And just like that, the Tour de France is over for another year. It's always a bit of a whirlwind three weeks – so much pre-race anticipation, and a slow gathering of pace in the early days before, then just like that, we're congratulating the winner in Paris.

This year, more than ever, it's been a case of 'blink and you'll miss it', because this 113th edition was the fastest ever. The peloton, or more accurately Tadej Pogačar, covered the 3,245km at a blistering average of 43.227kph (26.86mph). That's a whole half a kilometre per hour quicker (give or take a thousandth) than the previous record, which was set – wait for it – last year, by Tadej Pogačar.

The overall race average is far from the only speed record set this year. Among the most memorable were Pogačar's toppling of Marco Pantani's 31-year-old mark for Alpe d'Huez, and his own (and Jonas Vingegaard's) time for the Col du Tourmalet – rather newer, dating from 2023.

Not all the records set involved the new five-time Tour champ, however, which is probably no bad thing. There was a new record for the fastest ever stage, for example, set on stage 11 from Vichy to Nevers. Søren Wærenskjold (Uno-X Mobility) romped home first at the head of a bunch sprint that day, recording an historic 50.91kph (31.62mph) average – almost 0.6kph faster than the previous fastest, set in 1999.

You might find, especially if you remember The Bad Old Days™ of the 90s and 2000s, that poring over this list of rising average speeds invokes multiple reactions. On the one hand you have wonderment, perhaps, over just how fast riders manage to travel, especially in the brutally hot conditions of this year's race. And wonderment at Pogačar's sheer supremacy. We are told regularly these days that we should cherish the privilege of being fans in the era of what might just be the best rider ever, and that advice shouldn't be scoffed at.

However, thanks to a long list of disgraced riders and Tour results with names crossed out, bike racing in the 21st century now comes with a healthy dose of suspicion. You only have to look through the comments sections or social media to see it. No matter how stringent the testing policies and procedures, fans have simply had the rug pulled from underneath them too many times by dope cheats for this not to be the case.

Journalists too, have been burned by the flames of historical doping revelations, accused of being naive at best, deceptive enablers at worst. But on this occasion I'll stick my neck out and say that I believe we have plenty of cause to be optimistic about the cleanliness of the modern pro peloton.

I spoke to Pogačar's countryman Matej Mohorič a couple of days before the Tour began, and he made an insightful point about how much difference better equipment has made in a few short years. Even in the last 15 years bikes and clothing have moved on significantly, with disc brakes allowing for faster, wider tyres, and more optimised rims, cables running internally on every bike, positions becoming more aero with narrower front ends and fabrics getting incrementally more aerodynamic every season.

The riders are significantly more skilled too, Mohoric said, and the equipment significantly more capable at high speeds. He was talking about descending, but it spoke to a peloton that was slowly uncovering every trace of extra advantage, whether in equipment, nutrition, or recovery protocols.

Development in on bike nutrition, tailored to each rider has been a key driver of performance gains in just the last two or three years. It wasn't long ago that riders would fuel themselves on 60g of carbohydrate per hour. Now they're consuming 120g or more. Rewind 10 years and a rider would have given themselves severe stomach issues trying to ingest this much. A rider's muscles having an almost limitless supply of fuel improves fatigue resistance, meaning speeds at the end of a long stage, or in the final week of a Grand Tour, no longer drop off.

And it makes sense that the best riders – and there always will be riders who are better, let's not kid ourselves that if everyone did everything perfectly they would all be equal – will benefit a little bit more than the lesser ones, even if training, nutrition and recovery plans are optimised for each individual.

Modern wearable tech also enables teams to focus not just on their riders' maximal physical capacities, but on their recovery too. Figures released by Whoop offer a startling insight into the quality of Pogačar's sleep during the Tour and ability to go again, day after day. His heart rate variability and recovery numbers show an elite ability to bounce back from physiological stress. His sleep is high quality too, with a score of 88% across the Tour. This means he was achieving 88% of the sleep his body needed – something most of us would be pretty happy with any day of the week, let alone throughout one of the world's hardest endurance events.

Finally, the race itself has changed with stage distances coming down. When Marco Pantani set his record up Alpe d'Huez in 1997 it was at the end of a 203.5km stage over several major passes. This year the stage was just 128km long with two minor climbs before Pogačar hit the Alpe.

Bike racing in the 1990s now looks entirely archaic. Many riders back then trained and raced on feel; sports nutrition still meant a steak and rice for breakfast and the average road bike had the aerodynamic properties of a cement mixer compared to a modern machine. It's a wonder Pantani's record has stood so long – not a wonder it has been beaten.

So, there's every reason not to jump to the conclusion that faster means doped. A 100% clean pro peloton may be someway off – an impossible dream, even. But when it comes to Pogačar, Vingegaard et all, until I see those red flags flying high I'll be keeping the faith and enjoying the era. And for cycling's sake, may I never be proven wrong.

The use of banned substances in highly competitive Gran Fondo races has raised its ugly head once again this week, with not one but two Italian riders testing positive for EPO (recombinant erythropoietin).

As reported in Dutch language outlet Wielerflits, Felice Giangregorio, now 38, was fist caught using EPO back in 2019, during an out-of-competition check shortly after he had become Italian champion (in the men's 30-34 category) with a victory at the Medio Fondo. Once the test was confirmed he lost his crown and received a four-year ban, which kept him out of the sport until late 2023.

After serving his suspension, Giangregorio bounced back onto the circuit and achieved some top 10 finishes in notable races, but last week he once-again tested positive for the performance-enhancing hormone. The test was conducted by NADO Italia, and the rider has been provisionally suspended by Italy’s National Anti-Doping Tribunal (TNA). If the B-steel confirms the result he will be looking at a much bigger ban this time around, likely an 8-year suspension, potentially even a lifetime exclusion. Either outcome would effectively end his career.

And, in the same week, fellow Italian Gran Fondo rider Bartolomeo Campailla, a 37-year-old amateur cyclist from Sicily, also tested positive for EPO. He has also been provisionally suspended, with the right to request a B-steel analysis.

A synthetic hormone, erythropoietin – referred to as 'Edgar Allan' by its most infamous users and abusers in the US Postal team during the era of Lance Armstrong’s drug-assisted domination of professional cycling – works by artificially stimulating the production of red blood cells, which transport oxygen to muscles. It can enhance an athlete's performance by around 5% – easily enough to secure victory.

With a short ‘glow time’, when it can be detected, EPO abuse was rife in several teams during the 1990s and 2000s – including Festina and Cofidis, with 1996 Tour de France winner Bjarne Riis (Telekom) famously admitting to having used it, but still retaining his title (albeit with an asterisk). By contrast, when Lance Armstrong was finally found guilty of having used EPO in 2012, the American lost all seven of his Tour titles won between 1999 and 2005.

The use of EPO is heavily associated with that drug-addled era around the millennium, but is Edgar Allan making a comeback? While testing is more thorough and consistent in professional cycling, drug use still casts a shadow over the Gran Fondo circuit, with most countries testing amateur riders very occasionally, if at all, and yet prize money still being at stake in the larger races.

After winning several impressive Gran Fondo victories, former pro cyclist Nicola Genovese tested positive for EPO in May 2024, and in 2025, Giuseppina Michela Bergozza - UCI Gran Fondo World Champion in 2022 and 2024 Italian Champion – was banned for three years after a positive EPO test.

The number of doping cases reported in 2025 has fallen for the first time in three years, according to the latest Credibility Figures from anti-doping group the MPCC (Movement for a Credible Cycling).

The 20 cyclists found to have used performance enhancing drugs last year presented a decrease on the 29 reported incidents in 2022, though the organisation has warned that the sport cannot afford to become complacent about doping.

“Although relatively few WorldTour riders have tested positive in recent years, this does not mean that the elite of our sport is 100% clean,” an MPCC spokesperson wrote in a statement.

“For the first time in two years, a World Tour rider has been suspended,” the statement continued, alluding to the ex-Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe athlete, Oier Lazkano. The Spaniard was suspended in October 2025 after irregularities were found in his biological passport whilst riding for Movistar between 2022 and 2024.

Far from a problem contained to WorldTour racing, the MPCC also confirmed the presence of doping within Continental racing: of the 20 professional cases of doping reported in 2025, nine occurred at Continental level. A further 25 riders in Columbia were also serving bans or provisional suspensions in mid December, half of whom were amateur riders.

“Cycling must both question the significant development of certain medical practices known as “grey areas” among the elite and tackle “traditional” doping, particularly at Continental level,” the MPCC stated.

These ‘grey areas’ include what the MPCC call the increased “medicalisation of our sport.” The opioid painkiller tramadol was one such “grey area” tackled by the MPCC. Four years on from its eventual ban, the organisation is still fighting to control the widespread use of painkillers in the sport, which they warn could have consequences on riders’ mental health.

“The MPCC not only takes a stand in the fight against doping, which is an ongoing battle, but also wishes to broaden the issue of ‘credible cycling’ to include riders health, support for the fast growth of women’s cycling, the safety in races, etc,” the statement continued.

Of the 20 cyclists found to have doped in 2025, four of them were female cyclists. The MPCC stressed that as the growth of women’s cycling continues to accelerate, the sport will have to be uncompromising in its adherence to anti-doping regulations.

Nevertheless, cycling was only the tenth most quoted sport in doping and sports fraud cases last year, the report continued. Athletics came out on top, followed by weightlifting and tennis.

After years battling the mire of doping scandals, cycling, the report surmises, has the potential to be a “model student after having been considered a weak link for many years.”

Former WorldTour pro Andrea Piccolo, sacked by EF Education-EasyPost on dope-trafficking allegations, has been arrested in Italy after being found in possession of counterfeit cash.

The 24-year-old Italian was stopped while driving a Porsche Macan at the Piazza Municipio in Naples, accompanied by two other men, according to Italian media.

The Carabinieri who carried out the stop noticed a piece of paper protruding from under the steering wheel which, upon investigation, revealed €2,000 in counterfeit €20 notes. A telescopic truncheon was also found in the car, according to the report in NapoliToday.it.

All three men are now in custody and awaiting trial, charged with the unlawful possession of offensive objects.

Piccolo graduated to EF Education-EasyPost from the Italian Drone Hopper-Androni Giocattoli ProContinental team during the 2022 season. However, he lasted less than two years there before being suspended without pay for taking a non-team-approved sleeping aid in March 2024.

Three months later, following a border stop by Italian authorities in conjunction with the International Testing Agency, Piccolo was dismissed by the team with immediate effect under suspicion of transporting growth hormone. He ultimately admitted to transporting four undisclosed substances from Colombia in a text to Jonathan Vaughters.

After his cycling career ended, the Italian opened up an OnlyFans page, promising 'a personal uncensored insight into the life of a professional cyclist', including 'training, food, sleep, repeat' and of course, it being OnlyFans, more besides.

In terms of his actual racing career, Piccolo showed early promise, winning national and European time trial titles as a junior rider and, having turned senior, soon found himself at the Astana team in 2021.

Having been sidelined there because of a health issue, he moved to Gazprom-Rusvelo where he netted a string of impressive results, including 11th at Il Lombardia and 10th in the Bretagne Classic-Ouest France, both WorldTour-ranked races. However, he posted few standout results after joining EF Education, the exception, perhaps, being a fourth place on stage six of the 2024 Giro d'Italia, in what was the last event he rode. His career ended unremarkably – a DNF on the mountainous stage 19 to Sappada of that same race.

Colombian cyclist Germán Darío Gómez has protested his innocence after being provisionally suspended by cycling's governing body for testing positive for an anabolic steroid.

The Polti VisitMalta rider tested positive for Boldenone, a naturally occurring anabolic–androgenic steroid, and one of its metabolites, according to a UCI statement on Tuesday afternoon.

A spokesperson said: "The Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) announces that Colombian rider Germán Darío Gómez Becerra has been notified of an Adverse Analytical Finding for Boldenone and one of its metabolites in a sample collected out-of-competition on 28 December 2025.

"In accordance with the UCI Anti-Doping Rules, the rider has been provisionally suspended. He has the right to request the analysis of the B sample.

"The UCI will not comment further while the proceedings are ongoing."

According to the UCI: "Boldenone and its metabolites are Prohibited Substances listed under class S1.1 [Anabolic Androgenic Steroids] of the 2025 Prohibited Lists which is maintained by the World Anti-Doping Agency and adopted by the UCI."

Posting on Instagram, Gómez wrote: "Today could be the most complicated of my life as a rider. But in the midst of the total surprise and uncertainty created by a result which does not fit with my mindset as a high-performance athlete, I can only assure you that behaviour, both in and outside racing itself, has always been both exemplary and transparent."

"On December 28, during my period of inactivity because of an operation on my collarbone, I had a routine control," he continued. "I was notified of the result in the morning of January 27 that I had an adverse analytical finding for Boldenone, a substance which, according to scientific criteria, is used in livestock farming to improve both physical agility and an increase in weight and muscle mass.

"Cycling has given me everything, it's been the central pillar of my life. For that reason, I've never considered malpractice to obtain an advantage. It's never been, nor will it be, the route to obtain an objective.

"During my career, all my achievements and successes have been the product of discipline, dedication and the effort that a sport demanded by a sport for which I have profound respect."

