Alberto Contador's doping ban could cost him an estimated five million euros in fees, fines and lost earnings.
The three-time Tour de France winner was stripped of his 2010 crown and handed a two-year ban for his positive test for the stimulant clenbuterol.
The Spaniard must now wait for the Court of Arbitration for Sport to rule on the ICU's attempt to fine him 2.4 million euros as well as 70 percent of his contract.
His deal with Saxo Bank, worth an estimated five million euros, could result in an additional 3.5-million-euro fine and he will be forced to return all prize money earned after January 25, 2011 - including his win at last year's Giro d'Italia and 11 other victories since the disciplinary process started.
Add to that 18 months of legal fees, a potential lost sponsor in Hugo Boss and a ruling preventing Contador from earning any money from cycling until his ban expires in August, and the conviction could prove costly.
Andy Schleck, the man to be handed the 2010 title in retrospect, said the ruling did 'not make (him) happy' having long professed a belief that Contador was innocent, while last year's winner Cadel Evans was equally saddened.
For the best part of six years the pair has battled it out on the mountains and valleys of France but the Australian knows he will return to defend his crown in the absence of a fallen champion.
"On a personal level, I don't know Alberto very well," Evans said.
"But ... as a human being, he's a simple guy, he has a great deal of respect for his team-mates and the people around him and his family at home and so on, and from what little I do know about him I do like his personality and character, and he's a very good bike rider."
Contador, now infamously, claimed he unwittingly ingested the banned substance in contaminated meat but there was little evidence to suggest he used the illegal substance unknowingly.
Evans and 2008 winner Carlos Sastre are the only Tour winners since 1995 not to be embroiled in a doping scandle and it is that continual damage to the sport's image that riles Belgian cycling legend Eddie Merckx.
"Once again it's cycling that pays the price," Merckx who was "shocked and disgusted" by the CAS's ruling, said.
"It's an excessive punishment. It's bad for everybody, for the reputation of cycling, for sponsors. It's as if someone wants to kill cycling. They took two years to make this ruling. It's that that is not good."
"I'm neither an expert nor doctor, but I'm really waiting for the explanations of these experts. It's only in cycling that we seek to detect the tiniest quantities. I'd like that we do the same thing in other sports."
Although Contador reiterated he had no plans to retire, World Anti-Doping Agency president John Fahey would rather he did not return to the sport after labelling him a 'cheat'.
Fahey believes anyone found with a banned substance in their body 'is a cheat. It is as simple as that' and described Monday's ruling as 'clear'.