who think his two-year suspension for blood doping is a raw deal and challenge the validity of the test he flunked.

"They're like, 'I'm not a cyclist. I don't really care about the sport. I even think you're ugly,"' the former University of Colorado skier said, laughing.

Hamilton, 34, and his wife, Haven, have remained surprisingly upbeat throughout an eight-month ordeal that has cost them more than $1 million in lost income and legal fees and has put Hamilton's career one tiny step from oblivion. Sitting Wednesday morning in their dream home high in the Boulder hills overlooking a spectacular valley below, their disposition seemed as sunny as the postcard-perfect weather outside.

Hamilton's situation isn't. On April 18, an arbitration panel voted 2-1 against his appeal of the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency's two- year suspension for positive tests at the Summer Olympics and the Tour of Spain.