"I regret very much the situation we're in," he added. "But not without underlining my dedication to clean sport, a belief I've been educated in and which has been with me all my career."

The 24-year-old joined what was then Polti Kometa, an Italian ProTeam, in 2024. His best result was sixth overall at last year's Presidential Cycling Tour of Turkiye. Late last year, the team extended his contract for another season.

A statement from the team echoed what the UCI had said with regard to suspension.

"At Team Polti VisitMalta, we operate under a strict zero-tolerance policy towards doping," a spokesperson said. "This principle is a non-negotiable foundation of our project and is clearly stipulated in all our contracts and in our Code of Conduct. In adherence to this policy and the UCI’s decision, we have also suspended the rider’s contract, and he will be excluded from all team activities pending the resolution of the proceedings.

"We reaffirm our unwavering commitment to clean cycling and will continue to collaborate fully with the UCI and all competent authorities to clarify the facts. Our team will always uphold the values of fair play and integrity in sport."

Movistar have stated "with absolute firmness" their "unwavering commitment to a clean and transparent sport" in a week in which two of its former riders were suspended over anti-doping issues.

The Spanish WorldTour team released a statement on Friday morning responding to the news, announced on Thursday, that their former rider Oier Lazkano had been suspended by the UCI over "unexplained abnormalities" in his biological passport.

The abnormalities occurred partly during the Basque rider's time at Movistar, 2022-2024, according to the UCI; it was also when his most notable results occurred, including victory at the Clásica Jaén Paraiso Interior in 2024.

Lazkano joined Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe at the beginning of 2025, but had not raced for the team since Paris-Roubaix in April. After the UCI statement on Thursday, his team swiftly revealed that the 25-year-old had left the team.

Also this week, Brazilian rider Vinícius Rangel Costa was given a 20-month suspension for three failures to report his whereabouts for anti-doping controls. Rangel Costa raced for Movistar between 2022-2024, last riding for the team in May 2024 at Eschborn-Frankfurt.

According to the UCI, the Brazilian had three whereabouts failures in a 12-month period, but the announcement did not specify when that period was.

In response to UCI's statement on Lazkano, Abarca Sports, the company who owns the Movistar WorldTour team, issued a press release detailing the communications the team had received from the UCI over the issue.

A spokesperson for Abarca Sports said: "It is not until yesterday afternoon, October 30, 2025, that he has become aware of this situation.

"During the three seasons of contractual relationship with Mr Lazkano (of the five to which the UCI study refers) all the controls to which he was subjected by the different national and international organizations, as well as internal to the team itself, yielded a negative result. By virtue of this, it was materially impossible to know, or even intuit, any anomaly such as the one now presented in the procedure opened by the International Cycling Union.

"Abarca Sports reiterates once again with absolute firmness its unwavering commitment to a clean and transparent sport. To this end, we will redouble with absolute determination all the efforts, controls and measures that we have been promoting to date."

Movistar announced a restructuring of its management team this week, with Sebastián Unzué becoming head of sports, and a racing department headed by Chente García Acosta and Matt White.

Former Spanish champion Oier Lazkano has been suspended by the UCI over "unexplained abnormalities" in his biological passport, and will leave Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe as a result.

The 25-year-old, who joined the German team from Movistar at the beginning of 2025, did not race again after Paris-Roubaix in mid-April this season. The abnormalities were found during his time at his previous team, according to the UCI.

In a press release on Thursday afternoon, a spokesperson for cycling's governing body said: "Spanish rider Oier Lazkano Lopez has been provisionally suspended in accordance with the UCI Anti-Doping Rules, due to unexplained abnormalities in his Athlete Biological Passport in 2022, 2023 and 2024."

Following this, a Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe spokesperson announced that Lazkano would leave the squad.

They said: "We confirm that Oier Lazkano will no longer be part of our team. This follows the decision of the UCI to provisionally suspend him. The matter concerns the seasons 2022-2024 – a time before he joined our team."

The biological passport is a record of each rider's anti-doping tests, which are then monitored for discrepancies.

Lazkano's lengthy absence from racing had caused speculation over the Basque rider's situation; he was signed by Red Bull as a key man for the Classics, but in a disappointing campaign, his best result was 108th at Scheldeprijs. He failed to finish the Tour of Flanders, the E3 Saxo Classic, and Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne.

In the previous two seasons, Lazkano had marked himself out as one to watch in one-day races and long breakaways. He won the Clásica Jaén Paraiso Interior in 2024, finished second at Dwars door Vlaanderen in 2023 having been in the breakaway for 166km, and then went on to finish third at Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne in 2024. He also won the Spanish National Championships road race in 2023.

At Grand Tours, of which he has raced five, the man from Vitoria-Gasteiz had twice finished fifth on stages, including 2024 stage of the Tour de France won by Victor Campenaerts.

Lazkano has not posted publicly on social media since April. Then, he wrote on Instagram: "It hasn't been the classic season we wanted and planned, but I'm taking quite a few notes on the list. Thank you all for the support these months. Now, a little rest and back to the heights to prepare for the summer season."

The UCI defines the biological passport as "an individual electronic record for each rider, in which the results of all doping tests collected as part of the ABP programme over a given period are collated."

The UCI continues: "The International Testing Agency (ITA), the independent entity to which the UCI delegated its anti-doping programme while retaining responsibility for the management of results and the prosecution of anti-doping rule violations, manages the ABP programme in collaboration with the Athlete Passport Management Unit (APMU) of Lausanne, Switzerland (the APMU of Lausanne is associated with the World Anti-Doping Agency accredited Laboratory of Lausanne).

"Athlete Biological cases are prosecuted based on the opinion of an independent Expert Panel of the APMU."

Over a year since controversy around carbon monoxide inhalation in cycling began, the World Anti Doping Authority (WADA), has announced it will ban the use of the gas for performance enhancing methods from 2026.

Carbon monoxide (CO) inhalation involves breathing in a dose of the gas through a measurement tool called a CO rebreather. The exposure to the gas can trigger hypoxia (a lack of oxygen), which can lead to the release of red blood cells in the body, improving aerobic capacity like VO2max and maximal oxygen uptake. This form of blood manipulation as a tool to enhance athletic performance is to be banned.

“The non-diagnostic use of carbon monoxide (CO) was added to the Prohibited Methods as a new section, M 1.4,” WADA wrote in an update to its Prohibited List. “It can increase erythropoiesis [the overproduction of red blood cells] under certain conditions.”

Whilst no WorldTour teams have confirmed their use of CO inhalation for this purpose, Visma Lease-a-Bike, Israel Premier Tech and UAE Team Emirates have all used the measurement tool to legally measure the blood values and psychological benefits of altitude training in their athletes.

This use of CO inhalation for diagnostic purposes to measure blood volume will remain legal.

The Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) banned the substance from its races in February 2025, to "protect the health of the riders." Even within a controlled medical setting, the organisation outlined that each inhalation for diagnostic purposes must be recorded in an athlete's medical record.

Despite teams including UAE insisting that "carbon monoxide [...] is a well established, safe, professional method that is backed by a very large amount of research,” the UCI maintained its position.

The practice of CO doping was first exposed by Escape Collective in July of last year, who warned that its use could infringe WADA’s rules around the artificial manipulation of blood.

The article concluded with a clear warning: “There is no hard evidence that WorldTeams are using CO inhalation for performance enhancement. But their exploration of the technique alone makes it more likely that someone else will cross that line.”

Teams were quick to respond. Uno-X Mobility told the outlet that the use of CO rebreathers for diagnostic purposes “is not something we are even considering”, and UAE Team Emirates dropped its use of the tool post-publication.

"I understand if it's misused, but I never knew that it could be misused," Jonas Vingegaard said in a press conference for Visma Lease-a-Bike last November, the rider later continuing: "We measure the day we get to altitude and then the day we go back down. We see the difference in how much haemoglobin is built up. There is nothing more to it.”

The ruling on the ban on performance enhancing CO inhalation will come into effect in 2026.

A pro-doping alternative to the Olympics has been condemned as “irresponsible” and “immoral”, with leading athlete commissions raising concerns about the possibility of deaths.

The Enhanced Games, a sporting event that allows competitors to take performance-enhancing drugs, is scheduled to take place for the first time next May in Las Vegas, USA. It will include three sports in its first year – sprinting, swimming and weightlifting – with cycling slated to follow in year three.

In a joint statement published on Tuesday, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) athletes commissions criticised the concept, calling it “a betrayal of everything that we stand for”.

“As athletes, we believe that the Enhanced Games or any events encouraging the use of performance-enhancing substances and methods are a betrayal of everything that we stand for,” the statement read.

“Most importantly, these events undermine the integrity of sport, and the responsibility athletes hold as role models in society. Promoting performance-enhancing substances and methods sends a dangerous message – especially to current and future generations of athletes.”

The statement went on to warn about “long-term health consequences” of doping, saying the substances can lead to “even death”.

“Encouraging athletes to use them is utterly irresponsible and immoral. No level of sporting success is worth such a cost," the commissions said.

“We stand firmly together for the values of fair play, ethical behaviours and respect – principles that have shaped our journey and that we believe should guide and inspire the next generation of athletes. We will do everything we can to protect the integrity of sport for generations to come.”

The Enhanced Games is a privately-funded competition, founded by Australian businessman Aron d’Souza in a mission to “build a new superhumanity”.

D’Souza told Cycling Weekly last year that it was a “classic misconception to say that performance-enhancing drugs are unsafe – it’s hysteria”.

Asked about the inclusion of cycling events, d’Souza said it “doesn’t make sense now from an economic standpoint”, but that some of the main Olympic cycling disciplines – time trial, road racing and track – were scheduled to be on the programme in future years.

Athletes who compete in the Enhanced Games, and take performance-enhancing substances, will undergo medical screenings.

A former French professional cyclist was issued a 10-month suspended prison sentence and a €5,000 (£4,230 / $5,209) fine in a doping trial on Wednesday.

Marion Sicot, who competed between 2013 and 2019 and represented the national squad, tested positive for erythropoietin (EPO) in 2019. She was initially banned following the anti-doping control, and has now been sentenced in court for the import and possession of doping products.

The 32-year-old’s suspended sentence means she will not go to prison unless she commits another crime in the next 10 months.

Sicot’s trial began in November and took place in Montargis, south of Paris. During the proceedings, the court heard that she had taken prohibited substances, notably EPO and the fat-burning drug clenbuterol, between 2016 and 2019, during which time she rode for Belgian UCI team Dotcini-Van Eyck Sport.

Her positive EPO test came after the French National Road Championships in 2019, where she finished ninth. Sicot originally denied using the drug, and received a reduced two-year ban. This was later extended to the full four-year term, which lasted until March 2024.

During her trial, Sicot spoke of the “ease” with which she was able to take banned substances. She also said that doping formed “an integral part of this sport”, even if she experienced “no personal gain” in her career.

“I regret cheating and lying. I dirtied my sport,” she said. “I took the easy way out.”

Anti-doping in France is managed by the independent body Agence Française de Lutte Contre le Dopage (AFLD). According to the country’s law, use of doping substances is not a punishable offence, but the trafficking and possession of such substances is.

Laws are stricter in the USA, where use of performance-enhancing drugs is also punishable. In the UK, doping in sport is not a criminal activity.

Sicot was given a one-year suspended sentence on Wednesday, backdated two months to the beginning of her trial in November.

Also convicted in the case was a friend of the Frenchwoman, a former semi-pro cyclist accused of importing and possessing doping products. He received a 10-month suspended prison sentence and a €10,000 (£8,460 / $10,418) fine.

A 51-year-old doctor suspected of forging prescriptions likewise stood trial. He, too, was given a 10-month suspended prison sentence, a heavier fine of €20,000 (£16,920 / $20,836), and a six-month ban from practising medicine.

French former pro cyclist Marion Sicot is facing an 18-month suspended prison sentence and a fine of €5,000 (£4,166 / $5,265) in a doping trial that began on Wednesday.

The 32-year-old, who was banned after testing positive for EPO in 2019, is on trial in France for import and possession of doping products.

During the first day of the trial, the court heard that Sicot had taken prohibited substances, notably EPO and the fat-burning drug clenbuterol, between 2016 and 2019, during which time she rode for Belgian UCI team Dotcini-Van Eyck Sport.

Sicot revealed she bought the products online, and through a friend, for between €500 and €1,200. Her friend, a former semi-pro cyclist, also spoke in court, where he admitted to importing and possessing doping products.

On the trial's opening day in Montargis, Sicot said that doping is "an integral part of this sport", even if there was "no personal gain" for her.

"I regret cheating and lying. I dirtied my sport," she said. "I took the easy way out."

In 2019, three days before the French National Road Championships, the then 27-year-old injected herself with erythropoietin (EPO), a drug famous for its use in the 1990s and 2000s. Sicot finished ninth in the event, but returned a positive test and received a reduced two-year ban, despite denying using the drug.

It was later decided to extend her ban to the full four-year period, which lasted until March this year.

"Marion Sicot has already paid, heavily, through her suspension which cost her her sporting career," her lawyer said on Wednesday.

The prosecution in the case has suggested an 18-month suspended prison sentence for the former cyclist, as well as a €5,000 fine.

Sicot’s friend is also on trial, facing the same prison sentence and a €10,000 fine. There is also a doctor on trial in the case, suspected of forging prescriptions for EPO, and facing an 18-month suspended prison sentence, as well as a fine of €20,000. The doctor has denied the claims.

The court’s ruling will take place on 22 January 2025.

Anti-doping in France is managed by the independent body Agence Française de Lutte Contre le Dopage (AFLD). According to the country’s law, use of doping substances is not a punishable offence, but the trafficking and possession of such substances is.

Sicot rode her last professional bike race in July 2019. She has spent recent years coaching and competing in triathlons.

An Australian-born Irish professional cyclist, Jesse Ewart, has been banned from cycling for three years after he tested positive for EPO (Erythropoietin) this year.

Ewart, who rode for the Malaysian-based Continental team Terengganu Cycling, returned an Adverse Analytical Finding (AAF) after a doping control test on January 26, according to Sport Integrity Australia on Thursday. EPO is prohibited at all times.

The 30-year-old is banned until 15 May 2027, with the positive test coming after he won stage one of the Tour of Sharjah, a UCI 2.2 ranked race, on 26 January, in the UAE.

All of his results this year up to his provisional suspension on 16 May have been struck from the record, including a second place in the mountains classification at the 2.1 ranked Tour de Taiwan, second at the 1.2 Bueng Si Fai International race, and another stage win on stage four of the 2.1 Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn’s Cup Tour of Thailand. He has also been fined 7,000 CHF.

EPO, which boosts red blood cell production was the go-to drug of dopers in the 1990s and beyond, with its use supposed to be revealed via the Biological Passport. It has become rarer in anti-doping tests in recent years.

Ewart has spent his whole career at Continental teams, including six years at various Malaysian squads - Sapura Cycling and Terengganu Cycling. He has twice won the Tour de Singkarak, an Indonesian 2.2 stage race, overall.

Terengganu are yet to release a statement.

Earlier in September, Ilkhan Dostiyev, an Astana Qazaqstan Development Team rider, was fired after testing positive for and admitting to using the blood booster drug CERA. Both Dostiyev and Ewart have finished on the podium of the Tour du Rwanda.

"Mr Ewart’s three-year period of Ineligibility commenced on 16 May 2024," the statement from Sport Integrity Australia read. "Mr Ewart is ineligible to participate in any sports that have adopted a World Anti-Doping Code compliant anti-doping policy until 15 May 2027.

"He is also not permitted to compete in a non-Signatory professional league or Event organised by a non-Signatory International Event organisation or a non-Signatory national-level event organisation."

Last year, Ewart told CW: "When I first went to Asia I was an under-23 rider. I was racing in Italy with an amateur team at the time. In comparison, riding in Asia it was really fun and exciting compared to that. It was a lot more enjoyable at the time, I also had a couple of other mates who were doing it at the time. That's how I ended up here."

Former Lidl-Trek and Jumbo-Visma rider Antwan Tolhoek has returned an “adverse” anti-doping test for steroids, the UCI has said. 

The 29-year-old Dutchman, who began this season with Portuguese Continental team Sabgal/Anicolor, provided the sample during an out-of-competition control in November 2023, when he was under contract with Lidl-Trek. 

Tolhoek has been provisionally suspended from racing, and his contract has been terminated by his team. 

In a statement shared on Wednesday afternoon, the UCI wrote: “The Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) informs that Dutch rider Antwan Tolhoek has been notified of an Adverse Analytical Finding for Anabolic Androgenic Steroids (AAS)1 in a sample collected during an out-of-competition control on 27 November 2023.” 

Anabolic steroids are the first substance listed on the World Anti-Doping Agency’s (WADA) Prohibited List, and are outlawed both in and out of competition. They are performance-enhancing drugs that are often associated with muscle-building, allowing riders to train harder and for longer.

Their use can cause severe bodily damage, and lead to heart attacks, strokes and kidney failure. 

Examples of anabolic steroids used by athletes include testosterone and nandrolone. The UCI, however, did not cite which substance was found to be present in Tolhoek’s sample. 

The Dutch rider now has the right to request the analysis of a second, B sample taken during the same control by the International Testing Agency (ITA), the independent entity that oversees anti-doping in elite cycling. 

If the B sample confirms the A sample, or if Tolhoek choses not to request it, he could face disciplinary proceedings. 

In a statement shared with Cycling Weekly, Tolhoek's team, Sabgal/Anicolor, said his contract has been terminated with immediate effect. 

"Clube Desportivo Fullracing has taken the decision to immediately terminate the Dutch athlete's contract and cancel all of his duties within the club from this moment on," the team said. 

"It was only today that Clube Desportivo Fullracing was informed of the result of this adverse control, which relates to the 2023 season. The athlete's registration was made without the club being aware of the situation."

Cycling Weekly has contacted Lidl-Trek, the team the Dutchman rode for at the time of the test. The UCI has said it will not comment further while the investigation is open. 

In 2017, Tolhoek received a two-month suspension from his then squad LottoNL-Jumbo after he took sleeping medication on a training camp, outside of the team’s supervision. 

News of his adverse anti-doping result comes in the same week that Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale rider Franck Bonnamour was provisionally suspended for “unexplained abnormalities” in his biological passport. 

Tolhoek, stage winner at the Tour de Suisse in 2019, was scheduled to compete in the one-day Figueira Champions Classic in Portugal on Saturday. 

Tour de France winner Jonas Vingegaard has revealed he once missed an anti-doping test. 

In an interview with Danish publication Ekstra Bladet, the Jumbo-Visma rider explained that testers came to his home, but his doorbell did not sound. 

Vingegaard did not specify when the missed test occurred, beyond saying that he believed it was in 2019; however, he said it was “definitely something I think about afterwards to make sure it doesn’t happen again”. 

“I had left my mobile phone in the kitchen, and then our doorbell didn’t work. They tried to call me, and it was clear that it was impossible to answer,” Vingegaard said. “Of course, it’s not cool. But then they came two days later.” 

All riders are subject to out-of-competition testing, and must abide by the ‘Whereabouts’ program, in which they report their location to anti-doping authorities for potential tests. 

Vingegaard explained that he had undergone around 60 to 70 anti-doping tests in 2023. 

“It’s not great to have a missed test hanging over you,” he said, adding that following the Whereabouts protocol was “a hassle” but “not so difficult”. 

During July’s Tour de France, Vingegaard was asked a number of times about potential doping. 

Speaking to the media after his resounding time trial victory on stage 16, he said: “I can tell you from my heart that I don’t take anything. I don’t take anything I would not give to my daughter, and I would definitely not give her drugs. 

“I understand that it’s hard to trust in cycling with the past there has been. Nowadays, everyone is different than it was 20 years ago.” 

The Tour winner told Ekstra Bladet this week that he thinks it’s a “good thing” that riders are constantly monitored for banned substances. “It helps in a way,” he said. “All your tests are negative, but in a way, it rings hollow because 20 years ago they were tested too.

"Somehow riders can still cheat, so I don't want to just say – as they did in the old days – that I am the rider who is tested the most. I don't test positive. They did something back then, and people will definitely believe that riders will do it again."

In August, the Dane’s team-mate Michel Hessmann was suspended for returning a positive anti-doping test containing diuretics. The 22-year-old’s B sample confirmed the results of his A sample earlier this month, and he could now face a four-year ban.  

Asked about Hessmann, Vingegaard said: “I don’t know how it got into his body. But I think it’s every cyclist’s biggest fear is that you get it through some food or something you eat, and that way test positive without intending to cheat.

“I don’t take anything, and I don’t think the rest of the peloton does either,” he added.

German cyclist Michel Hessmann has been provisionally suspended by his team, Jumbo-Visma, after he returned a positive-anti-doping test result. 

The squad announced the news on Wednesday, saying that the test was conducted in June, and revealed the presence of diuretics. Jumbo-Visma have since made the 22-year-old inactive until more details are known. 

In a statement shared on Twitter, Jumbo-Visma wrote: “Today we have been informed of a positive anti-doping test result of our rider Michel Hessmann.

“It concerned an out-of-competition control on 14 June in Germany. The detected product is a diuretic medicine. We await the results of further investigation. Michel has been suspended by the team until further notice.” 

Diuretics are used to treat several conditions, such as heart failure, liver disease and types of kidney disease. They work by helping the body release sodium and water, passing it through urine. While they are not performance-enhancing by themselves, they are known to contribute to rapid weight loss. 

Diuretics are on the World Anti-Doping Agency’s (WADA) list of prohibited substances, and are banned both in and out of competition. 

Hessmann’s positive test came two weeks after he took part in the Giro d’Italia, where he helped his team-mate Primož Roglič to victory. He also rode Liège-Bastogne-Liège, the Volta Ciclista a Catalunya and Strade Bianche earlier in the year, and participated in last month’s Czech Tour since the anti-doping control.  

Hessman, who is a product of Jumbo-Visma's development team, is yet to comment on his positive test result. 

The news follows a series of recent high-profile anti-doping positives in cycling. In June, Belgian rider Shari Bossuyt tested positive for the banned substance Letrozole and was made "non-active" by her Canyon-SRAM team. Bossuyt’s positive result came over a year after her compatriot, cyclo-cross rider Toon Aerts, returned a sample containing the same product. 

In 2022, there were 29 cases of alleged doping recorded in cycling, according to figures released by the anti-doping union Movement for a Credible Cycling (MPCC). This included one case at WorldTour level, after two of Nairo Quintana’s blood samples revealed the presence of tramadol, a painkiller banned by the UCI. 

Richard Freeman, the former British Cycling doctor, has received a four-year doping ban for his role in ordering banned substances to the governing body’s HQ in 2011. 

Freeman, who worked closely with British Cycling and Team Sky, helping them to global success, has been at the centre of a long-running hearing, which saw him struck off the medical register in 2021. 

According to UK Anti-Doping (UKAD), Freeman “violated” anti-doping rules on three counts; firstly, by “taking possession of an order of 30 sachets of Testogel” - a banned testosterone substance. He was then deemed to have lied to UKAD in respect of that order, and said to have “tamper[ed]” with an anti-doping investigation.

Freeman’s ban has been backdated to the start of his suspension in December 2020. He chose not to appear before the anti-doping panel to defend his case, The Times reported.

Jane Rumble, UKAD’s chief executive, said: “This case sends a strong message to all athlete support personnel that the rules apply equally to them, just as they do to athletes, and that they have a clear responsibility to uphold the values of integrity in sport.” 

In 2021, Freeman was found guilty of ordering banned testosterone "knowing or believing" it would be administered to an unnamed rider for performance enhancement. Of the 22 charged brought against him by the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service, he denied four, relating to the delivery of the substance to British Cycling and Team Sky's Manchester Velodrome HQ in June 2011. 

He also claimed the testosterone was ordered at the request of former Team Sky coach Shane Sutton to treat erectile dysfunction. Sutton refuted the claim. 

The investigation was paused when Freeman appealed the decision to strike him off the medical register in 2021. The High Court rejected this appeal at the start of 2023, and the investigation continued, coming to a close on Tuesday. 

In a statement shared after Freeman's doping sanction, British Cycling chair Frank Slevin said: “We note today's verdict from the National Anti-Doping Panel and thank them for the time and consideration put into reaching their decision.

“We have stated previously that Richard Freeman’s conduct during his employment by British Cycling bore no resemblance to the high ethical and professional standards which we, our members and our partners rightly expect.”

“In the years since Freeman was suspended from his employment by British Cycling, we have made great progress in strengthening our provision of medical services to riders competing for the Great Britain Cycling Team. Being granted Care Quality Commission status in October 2020 – making us one of the first professional sport medical facilities to achieve the status – is testament to the progress we have made.”

Belgian cyclist Shari Bossuyt has pleaded her innocence after testing positive for a banned substance, and being made “non-active” by her Canyon-SRAM team. 

The 22-year-old returned a positive test for Letrozole in an anti-doping control during the Tour de Normandie Féminin in March. The substance, a hormone drug used more generally to treat breast cancer, is on the World Anti-Doping Agency’s (WADA) Prohibited List. 

In a press conference on Monday, Bossuyt said she has "never consciously used" the drug, and that she believes her sample was contaminated. 

"At the moment the procedure is still ongoing and I have to explain to the AFLD [the French Anti-Doping Agency] how the product ended up in my body," the Belgian is quoted in Het Laatste Nieuws. "This is turning out to be extremely difficult today because I have never come into contact with Letrozole and have never consciously used it.

"In fact, this was the first time I had heard of Letrozole. Fortunately, I am currently well supported. I hope we can clarify soon. But above all, that we can prove that we are not cheaters." 

In a statement released on Sunday, Bossuyt's Canyon-SRAM team outlined that it holds a "zero-tolerance stance towards any use of prohibited substances" and that it had made the rider "provisionally non-active", effectively suspending her. 

Bossuyt, too, confirmed that she will not take part in any events. "In consultation with the team, I have decided not to race in the coming weeks. Mainly because my head isn't in it," she said. 

"Everything indicates that we are dealing with a contamination. That is why I would like to appeal to all authorities that we may be dealing with an underlying problem. I will continue to train so that I can compete again soon.”

The news comes over a year after another Belgian cyclist, Toon Aerts, also tested positive for Letrozole. The cyclo-cross rider, who returned an out-of-competition sample containing the banned substance in January 2022, is yet to return to racing, and has said he is facing a two-year suspension. 

Aerts issued a statement on Sunday following the announcement of Bossuyt’s Letrozole positive. He said: “We are one year on, I’m still deep in misery, and unfortunately there is another case. I can imagine so well what Shari is going through now. This shouldn't happen. Another athlete, who is also human, who will go through a deep valley with her whole family. Without having done anything wrong, just like me and my family!

He added: “No two without three, as the saying goes, and I fear there will be more victims…” 

Bossuyt and her Canyon-SRAM team are currently awaiting the decision from the AFLD, which will come in due course. A suspension would rule the Belgian out of defending her Madison world title, which she holds with Lotte Kopecky, at the UCI Track World Championships this August.  

Convicted doper Jarlinson Pantano has made a return to cycling, joining amateur level club EPM in his native Colombia, after his ban from cycling expired.

The 34-year-old won stages of the Tour de France, Tour de Suisse and Volta a Catalunya during his WorldTour career with IAM Cycling and Trek-Segafredo, before testing positive for EPO in 2019.

Pantano was suspended and fired from Trek in 2019 after he returned a positive test for the blood booster, before he announced his retirement from the sport, saying he didn’t see the point in spending his money to fight cycling's governing body, the UCI.

He was then banned from cycling for four years - dating from his positive test in 2019 - a ban which has now ended.

A statement from the UCI in 2020 said: “The UCI Anti-Doping Tribunal has rendered its decision in the case involving Mr Jarlinson Pantano Gómez.

“The Tribunal found the rider guilty of an anti-doping rule violation (presence of Recombinant Erythropoietin) and imposed a four-year period of ineligibility on the rider.”

When he retired, Pantano said: “I never thought I’d end my career like this. I feel cheated.

“I am not asking anyone to forgive me because I am innocent.”

Pantano started his career with Colombia-Coldeportes in 2012 and went on to sign with WorldTour squad IAM Cycling in 2015, before the move to Trek in 2017.

His biggest victory was stage 15 of the 2016 Tour de France to Culoz, which he won ahead of Rafał Majka, while Pantano also took Colombia’s national time trial colours in 2017.

After his retirement last year, Pantano ran for office in Colombia in the Cali council elections, but didn't win his seat.

The Colombian EPM team is sponsored by a utilities company from the country's northwest, based in Medellin, and its kit is made by Go Rigo Go, a clothing company connected to EF Education-EasyPost pro Rigoberto Urán.

Earlier this year, Pantano defended Nairo Quintana from the UCI, saying: "The UCI is a mafia. Unfortunately, I feel ... that the UCI wants to damage the image of us Colombians and it is succeeding."

Quintana returned a positive test during last year's Tour de France for tramadol on two separate occasions, and his result was subsequently stripped by the UCI. The Colombian is still without a team.

Trigger Warning: This article contains details that may affect those who have experienced physical or sexual abuse or know someone affected by it.

Geneviève Jeanson thought the door had been closed for good. She’d never again pin on a race number. Never again toe the startline of a bike race, hear the blast of a starter pistol or raise her arms in victory.

In 2007, her voice had rang clear when she announced she ‘won’t ever race again’ following her confession to having been administered EPO ever since she was 16 years old. 

But in 2022, 17 years after her last race, the now 41-year-old Canadienne returned to racing, joining the ranks of former pro roadies in the growing discipline of gravel racing as part of the Floyd's of Leadville Racing team. 

Going back has been a “big ball of emotions,” Jeanson tells Cycling Weekly. “But I’m so glad I did come back. I feel more like myself this year at 41 years old than I've ever felt in my life.” 

Doping was only small part in a system of abuse

For those unfamiliar with Jeanson’s story,  I have to warn you that it’s not a happy one. 

In the early aughts, Jeanson was a star on the rise. A junior time trial and road racing world champion, a Flèche Wallonne winner and an Olympian at the tender age of 18. Her early twenties added even more world cup wins, stage race honors and national title to her palmarès. But then in 2005, her career came to an immediate halt. She’d tested positive for aerobic capacity booster, EPO, in an out-of-competition test. She initially denied taking the banned substance and announced her retirement months later. She was just 24 years old. Upon coming clean, she was given a lifetime ban that was later reduced to 10 years. Her coach André Aubut and doctor Maurice Duquette were banned for life for administering a banned substance to a minor. 

While history quickly wrote her off as a cheat, over time we learned that there was a lot more going on than an athlete breaking the rules to get ahead. 

In 2015, Jeanson cautiously came forward and started shedding some light on what had actually been going on. But it would take another six years for her to find the courage to share the full truth  — a harrowing tale of over a decade’s long physical, emotional and sexual abuse at the hands of Aubut whom she met at age 14. Administering EPO to a teenage Jeanson appeared to have been the least of his crimes. 

As her coach and domestic partner, Aubut controlled every aspect of Jeanson’s life — her training, nutrition and race appearances; her career; her body; who she talked to or befriended and even, her bank accounts. Everything went through him and it was only through a brave escape in 2006 that Jeanson regained her life and freedom. While Aubut denied Jeanson’s side of the story, he was arrested in 2016 for spousal abuse of the woman he married after Jeanson. 

“For the longest time I didn't want to share [my story] because I felt horrible. I didn't want people to know that had happened to me,” Jeanson recalls. “I felt at fault.”

For more than 10 years, Jeanson lived her life as a cheat, “a criminal”, a disgraced bike racing champion in silence. But when she finally did, and courageously, opened up about her full truth, the response was overwhelmingly positive and compassionate.

“I was never angry at the people that had an opinion of me back then for being a cheater.  They didn't know the full story. They didn't know where I came from and what happened to me, and that the doping was part of a much broader system of abuse,” she says. “And I understand that and there’s been a definite change in how people think of me.”

More importantly, sharing her story liberated her. It allowed her to make peace with her tainted past, move on and maybe even help others along the way.

“Failing that drug test was the best thing that had ever happened to me,” she revealed in a recent testimony to the Canadian Parliament. “A positive drug test was just a small inconvenience in comparison to the hell I was living in…Having my name tarnished forever was a cheap price to pay to finally get rid of him.”

The bike: a final hurdle to overcome

These days Jeanson is a frequent public speaker and involved with various projects around safeguarding athletes including the International Testing Agency and Sport’Aide, a non-profit organization that offers guidance and support services for young athletes —as well as coaches, sport organizations, officials around them—who have witnessed or experienced violence. 

“It feels really good to share my story and have something good come out of all that trauma,” Jeanson says. “Hopefully I can help people, but at the same time, man, I feel so exposed.”

Does she wish she’d shared her story earlier? Yes, of course. But she wasn’t ready.

“It’s one of the things you learn about recovery. There are many phases and you can’t rush it. It takes time. It’s like Tetris. All the pieces will fall into place at the right time, and when it does, it is going to be good.” 

The final piece of Jeanson’s Tetris was her return to bike racing. She’d been barely more than a young adult when she last competed. Now, in her forties, she’s needing to work through the remnants of misguided and abusive coaching. 

“Going back to the bike, and to racing specifically, brought up a whole different set of emotions. And it’s something I've been working on with my therapist,” she says.

Jeanson returned to racing at Mid South 2022. Largely considered the gravel season opener, Mid South, formerly known as Land Run, is a 100-mile race held on the infamous red clay of Stillwater, Oklahoma. 

She was attracted to gravel racing for the same reasons why it’s the fastest growing discipline in cycling: the adventure, the community and “to battle your own demons and keep going.”

And Jeanson has more demons to conquer than most. 

“In my first career I was motivated by fear,” Jeanson reveals. “If I didn't win, if I had a bad training session, I got beat up. My fear, my survival mode made me a super athlete. It really gave me another level of suffering that I could handle in the training and in races. I could bury myself because I was afraid of what awaited me if I didn’t. It has taken years to get over that fear. I still feel it during really hard trainings although I know the thing I’m afraid of is no longer there.”

What did it feel like to pin on her first race numbers in 17 years?

“Good but I was also nervous. I didn't feel good in a pack. I felt like I didn't belong there at all,” Jeanson recalls. “But I finished a race and I knew I would do another one. So I did the Belgian Waffle Ride. Almost 220 kilometers! I never did anything like that in my career. But I finished and loved it so I decided to do another one.”

And so Jeanson’s second career as a gravel racer was born.But more importantly, Jeanson was made whole.

“I work and I race part time. My life has balance. I can give myself to others and help others achieve their goals,” she says.

“I feel more like myself this year at 41 years old than I've ever felt in my life. When I was just an athlete in an abusive relationship, I always knew that there was this second Geneviève somewhere. And then when I was off the sport and trying to stay away from it — because I didn’t want to feel all these emotions — I was missing something. I didn't know what I was missing until I started racing and cycling again.

“By returning I did find myself and the fitter I am, the more I feel like myself.”

Jeanson admits that when she learned that the 2026 UCI Road World Championships are going to be held in Montreal, Canada, she was tempted to return to road racing. To go all in and hope that at 44 years of age, she could once again represent her country. But to what end?

For now, she’s seeking her challenges on the dirt, including some endurance events like the 500km Gravel Bikepacking Challenge 500 (GBC) and 725km Badland off-road race in Spain which she's tackling together with former arch-rival Lyne Bessette. The two Queboise retired roadies put aside differences once Bessette learned about Jeanson’s past and have since become good friends.

There were 29 cases of alleged doping in cycling in 2022, according to figures released today by anti-doping union Movement for a Credible Cycling (MPCC). 

This is 10 more cases than in 2021, and the second highest tally in the past eight years. 

The MPCC gathered data from federations, anti-doping agencies, courts and press articles, taking into account cases relating only to professional athletes. It then collated the information, ordering it by sport and country, and published it under its annual ‘credibility figures’. 

The 29 cases recorded in cycling, the MPCC revealed, came from 15 countries and were split across six disciplines. The vast majority of the cases - 23 out of 29 - involved male riders. 

Still, the union was optimistic about the results, citing that only two cases came from the sport’s uppermost tiers of racing, the WorldTour and the ProTour. “This is actually the lowest number (2 cases) ever recorded since the Festina affair!” the MPCC wrote, referring to the doping scandal that surrounded the 1998 Tour de France. 

According to the union, the only WorldTour case recorded in 2022 was that involving Nairo Quintana. The Colombian was retrospectively disqualified from the Tour de France in August after two of his blood samples revealed the presence of tramadol, a painkiller banned by the UCI, but not on the World Anti-Doping Agency's (WADA) prohibited list. 

On Quintana, the MPCC said: “His team nevertheless remained in compliance with the rules of our movement, as the rider was immediately banned from competition by his team Arkéa-Samsic, which did not keep him on the squad at the end of the season.”

Quintana, who is still without a team for 2023, has repeatedly denied having taken tramadol. 

Currently, nine of the 19 men’s WorldTour teams are members of the MPCC: AG2R Citroën, Alpecin-Deceuninck, Arkéa-Samsic, Bora-Hansgrohe, Cofidis, EF Education-EasyPost, Groupama FDJ, Intermarché Circus Wanty and Team DSM.  

The movement includes a total of 30 professional cycling teams from across the men’s and women’s peloton, as well as 21 Continental teams. 

“In 2022, the large majority of doping proceedings in top-level cycling concerned semi-professional men riders from continental road teams (12 cases),” the MPCC wrote. “The Portuguese team W52-FC Porto was even disbanded after the police revealed possible organised doping.”

In July, the UCI revoked the licence of W52-FC Porto as part of an ongoing doping investigation. Eight of the 11 riders on the team were also suspended. 

The MPCC stressed that none of the cases revealed at cycling’s Continental level came from within any of the union's member teams. 

It concluded: “We strongly encourage these semi-professional teams to join the MPCC, in order to put their ethics and credibility at the heart of our sport’s concerns.” 

Spanish authorities said that two people have been arrested and six more were investigated after they had broken up a ring to distribute doping products banned in Spain.

Former Kelme directeur sportif Vicente Belda and his son Vicente, who works for the
Astana Qazaqstan team, were reportedly questioned after Spain’s Guardia Civil police force dismantled the trafficking ring that supplied drugs to athletes and offered other sporting services including university-run stress tests and medical analysis.

Operacion Ilex, the police investigation, began in January 2021 when Spanish police started to look into a suspected ring based in Caceres in western Spain.

Spanish news agency EFE reported that the investigation centers around a university professor and doctor in the Spanish city of Cáceres identified as Marcos Maynar, who was arrested in May for illegal drug trafficking.

Miguel Ángel López, who currently races for Astana Qazaqstan, released a statement on Thursday stating that he is not linked to the investigation.

The Colombian, who was briefly detained by Spanish authorities upon his return to Europe this summer, said on Thursday that reports suggesting he is linked to any sort of illicit activity are “completely false.”

"News has been published in different media where it is stated that I am being investigated in a supposed doping network," he wrote on social media.

"I currently don't have any active investigation or trials underway. My lawyers are ready to initiate any necessary legal action."

EFE reported that chemicals were mixed with nutritional products to make prohibited drugs, including one called Menotropin, used in the treatment of fertility disturbances, as well as Actovegin, DCA, and Teofilina.

Police said athletes were charged up to €3000 for the services among “high-level athletes".

Authorities also described how communication and distribution were separated between the source and the user to try to throw off law enforcement agencies.

Belda senior was a sports director at Kelme before he was linked to the anti-doping investigation Operación Puerto in 2006. He was cleared of any charges eight years later. His son, currently works as a soigneur for the Astana Qazaqstan team, but is no evidence or indication the team is involved.

Kelme were a Spanish top-level team who had riders including Alejandro Valverde and Roberto Heras on their books; they won the Vuelta a España in 2000 and 2002. However, the team closed down due to doping controversies. A lot of these stemmed from Operación Puerto, the Spanish investigation which uncovered blood doping linked to Doctor Eufemiano Fuentes in multiple sports, but particularly cycling.

The Guardia Civil's press release on Thursday said that the ring captured "clients", one of whom is underage, through “various people closely connected to the world of professional sport, offering them the services of a well-known sports doctor.”

“These services included the preparation of training plans and nutrition programs as well as the consumption of medication and banned substances in sport," the statement reads.

“During the investigation, it has been corroborated how these sportspeople, once they had been in contact with the doctor and his assistant, a Doctor of Physiology, were profiled medically through stress tests and other types of analysis."

"These tests were carried out in the Faculty of Sports Science in [the University of] Extremadura, where one of the key names under investigation was teaching, along with the fabrication, reception and storing of certain medicaments.”

The investigation is continuing, EFE reported, with alleged activities in Portugal and Spain being looked into.

The American cyclist Jackson ’Huntley’ Nash has been handed a lifetime ban from cycling after a United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) investigation revealed evidence of multiple anti-doping rule violations.

In a statement published on Wednesday evening, USADA said that the investigation began after it received information from a whistleblower last December. 

“This is yet another case that demonstrates the power of investigations in the shared fight to protect sport and athletes’ rights,” the USADA CEO Travis T. Tygart said in a statement. 

“As always, we will thoroughly investigate and act on evidence of doping violations, and greatly appreciate the assistance of those who come forward on behalf of clean sport.”

The anti-doping violations that were revealed by the investigation were numerous: 

- Use or Attempted Use of Prohibited Substances, including testosterone, clenbuterol, oxandrolone, and anastrozole
- Tampering or Attempted Tampering with any Part of Doping Control by interfering with USADA’s investigation
- Possession of Prohibited Substances, including testosterone, clenbuterol, oxandrolone, and anastrozole
- Trafficking or Attempted Trafficking of Prohibited Substances clenbuterol and oxandrolone to another athlete
- Administration or Attempted Administration of Prohibited Substances human growth hormone, clenbuterol, and oxandrolone to another athlete
- Complicity or Attempted Complicity by encouraging another athlete to use prohibited substances
- Retaliation by filing a meritless petition for a protective order against an individual based in part on the individual’s report to USADA of Nash’s anti-doping rule violations

Nash has raced professionally in the US for the last few years, and competed in multiple races in 2021. His last major race took place in August 2021, the Spartanburg Criterium. The best position he achieved last year was sixth at the Miami Prix Criterium Series Men Cat 1/2/3 division in April of 2021. 

The lifetime ban began on June 30 2022, the date his provisional suspension came in. Also, he has been stripped of any results on or after December 15, 2021, which was the date evidence was collected of his possession of prohibited substances.

The case is connected to New Zealand cyclist Olivia Ray, who was reportedly in a relationship with Nash. CyclingTips reported that evidence connected to the case coming into light during a family violence hearing in the Superior Court of Gwinnett County, Georgia in January this year. Allegations of domestic violence were made against Nash, who denies any abuse.

Last month the NZ Herald reported that Ray, who raced in the US last year for Rally Cycling and is the current New Zealand road race champion, had revealed in an interview that she took performance enhancing substances.

She is currently awaiting the outcome of a USADA investigation into her, which could mean up to a four-year ban. Ray was released by her Human Powered Health team in March following alleged code of conduct violations.

The UCI has, with immediate effect, revoked the licence of Portuguese continental team W52-FC Porto, as a result of an ongoing doping investigation since April 2022. 

The sanction has been imposed in response to information received by the UCI from the Portuguese Anti-Doping Authority, which is conducting the doping investigation. Consequently, W52-FC Porto cannot compete in races, and will therefore miss the Volta a Portugal next month - a race the team has won every year since 2013. 

The Portuguese Cycling Federation issued a statement: "The Portuguese Cycling Federation confirms that it was notified today by the International Cycling Union (UCI) that this entity has decided to withdraw the sports licence from the continental team W52-FC Porto, following the information received by the UCI about the process taking place at the Anti-Doping Authority of Portugal.

"The decision takes effect immediately, so the team is barred from competing again."

Correio da Manhã reported in April that doping substances were found in the homes and hotel rooms of ten W52-FC Porto when Portuguese Police searched them. Judicial police stated they had made two arrests - one of them sporting director Nuno Ribeiro - as part of the operation Prova Limpa, which aims to "detect prohibited methods and illegal substances that can falsify the sporting truth in professional cycling events". 

Meanwhile, eight of the 11 riders on the team were subsequently suspended. 

However, this isn't the first time W52-FC Porto has faced doping allegations. 

In March, former rider Raúl Alarcón appealed a four-year suspension for "using prohibited methods and/or using prohibited substances". He lost the case, though, with his suspension upheld by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), meaning he isn't able to race professionally until October 2023. 

W52-FC Porto's licence withdrawal comes at a time when Europol raided Bahrain-Victorious' hotel rooms at the Tour de France, as part of an international operation into "prohibited substances in cycling races". 

The agency confirmed its official searched a total of 14 locations in six countries between June 27 and June 30, with medicines and electronics seized by Danish Police, too. 

The investigation is ongoing, but at the conclusion of the Tour de France, Bahrain Victorious' general manager Milan Eržen defended his team, claiming there is little basis for the operation. 

Guillaume Martin has added his voice to the call for action on ketone use in the peloton, joining fellow French riders Romain Bardet and Arnaud Démare in raising concerns over the so-called 'miracle drink'.

The teams of all three riders, Cofidis, DSM and Groupama-FDJ, are members of the Movement for Credible Cycling (MPCC) who agree to not use ketones to aid performance. Meanwhile, non-members are free to use the product which is currently legally permitted by the UCI.

For Martin, he is hopeful that heavy doping no longer exists in cycling but that grey areas such as the use of ketones need to be straightened out to make the peloton more of a level playing field for everyone.

"I don't think, and hope, that there is heavy doping in cycling right now," Martin told Cyclism'Actu, "but the big question is more about these grey areas because ketones are not something that are banned today. The question is, should they be? Personally, I do not take them and my team is part of the MPCC, which prohibits their use. 

"Moreover, even before the MPCC took position, I had forbidden myself to take them. So I am obviously in favour of banning them for reasons of fairness. Afterwards, it's up to the UCI to position itself. I don't have all the evidence or all the scientific data on the effectiveness or real danger of ketones."

In the weeks leading up to this summer's Tour de France the MPCC criticised the lack of progress being made by cycling's governing bodies on determining an official stance on ketone use.

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"These questions of doping or two-speed cycling come up often in conversations," Martin continued. "Me, I forbid myself to think about it. Already there is nothing I can do about it, and then I have nothing that allows me to say anything. 

"Personally, I just want to focus on my job and what I'm doing. There is one important thing in life, and that is the presumption of innocence. I assume that until something is proven about someone, I am not going to judge or attack them. So I focus on myself, I don't pass judgment and I try to do my best."

A week-long court trial has begun an investigation into a French doctor who was caught on TV in 2016 explaining how he could prescribe a number of banned substances to a cyclist.

Bernand Sainz sat before the Paris Criminal Court on Monday (November 22) alongside two other defendants, former cyclist Loïc Herbreteau and former actor Pierre-Marie Carlier.

The trio are having to defend themselves against accusations of “illegal practise of medicine in a state of recidivism”, the “illegal practice of the profession of pharmacist”, and “helping and inciting the use of a prohibited substance or method by athletes in the context of a sporting event in a state of legal recidivism” Le Télégramme reports.

Recidivism refers to the tendency of a convicted criminal to reoffend. 

The charges that the three are accused of are in relation to a June 2016 program called Cash Investigation that was a joint project between France Télévision and the newspaper Le Monde.

It showed Mr Sainz, who is now 78, giving advice on how to dope cyclists, sitting in a bar in Paris explaining in coded language how he could prescribe a cyclist with vitamin D for the corticosteroid ‘diprosten’, or the therapeutic plant ‘chelidonium’ which is a powerful anabolic agent. Both substances are prohibited in competition.

Mr Sainz also advised the cyclist to take EPO, before later explaining the fees, dependent on future gains.

He was taken into police custody in November 2017 despite slamming the report as “slanderous”. At the time he informed police that he was retired as a doctor but still advised his family, close friends and athletes since he was a “recognised specialist in natural medicine.”

He confessed to treating athletes in the past, but insisted that he “no longer do [did - sic] today, except for four athletes including two professional cyclists.”

On his website Mr Sainz says that he treated some of the peloton’s biggest stars in the 1960s and 1970s, including Raymond Poulidor and Bernard Thévenet, a two-time winner of the Tour de France. 

In 2014 he was sentenced to two years in prison - 20 months of which was suspended - for inciting doping within cycling in the 1990s.

Five years later he was given a 12-month suspended prison sentence and fined €2,000 after amateur and semi-professional cyclists accused him of dictating protocols for growth hormones, testosterone and EPO between July 2008 and November 2010.

Meanwhile, Mr Herbreteau, 45, is accused of connecting athletes with Mr Sainz, while Mr Carlier, 56, is alleged to have put his own son, Alexis Carlier, in contact with Mr Sainz for the benefit of sporting performance.”

The trial is slated to take place until Monday, November 29.

Two of the most prominent French riders, Arnaud Démare and Julian Alaphilippe, both have books out this off-season, published just in time for Christmas.

Alaphilippe reveals had a number of extra-curricular offers following his Worlds win in Imola in 2020, documentaries and Netflix series, but decided a book would be the most time-efficient as he readied himself for a year in the rainbow bands (also the title of his book) and also acclimatised to becoming a father for the first time.

Démare's literary effort, meanwhile, has made headlines following promotional interviews where he questioned the varying standards of the peloton, pointing to the fact some teams allow the use of ketones, while others don't.

“I wonder about the peloton," Démare said. "But I’m only saying what many people are seeing. Not everyone has the same restrictions on certain products like ketones. I am part of a team that has made commitments, as have others. But the whole peloton is not like us."

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Asked about Démare's comments, Alaphilippe countered by saying he understands riders having doubts but that even when he sees rivals who have a higher level than him, he doesn't let himself worry about any doubts as to the legitimacy of their performance. Otherwise, it would sap the motivation to train.

"I saw that Arnaud had released a book, I haven't read it but I hope to read it, yes. His doubts? I'll see when I read it, but I'm not sure what it's about," Alaphilippe told Ouest France. "Of course, there are riders in the peloton who can express doubts, wonder, even the general public can. But as long as you know what you're doing, where you are quiet in your boots, I don't have a problem like that. Even if there are riders who are stronger than me, who "dominate", from the moment you start to have doubts, that you think about things like that, it is useless to go train…"

At 30, Alaphilippe says he's aware he's halfway through his career but still sees himself as a 21-year-old neo-pro, ready to take on the world.

“The races that make me dream the most and that I have not yet won are clearly Liège-Bastogne-Liège, the Tour of Lombardy and the Tour of Flanders," he admits. "I know I can win them. These are goals that I set for myself by the end of my career. Paris - Roubaix, it's a small challenge we will say. Sometimes I need the unknown, new things, to bounce back. 2024, for example, is in the back of my mind too. I haven't been to Tokyo and I know why [his son was born only a few weeks earlier], but I know why I will be going to Paris."

While he will decide his plans for 2022 at a December training camp, the Tour de France will of course be a focal point once more, but Alaphilippe is still not yet ready to entirely dedicate himself to trying to win the yellow jersey, keen to impress and be competitive in the Classics.

"I am aware of what people dream of," Alaphilippe says of whether he can win the yellow jersey. 'And I know that there are a lot of people who want to see a French winner of the Tour. I'm part of it, I would be very happy to see a Frenchman win. If I set myself that goal, and if I succeed, that would be the highest possible point. 

"But I also set myself so many goals next to the Tour that I know that when I set myself this [yellow jersey] kind of goal, I won't be able to be everywhere. For the moment, I have made this choice to focus more on the Classics and to have big seasons, to be ready for the Tour but without having the idea of playing everything the general. It's a choice, some are betting everything on the Tour and we see them less at the start of the season, some are present at the start of the season."

Impish as ever, both off and on the bike, Alaphilippe admits that when he does eventually decide to challenge for the Tour's general classification, he'll be keeping that plan to himself, hoping to take his rivals by surprise.

“I focus on what I dream of myself rather than wanting to be where people want to see me. We must always put things into perspective. In any case, the day I decide to bet everything on the Tour, whether it works or it doesn't, I won't be shouting it from the rooftops because there is already enough pressure like that."

Johan Bruyneel says Lance Armstrong was the "perfect target" to be sacrificed as cycling looked to clean up its act, saying at the time doping was simply "one of the rules of the game".

In an extensive interview with Eddy Magazine, Bruyneel speaks about his time in the peloton as a rider and then becoming team manager at US Postal Service, throughout which doping was widespread in the peloton.

"Already, when you arrive at the professionals, you integrate into a world which very quickly puts you in front of a dilemma: either you adapt and you dope yourself, or you disappear," Bruyneel argues.

"The first year is difficult, but you do hang on, then you realize during your second year that those who were with you at the amateurs, now they drop off. All of a sudden, you see guys around you who become machines at the Tour de France. 

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"Well, what are you doing? You could say no [to doping], but then you know that you are failing, you give up on your job, your vocation, you throw away those long years of suffering and deprivation to reach the professional peloton."

Bruyneel goes on to say doping was one of the unspoken "rules of the game" and also that everyone was aware that at any time someone could break the Omertà and come clean about the peloton's activities.

"Doping, at the time, was one of the rules of the game, except that it was not written down. We all ran the risk that one day someone would break the law of silence. I never thought it was going to lead to such relentlessness against Lance and me," Bruyneel admits. 

"At one point it took someone of some celebrity to set an example, to be sacrificed, and Armstrong was the perfect target.

"All the journalists knew. A few let go. But all the others were silent. They didn't want to dirty the sport they were covering, they were too afraid of losing their audience."

Bruyneel, who is currently serving a lifetime ban from cycling for his role in doping at US Postal, believes times are different now, saying it's something "foreign" to their cycling culture.

"I am observing a change in mentality," Bruyneel says. "Young people, today, you should not even talk to them about doping. It does not enter into their reasoning, it is completely foreign to their culture. Even vitamins, that is. is already limited."

A British Paralympic hopeful cyclist has been banned for three years for a doping offence.

Erin McBride, a former track runner who joined the British Cycling Paralympic team earlier this year, tested positive for the banned substance Ostarine in March, and has now been banned for three years.

UK Anti-Doping announced on Friday (October 22) that McBride has been banned from competition for three years after she tested positive for the substance, traditionally used in the treatment of muscle wastage and osteoporosis. 

McBride, who is visually impaired, joined the BC Paralympic World Class Programme in early 2021, but tested positive for Ostarine shortly before signing with the team in an out of competition test on March 3. After British Cycling received notification of the test on April 15, McBride was immediately suspended.

She has never competed for Great Britain on the bike. Before switching to cycling, McBride competed in the International Paralympic Committee World and European Championships, winning bronze in the 400m in the 2013 Euro Championships and 100m gold at the Worlds the following year. 

Her suspension remained private until UKAD formally announced her ban this week, which runs from April 23, 2021 until April 22, 2024. 

A spokesperson for BC said: “Following today’s announcement of the decision by UK Anti-Doping to suspend Erin McBride – a visually impaired sprinter inducted into British Cycling’s Paralympic World Class Programme in early 2021 – as the result of an adverse analytical finding for the banned substance Ostarine, we are able to comment on a matter which until now has been protected by her right to confidentiality.  

“British Cycling offers our full backing to UKAD’s decision – as the UK’s anti-doping regulations make clear, each athlete is responsible for any banned substances found in their body unless they are able to fully demonstrate otherwise.  

“All riders on the Great Britain Cycling Team are given anti-doping education that follows the most recent version of the UKAD Clean Sport Curriculum as we want to ensure that all our riders are fully aware of the risks associated with supplements and how they can reduce those risks. This includes the warning that supplement products can pose a significant risk to athletes in terms of unintentional doping. In many cases the presence of a prohibited substance in a supplement arises from unintentional contamination. We advise our riders to be vigilant in their decision to use any such products and remind them that no guarantee can be given that any particular supplement is free from prohibited substances.” 

McBride signed with the British Cycling Paralympic team on March 16 this year, after her test was taken on March 3. She never got a chance to compete for GB before her suspension a month later.   

Ostarine is a selective androgen receptor modulator and in athletes produces similar effects to anabolic steroids. 

It was banned in 2008 by the World Anti-Doping Agency, but can be found in many off-the-shelf gym supplements like pre-workout.  

Two Italian amateur cyclists have been banned following doping violations.

Italian cycling time trial champion Francesco Pesciaioli has been handed a four-year ban for evading a test, Italy's anti-doping agency NADO Italia announced, while another rider also returned an adverse analytical finding.

Daniele Lazzari, an amateur Masters cyclist returned a positive test for methylprednisolone at the Gran Fondo Pinarello e della Marca Trevigiana, having finished second in the Tricolore di Fontanelle, the amateur national championships, a month earlier, that result now stripped from his record.

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Lazarri has been given a 10-month from September 7 to July 6 2022, while Pesciaioli's ban for evading a doping test results is a four-year ban, running from October 7 until October 6 2025.

In the wake of his ban, Pesciaioli has posted numerous times on his Instagram account, which has nearly 16,000 followers, with one photo captioned: "Today I stop running away from the past, today is the day in which the accounts are made". Another reads: "The more one judges, the less one loves".

"The National Anti-Doping Prosecutor, deciding in the disciplinary procedure against the athlete Francesco Pesciaioli, FCI member, affirms the responsibility of the aforementioned for the violation of article 2.3," read a statement from NADO. "And applies them...the disqualification for 4 years with the cancellation of any sporting results and the other consequences applicable from 7 October 2021."

Earlier this week, an amateur rider in the United States of America was also handed a doping ban after winning a third-category race at the Arizona State Championships. 

Matt McWhirter, 49, tested positive for testosterone or its precursors and has now been banned from competition for four years by USADA.

He has been stripped of all results from June 19 2021 and will have to forfeit any medals, points or prizes acquired since that date.

An amateur rider in the US has been handed a four-year doping ban after winning a third category race at the Arizona State Championships. 

Matt McWhirter, 49, took victory in the men’s Cat three event at Bike the Bluff, in the city of Show Low, Arizona in June. 

Following his victory from a two-up sprint in the 93km (58-mile) race on June 19, McWhirter was tested by the United States Anti-Doping Agency as part of the RaceClear Program, which aims to deter doping in cycling from amateur to elite level. 

McWhirter tested positive for testosterone or its precursors, and has now been banned from competition for four years by USADA.

He has been stripped of all results from June 19, 2021 and will have to forfeit any medals, points or prizes from that date. 

McWhirter was tested after he won the Bike the Bluff Arizona State Championships in June, where he claimed victory in the six-rider race after two hours and 18 minutes of racing. 

A statement from USADA, released on September 30, said: “McWhirter, 49, who placed first in the Men’s Cat 3 at Bike the Bluff on June 19, 2021, tested positive for an anabolic agent as the result of an in-competition drug test at that event.”

“Anabolic agents like testosterone have powerful performance-enhancing capabilities and can give an athlete an unfair advantage over fellow competitors."

McWhirter’s ban started on August 4, 2021, the date he was provisionally suspended.

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The 2021 Bike the Bluff hit national headlines in the US when a driver ploughed into a group of cyclists participating in the 55-plus Masters race on Saturday, June 19.
Police then shot the driver, who has since recovered and has been charged with nine counts of aggravated assault. He has pleaded not guilty. 

A month after the incident one of the riders, 58-year-old Jeremy Barrett from Tuscon, died from his injuries.   

German former professional rider Björn Thurau has been handed a nine-year and six month ban as well as having all his results from the last 11 years crossed out for violating anti-doping rules.

The grounds that the National Anti Doping Agency Germany (NADA) used were the following violations of anti-doping: the use or attempted use of prohibited substances and methods, possession of prohibited substances or methods, placing on the market or attempting to market prohibited substances and administration or attempt to administer prohibited substances.

All of the German's results from December 21, 2010, where the first anti-doping rule violations were suspected, all the way to March 9, 2021 have been wiped out and he has been banned from the sport for nine years and six months.  

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The suspension began on August 19 2021, meaning the 33-year-old would be 42 when the ban ends. Until then, Thurau will not be allowed to be involved with any competition or sporting activity unless it is in authorised anti-doping prevention or rehabilitation programs.

Thurau rode for various teams over his 12-year career, including Europcar, Bora-Argon 18 (now Bora-Hansgrohe) and Wanty-Groupe Gobert (now Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert), taking no wins but several top-10s in smaller races and mountain classifications.

He rode at the Giro d'Italia once with Europcar in 2014, but he did not finish the race. He did win the mountains jersey at the 2013 Tour of Luxembourg and the 2014 Tour de Suisse, but these results have since been taken away. 

After retiring, Thurau joined GCN as a presenter on their German YouTube channel.

Thurau has not appealed this ruling so there will be no trial in front of the German Sports Arbitration Court or the International Sports Tribunal CAS. The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) does still have the power to overturn the ban in principle, the ant-doping authority said. 

The investigation was a joint one between the Swiss and German Anti-Doping Agencies with NADA coming to the final verdict on September 22, 2021.

Riders in the professional peloton have told UCI President David Lappartient they feel there is a performance gap between riders, and willingly inform cycling's governing body on rumoured new doping techniques as well as nefarious goings-on that they hear and see.

"We have a few. On what they hear or what they see," Lappartient told DirectVelo on whether riders ever get in contact regarding doping within the sport. "There may be rumors of new techniques. They don't really know. Some riders have the impression that there is a gap. They ask themselves questions."

Lappartient says cycling "is no longer in the questioning phase" of whether doping goes on, and that cheating is "human nature", which necessitates vigilance.

The fight is never definitely won, he continues, but the ban on Tramadol is progress and when corticosteroids are outlawed from January 1, 2022, that will be another step forward.

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"You still have to keep your eyes open," Lappartient admitted. "There are some noises coming from the peloton. There were a lot of rumours during the Tour de France. There are a lot of riders who grab us. We have to stay awake on this."

As for micro-dosing, especially that of EPO, Lappartient explains that some riders receive three controls in a day "not that they are targeted but because they are the best" and that they "carry out checks within the limits of what science can detect".

"I'm not going to say I'm not unhappy that there aren't any positive controls...but I'd rather not have [any], than have [some]," Lappartient elaborated. "I dare believe it's because people don't dope...we also carried out hyper-targeted, close checks...Tadej Pogačar sometimes had three checks on the same day at the Tour de France. It could be six o'clock in the morning, before the start, at the finish...we still can't control during the race either. We do the maximum. But if the laboratories have nothing..."

As for mechanical doping, checks will continue, with new detection technology and the understanding of methods being developed and discovered, including bike motors that can be triggered remotely, with no 'on' button present on the bike.

"We're still looking. We will not give up on the principle. We've also developed new technology," Lappartient said. "We had our big spoke machine but it's complicated, it's a trailer, you have to lug it around. Now we have an x-ray system that is portable. It was used for the first time at the Olympic Games. You can take it almost in hand luggage. It is much easier to transport. We will be able to target even more things. 

"The systems work. I asked that we go as far as the physical dismantling of the bikes, sometimes. We physically dismantled bicycles as in the Tour de France 2020 on two occasions, in the time trial of the Planche des Belles Filles and the climb of the Col de la Loze. We did this year [too]. We don't forbid ourselves [from doing that]. So far, we haven't found anything.

"One could very well imagine that some systems are triggered remotely, without it being on the bike. Today, there are not especially motors that do not emit magnetic fields. We are essentially in the discovery of these fields. We must always stay awake on these subjects. By nature, man is limitless in the imagination to cheat."

UK Anti-Doping's case against former British Cycling and Team Sky doctor Richard Freeman has been paused, pending the outcome of his appeal against being struck off by the Medical Practitioners Tribunal.

Freeman was given the strongest possible sanction by the MPT, which ruled his fitness to practice medicine is impaired by his misconduct after he was found guilty of ordering banned testosterone 'knowing or believing' it was for performance enhancement.

Following the verdict, UKAD provisionally suspended Freeman from all sport and charged him with two violations:'Possession of Prohibited Substances and/or Prohibited Methods and Tampering or Attempted Tampering with any part of Doping Control'.

These proceedings have now been paused pending the outcome of Freeman's appeal against being struck off, the date of this High Court appeal currently unknown. He will remain provisionally suspended. UKAD's case will be heard before the independent National Anti-Doping panel.

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"UK Anti-Doping (UKAD) has today confirmed that its proceedings against former British Cycling and Team Sky doctor Richard Freeman have been paused until the conclusion of a High Court appeal lodged by him against a decision made by the independent Medical Practitioners Tribunal (MPT) in March 2021," UKAD said in a statement.

"Dr Freeman is charged with two anti-doping rule violations, and remains provisionally suspended by UKAD."

UKAD said they will not be issuing any further statement at this time.

The Tribunal's verdict, given in March earlier this year, said it "stretched credulity that a high-profile, experienced sports doctor would order a potential banned substance under the WADA code; yet, despite the significance of this, fail to make a record of the intended patient, the circumstances, and the proposed off-label use."

Freeman's legal representative, Mary O’Rourke QC, maintained there was "no evidence" the testosterone was used to dope a rider.

"Unless you have a document or an email saying: ‘I intend to do something,’ or he tells his wife or colleague: ‘I intend to use it to dope Sir Bradley Wiggins,’ or whoever, you haven’t got clear evidence or intent," O'Rourke said.

"Perhaps the Testogel went out the door, or in the sink. Maybe it did go off to somebody but they haven’t got a scrap of evidence to prove it. They can’t."

The doping ban for former Trek-Segafredo rider André Cardoso has been upheld after his appeal failed.

Cardoso, who tested positive for synthetic EPO in 2017, attempted to appeal his four-year ban with the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS). 

But the CAS has now dismissed the 36-year-old’s and upholding the initial ban given to him by the UCI. 

The Portuguese rider was suspended on the eve of the 2017 Tour de France after he returned a positive test for recombinant Erythropoietin (EPO) in an out-of-competition test. 

Following the positive Test, Cardoso released a statement denying any wrongdoing, saying: “Getting the chance to ride at the pinnacle of professional cycling is the greatest honour I could ever hope for, and I was looking forward to doing my best for my team and myself at the Tour.

“I believe in clean sport and have always conducted myself as a clean athlete, but I realise that this news puts a dark cloud on not just myself but also on our sport and my team, teammates and staff."  

More than a year after he was suspended, the UCI then announced that Cardoso had been banned for four years. 

In early 2020, Cardoso appeared in court for a milestone doping ban appeal, as he is believed to be the first cyclist to choose to publicly appeal.  

Cardoso’s lawyers attempted to argue that the UCI could not prove the rider had taken EPO. 

But on Monday (May 10) the UCI announced that the CAS had ruled Cardoso had committed an anti-doping rule violation, based on analysis of his A-sample along with corroborating and expert evidence. 

The UCI said: “The Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) announces that the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) has dismissed the appeal filed by Mr. André Cardoso against the decision rendered by the UCI Anti-Doping Tribunal (UCI ADT) on November 15, 2018.

“The CAS confirmed that Mr. Cardoso committed an Anti-Doping Rule Violation (ADRV) and upheld the four-year period of ineligibility imposed on him by the UCI ADT.” 

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The UCI said that Cardoso has now lodged an appeal with the Swiss Federal Supreme Court, but added that his ban will be upheld unless the court overrules it.  

Cardoso, who began his career in 2006, rode for Garmin-Sharp and Cannondale teams at WorldTour level between 2014 and 2016, before moving to Trek at the start of the 2017 season.

He won one race in his career before the ban, stage 10 of the Volta a Portugal in 2011, where he finished second overall. 

A former Vini Zabù rider has been banned for three years after testing positive at the Giro d’Italia.

Matteo Spreafico has been sanctioned by the UCI after he failed two doping tests during last year’s Giro, having tested positive for the banned substance enobosarm (ostarine), which can produce similar effects to anabolic steroids. 

Spreafico was initially suspended on October 22 last year, when he was notified of an adverse analytical finding during anti-doping tests on October 15 and 16 during the 2020 Giro, while racing for the Vini Zabù team. 

The team then fired the 28-year-old rider. 

Spreafico has now accepted a three-year ban from the UCI, backdated to October 22, which means he will not be eligible to race until October 21, 2023.   

He has also been stripped of all results from the 2020 Giro. 

The suspension of Spreafico was the first of two doping offences inside the Vini Zabù team within a 12 month period, as Matteo De Bonis, 25, was then suspended after he tested positive for EPO during an out-of-competition test earlier this year.  

Vini Zabù were then suspended from racing for 20 days by the UCI. 

Following the announcement of De Bonis’s positive test, Italian police carried out raids on the team’s manager Angelo Citracca, sports director Luca Scinto and De Bonis, along with 22 other team members. 

Citracca later told Cyclingnews  that no banned substances were found during the searches and that the team were fully cooperating with police and the UCI.

 Vini Zabù then pulled out of the 2021 Giro d’Italia, after initially being invited on a wild card. 

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The team is now asking fans to donate money so they can improve their anti-doping checks within the team.  

Vini Zabù haven’t offered any specifics on what the new anti-doping measures would involve, but said: “We decided to open a crowdfunding because we repudiate doping and we want to fight it by creating a project that has worked well abroad but has never been done in Italy.”  

A Delko rider banned for doping has said he tested positive after having eye surgery. 

Atsushi Oka, who has ridden for the French ProTeam since 2020, has been banned by the UCI for four months after he tested positive for a banned substance in December last year. 

The 25-year-old, who hasn’t raced since September, was added to the UCI’s banned rider list after he was found to have the eye medication acetazolamide in his system during a test at the end of the season. 

In a statement released on social media Japanese pro Oka, the winner of one stage of the 2019 Tour of Japan, said the doping test took place four days after he had eye surgery in his home country.

Oka tested positive for the medication acetazolamide, sold under the trade name Diamox, which is an eye medication used in the treatment of glaucoma. 

The substance is banned by the World Anti-Doping Agency as a diuretic and masking agent.

Oka’s ban was backdated until January 2021, so will come to an end on May 25.  

Oka said: “It is important for me to point out that the control took place four days after an eye surgery that took place on December 9 in Japan, retaining acetazolamide absorption, a substance that comes from the Diamox [trade name for the drug] that was given to me during the procedure to prevent intraocular pressure spike, which may lead to partial or total visual field defect. 

“I have never used prohibited substances myself. The UCI accepted that it was unintentional and used for eye surgery treatment, I voluntarily accepted this suspension.

“I will come back on May 25 stronger and determined to return to the peloton."

Delko has not yet responded to Oka’s ban.

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The squad are not the only ProTeam dealing with the fall-out of a doping ban, as Vini Zabù are currently serving a team-wide ban from racing after two of their riders tested positive within the space of 12 months. 

The Italian squad is now crowdfunding to pay for better anti-doping controls within the team, after they were forced to pull out of the Giro d’Italia as a result of the positives.  

The US Anti-Doping Agency has banned a rider after testing positive for 10 different prohibited substances.

Vahe Aivazian, 52, a masters racer from California, accepted a four-year suspension for the possession, use and/or attempted use of a number of banned drugs.

The full list of drugs includes three non-specified anabolic agents (testosterone, nandralone and DHEA), six non-specified peptide hormones, including hGH, as well as Anastrozole, a hormone and metabolic modulator.

Aivazian, who races downhill mountain bike events, chose to contest his case through arbitration up until the day before his hearing was due to begin when he decided to sign an acceptance of sanction form.

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The American is now banned for four years starting from April 7, 2021, and his results from June 16 2010 onwards have been scrubbed, along with the forced forfeiture of medals, points and prizes.

USADA says Aivazian was caught not just through testing, but also tip-offs from people within the sport.

Information helped USADA discover that Aivazian had purchased products containing five different prohibited substances, before receiving additional evidence in January and February 2021. Further investigation then revealed a total of 10 substances that Aivazian either possessed, used or had attempted to use.

"An essential part of an effective of an anti-doping program is to work closely with athletes, coaches, and others in sport and elsewhere who want clean and fair competition and to thoroughly investigate and act on credible evidence of doping violations," USADA CEO Travis Tygart said.

"It’s a team effort and we need those who value clean sport to stand up, as this case demonstrates the fight for clean sport is stronger when we work together to protect clean athletes."

USADA says its anti-doping programme relies on people offering up information concerning suspected doping, as well as testing.

It runs the 'Play Clean Tip Centre', which consists of a phone number, email address and physical postal address, with people with knowledge of doping encouraged to offer up information.

The former boss of French Anti-Doping has accused Lance Armstrong of motor-doping during his career, saying that the Texan's admittance of using EPO can't solely explain his performances.

"Lance Armstrong, this is the best scam. With complicity at all levels. He got special treatment. Many told me that I should not tackle legends, that I was going to find myself alone. But if the legends are mounted on anything...I also believe that he had a motor in the bike," Jean-Pierre Verdy told French television programme Stade 2 during an interview.

Motor doping, or mechanical doping, is a method of cheating by using a hidden motor inside the bike to add power, this 'technological fraud' is banned by the UCI.

"I still have the images in my head of a mountain stage where everyone is collecting themselves and he leaves everyone on the ground. At the end of the stage, I call all the specialists I know, and they don't understand how this performance is possible, even with EPO. There was something wrong, and all the specialists were telling me the same thing...it was not the EPO that made the difference."

In January 2018, former pro Thomas Voeckler told Le Parisien that he wouldn't be shocked if it turned out that Lance Armstrong had motor-doped.

Lance Armstrong has previously commented on allegations of motor-doping, saying during an interview on Irish radio that he was never offered a motorised bike.

“Absolutely not,” he said when asked if doping doctor Michele Ferrari ever offered him a motorised bike. If he would ever have considered using one, Armstrong said, "of course not."

The host, Ger Gilroy, then asked him what the difference was between using a motorised bike and EPO, which Armstrong confessed to using during his career.

“Ger, are you a complete rookie? In 1999, no one even knew you could put a motor [in a bike]. Are you out of your mind?” Armstrong said.

“I know that it’s topical. I know there has been a rider caught with a motor in her bike. But, are you crazy?”

Verdy was the founder and director of the French Anti-Doping Agency (AFLD) between 2006 and 2015, and says his vigour for the fight for clean sport stems from one of the first cases the agency dealt with, the death of a 20-year-old cyclist who had been doping. "Did Armstrong use it? With him, I'd no longer be shocked by anything," the Frenchman said.

The Frenchman has a book out, titled 'Doping: my war against cheaters', and says that while there is an omerta present in football, and that cycling isn't the only sport affected by doping, it is cycling that is at the forefront of new doping products.

"Doping does not affect all athletes, only a minority," Verdy explained. "Cycling remains quite emblematic. Historically, cyclists are the ones who slow down the fight against doping the most, and who are on the front line to find the new drugs that have just been released.

"It calmed down anyway because I had programmed controls on all levels of competitions, trying to remain unpredictable to carry danger everywhere. I made the peloton bitch by ordering operations with a lot of controls. In some events, not just in cycling, I had to ask the doping testers to come forward at the last moment before the start. As soon as the rumor circulated that there was a control, athletes gave up. It is not usual to give up after two kilometres."

Verdy says he wrote the book because the burden had become a lot to bear, and his doctor kept increasing his blood pressure medication, and that a number of pages containing names had to be removed for legal reasons.

"It frees me and at the same time I hope that it will move the dial, cause some reaction, that the brakes will be removed so that the fight against doping has more weight," Verdy said. "I took three years to write this book, and it was thicker. On the advice of my editor I had to reformulate some passages and remove names, to avoid legal proceedings. I still have some under my elbow."

Lance Armstrong has been contacted for comment

The press officer of Vini Zabù, the Italian ProTeam raided by police last week after one of their riders tested positive for EPO, says the graphic shared by the MPCC showing the nine positive tests the team has returned over the past 12 years is "very inappropriate".

"Vini Zabù: same old story!" read the tweet posted by the Movement For Credible Cycling, linking to a longer statement condemning the team. Vini Zabù hit back, however, saying the organisation should make similar timelines for teams that are MPCC members, adding they think the organisation "will be surprised" by the result.

"Our answer to the MPCC was easy, we are now talking to the UCI and the police, we don't need to talk to anyone else," Vini Zabù's press officer, Valerio Bianco, told the Lanterne Rouge podcast.

"The timeline I think was very inappropriate because inside of that organisation, which is not our organisation...there are teams that have the same problems that we have.

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"Once you work in a cycling team you start to understand and see the movements. If a rider from another team will be caught, I will never see that the team is guilty, because I see how we work and how the other teams work. It's not because I work in a team, but I think the teams can't have responsibility when a rider crosses the line. The guy went for EPO...like in the 1990s."

Bianco retold the events that began on Tuesday morning, with the Italian team raided by police after Matteo De Bonis tested positive for EPO, the rider subsequently signing a confession and the team also self-suspending until the matter is resolved.

"Everything started on Tuesday morning at 6.30, we heard someone knocking on the door and it was the police and we were like, 'what?'" Bianco said.

"We couldn't really connect it in our heads, you know it was 6.30am in our home, the police checking everything. All the riders were brought into the police station, all the phones were taken off the Italian riders or the ones who live in Italy.

"Police checked everywhere in all the homes and we found out afterwards this was because of Matteo De Bonis. The team didn't know anything until Tuesday at 6.30am."

De Bonis subsequently met with the team at their headquarters, accompanied by his father and lawyer, and signed a confession, saying he acted alone within the team, also giving the name of who supplied him with the product, as well as when are where he used it.

Bianco also revealed that he's been to the police to report abuse on social media, arguing that people aren't respecting the peril that situations such as these put on the people and families working for the team.

"A lot of people are ranting on social media this week but no-one thinks behind this there are more than 30 people working for us, more than 30 families, and everything is in danger now," Bianco said.

"Yesterday morning I went to the police station because someone went too far and called me and my family out on social media. This is criminal, it's the private life of me and my family. People are f**ked. I went to the police because this is not acceptable. I know everyone is bored because there is a pandemic on but you can't do this."

Vini Zabú could now be suspended for between 15 to 45 days under UCI rules, after their former rider Matteo Spreafico tested positive for ostarine during the Giro d’Italia in October last year, which could result in the team missing this year’s Giro.

"The wildcard is so important because it's the most followed event in Italy, more so than the Tour de France. As an Italian team most of our sponsors are Italian, the Giro gives us the most visibility," Bianco said.

"I can't imagine what will happen if we're not at the start this year. We want to show that we don't have anything to do with this. Even if it's the second case in a few months, but there's really nothing more we can do than what we are doing.

"The analysis with the biological passport. We can clearly see a rider at the start of 2021...how can you relate this doping case to something that the team has done or ordered this guy to do. That's something I can't see...what we're trying to explain. Then it's going to be up to the investigation, to the police.

"We decided to self-suspend because it doesn't make sense to go and race. We hope it's going to be quick and we just have to wait. But we know there could be a chance that we won't race the Giro d'Italia. With the self-suspension we want to show we are co-operating. Even me here [speaking on the podcast], if I was feeling dirty or guilty I would never come on here. The team wants to show it's open to collaborating and it's something [that happened] outside the team."

The World Anti-Doping Agency has launched an investigation into UK Anti-Doping after a 2010 sample from a prominent GB cyclist contained traces of the steroid nandrolone, with British Cycling then allegedly permitted to conduct its own private investigation despite WADA code stating that UKAD had an obligation to look into the matter.

WADA has asked its Intelligence and Investigations Department to look into the case and to gather more information from UKAD, who told British Cycling that the rider's sample contained a low level of nandrolone in late 2010, with private testing then said to have been carried out by British Cycling in 2011.

Nandrolone is a threshold substance, meaning a certain amount needs to be detected in order to raise concerns for an anti-doping agency, and UKAD is said to have contacted British Cycling under the belief that the trace amounts were because of a health issue or contaminated supplement.

These allegations, made by the Mail on Sunday, disclose the athlete was tested out of competition and an "unusual" amount of nandrolone was found in their urine, with British Cycling then said to have "green-lighted" the British Cycling private testing and UKAD admitting to having no record of what happened afterwards.

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WADA's investigation will focus on establishing the facts of what happened after UKAD alerted British Cycling to the nandrolone sample, why it allegedly allowed British Cycling to conduct its own private investigation, and whether either health issues or contaminated supplements were ever found to be the cause of the detection of the steroid.

"We are working with WADA to investigate claims relating to private testing carried out by British Cycling in 2011," UKAD told the BBC.

"UKAD is examining archives to confirm decisions that were taken in 2011 followed due process set by WADA. Sometimes amounts of a 'threshold substance' can be reported by the laboratory in a negative sample which are found to be below the threshold where an investigation is required.

"These are trace amounts and can sometimes occur in the body naturally. The guidance from WADA is that these trace findings may be used to help to decide who gets tested and when in the future, but does not automatically lead to an investigation.

"We work within the WADA framework and are always happy to work with them if they ever require any further information from us on any of our activities."

WADA told the Mail on Sunday its allegations are "of significant concern to WADA" and "any allegation that a National Governing Body may be testing their athletes in private, in a non-accredited laboratory, for the purposes of screening for a prohibited substance should be investigated thoroughly."

British Cycling told the newspaper that with none of the people relevant to the enquiry currently working for the organisation, verifying allegations is proving difficult, but they will look into unearthing emails to help shed some light on what happened.

"None of the people relevant to your enquiry now work for British Cycling and this makes it difficult to check any of the information you have sent, particularly given the events you describe are over a decade ago," British Cycling said.

"We are happy to check what email records we have from the time and — subject to GDPR [General Data Protection Regulation] and other legal or regulatory constraints — share our findings with you. But this is not a straightforward process and will take some time so we are not able to respond before your deadline."

The doctor at the centre of the Operación Puerto doping case, Eufemiano Fuentes, is set to give a rare TV interview this week.

Details of exactly what he will reveal about the Spanish doping scandal, which implicated not just cycling but also football and tennis, is not currently known, but a short preview shows the doctor admitting to cheating, but saying he doesn't know anyone who wasn't, as well as asking the interview to define what they mean by doping.

"Do you think someone may be nervous about what you say?" Fuentes is asked. "That almost certainly," comes the reply.

"Did you dope?"

"Define doping."

"Were you cheating?"

"Yes, and I don't know anyone who didn't."

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Fuentes claims he was told to improve performance but without causing any problems. "I don't want positives, but I want results," he says, before adding that if he revealed everything he knew, some medals won at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics would no longer stand.

Fuentes is then asked about his involvement with using testosterone and EPO, as well as the use of blood bags and blood transfusions in hotel rooms.

Operación Puerto was a police operation that resulted in hundreds of blood bags being seized from a clinic run by Fuentes. 11 athletes were identified by the World Anti-Doping Agency as having been clients of Fuentes, but due to the 10-year statute of limitations having elapsed, they could not be made public.

In 2009 Valverde was given a two-year ban by the Court of Arbitration for sport for his involvement in Puerto. Despite never actually failing a doping test, he was linked to the doping ring by DNA evidence.

Fuentes also says that other sports, such as football, have been protected more than others in relation to doping scandals being made public.

The interview will air on Sunday March 28 at 21:25 (CET), on the Lo de Évole show on Spanish TV channel La Sexta.

Former Portuguese champion, Domingos Gonçalves, has been banned from racing for four years after returning irregular readings from doping tests between 2018 and 2019 while riding for Rádio Popular-Boavista.

He's had all of his results over that period annulled, including the Portuguese road race and time trial titles he took in 2018.

All four of Gonçalves' career wins have come in Portugal, but three of those wins have been chalked off with just his first career win at the Portuguese time trial championships remaining.

The 31-year-old received a provisional suspension in December 2019, at which point he had rejoined Spanish outfit Caja Rural-Seguros RGA, and therefore will be allowed to return to racing from December 2023 when he is 33.

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This ban comes as the MPCC reveals cycling has moved down to eighth in the Movement For Credible Cycling’s 2020 ‘credibility barometer’, where they list which sport has had the most doping cases each year.

Cycling moved down three spaces from last year's ranking, with 18 cases in 2020. The number of cases had doubled from 2018 to 32 in 2019, which the MPCC described as a "brutal year".

While the drop in cases for cycling is encouraging, the MPCC has said it should be looked at with a pinch of salt as the global pandemic may have meant some cases haven't been detected due to less testing both in and outside of competition. WADA says there was an 18.6 per cent fall in positive tests across all sports compared to 2019, and down 30 per cent on 2018’s number.

The MPCC also showed the cases by country, the USA having the most with 76 and Russia in second with 42. Italy led Europe's cases with the UK second for doping.

One encouraging figure, the MPCC say, is the lowest recorded number of doping cases in the WorldTour since its inception in 2005, with only three at WorldTour or ProTeam level.

Cycling had the eighth-most doping cases in 2020, according to the Movement For Credible Cycling's 2020 'credibility barometer'.

The sport has dropped three places, from fifth the previous year, and up from 13th in 2018, in the MPCC's annual ranking of doping cases by sport.

There were 18 recorded doping cases in cycling in 2020, compared with the 113 in track and field that topped the list, and the 50 of second-place weightlifting.

These 18 cases in cycling is nearly half last year's total of 32, the MPCC saying 2019 was a "brutal year" for cycling, having seen its cases double from 2018's figures.

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Equestrian, MMA, tennis and baseball were the other sports that registered more doping cases, with cycling topping football, rugby and swimming.

The MPCC also showed the cases by country, with the USA recording the most, 76, followed by Russia with 42, while in Europe Italy and the UK were the two countries most affected by doping in 2020.

The MPCC says the drop in positives should be met with caution, as the coronavirus pandemic made it harder to organise doping controls than last year, and therefore adds complexity to how their latest barometer, published for the seventh consecutive year, is interpreted.

As well as the World Anti-Doping Agency and national federations not being able to carry out as many out-of-competition controls as in previous years, the large number of cancelled events also saw the number of in-competition tests decrease. This led to a 18.6 per cent fall in positive tests across all sports compared to 2019, and down 30 per cent on 2018's number.

There is some good news, however, with 2020 seeing the lowest number of WorldTour positives since its inception in 2005.

"Let us conclude this 2020 report with an encouraging figure: among the suspected doping cases, only three riders (men) belong to WorldTour Teams or ProTeams (there were 8 last year)," the MPCC said. "Not since the creation of the WorldTour 15 years ago has this number been so low."

The doctor at the centre of the Operation Aderlass doping scandal has been jailed by a German court.

Mark Schmidt had been found guilty of 24 counts of using doping methods and two cases of putting drugs on the market without authorisation and was sentenced on Friday (January 15) by the Regional Court of Munich.  

The German doctor has been jailed for four years and 10 months for running a blood doping ring that involved 23 athletes from eight countries, including cyclists from the 2018 Tour de France, the 2016 and 2018 Giro d’Italia, and the 2017 Vuelta a España, as well as endurance skiers. 

Schmidt was also fined €158,000 (£140,000), according to Eurosport Germany, while four co-defendants avoided jail and were given probation sentences and fines. 

The Operation Aderlass investigation centres around police raids at the Nordic World Skiiing Championships in February in Seefeld, Austria, which resulted in the arrest of five endurance skiiing athletes. .

Schmidt emerged as the central figure in the operation and the scandal soon hit the cycling world when in March 2019 former Aqua Blue Sport rider Stefan Denifl confessed to blood doping under Schmidt’s supervision

Georg Preidler, a Groupama-FDJ rider at the time, then confessed to having blood extracted on two occasions by Schmidt in 2018. 

Both Denifl and Preidler have been banned from the sport by the UCI and were both charged with sporting fraud for misleading their teams. 

Preidler was given a suspended sentence and fined, while Denifl was jailed for two years earlier this week, with 16 months of his sentence being suspended.  

In May last year, the UCI published also four names believed to be connected with the case as Slovenian Bahrain-Merida rider Kristijan Koren was pulled from the Giro d’Italia by his team, while Kristijan Đurasek from UAE Team Emirates was removed from the Tour of California over the revelations.

Also named were Bahrain-Merida assistant sports director Borut Božič and retired Italian sprinter Alessandro Petacchi.

Petacchi was given a two-year ban for doping violations dating back to 2012 and 2013, and was stripped of his results from that period.

>>> Stefan Denifl jailed over Operation Aderlass blood doping 

Then in October 2019, Koren and his compatriot Božič were banned for two years each and were fired by Bahrain-Merida while Đurasek was banned for four years in November 2019.

Last September, Schmidt went on trial in Munich charged with multiple doping offences, which resulted in his sentence on Friday. 

Stefan Denifl has been jailed over his involvement in the Operation Aderlass blood doping scandal. 

The Austrian former pro has already been banned from the sport for blood doping between 2014 and 2018, but has now been sentenced by a criminal court for defrauding his teams by using banned methods, Tirol.orf.at reports. 

Denifl, who previously raced for IAM Cycling and Aqua Blue Sport, has now been sentenced to two years in prison by the Innsbruck Regional Court for serious commercial fraud, with 16 months of his sentence being suspended.  

The 33-year-old rider admitted blood doping but denied the fraud charges, claiming he always fulfilled his contracts. 

But the judge said that Denifl would not have been hired by his former teams if they had been aware of his doping, and he therefore would not have been paid. 

He was also fined €349,000 (£311,000). 

Denifl was implicated in Operation Aderlass, a police investigation into blood doping in Germany and Austria that originated in endurance skiing and eventually hit the cycling world.

Raids by police in February 2019 threw up evidence linking cyclists to the scandal, with Denifl reportedly confessing to police that he had used the prohibited method after being arrested. Denifl was not riding with a team at the time, having stepped away from a contract with CCC Team in December 2018 for “personal reasons.”

Fellow Austrian Georg Preidler also quit WorldTour team Groupama-FDJ in March 2019 after he too was implicated in the long-running doping scheme which has seen a number of other riders and former professionals banned. 

Both Preidler and Denifl have been banned for four years by the UCI.

Preidler was accused of defrauding his team after blood doping and regularly taking growth hormones from the 2017 Giro d’Italia up until he left Groupama in early 2019.

In July last year, the Innsbruck Regional Court found Preidler guilty of sporting fraud, sentencing him to a 12-month suspended sentence and fining him €2,880 (£2,600).

Preidler previously admitted blood doping, but denies ever taking any performance enhancing substance.

The doctor at the centre of Operation Aderlass, Mark Schmidt, faces a five and a half year prison sentence as well as being banned from practicing medicine for five years.

That is the demand of the public prosecutors in Germany as the blood doping case, which implicated professional cyclists and skiers, draws to a close.

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The ruling is expected on Friday January 15, with Schmidt having admitted to helping athletes blood dope since 2012, claiming to have wanted to help them from harming themselves by offering his professional expertise.

The doctor at the centre of Operation Aderlass, Mark Schmidt, faces a five and a half year prison sentence as well as being banned from practicing medicine for five years.

That is the demand of the public prosecutors in Germany as the blood doping case, which implicated professional cyclists and skiers, draws to a close.

The ruling is expected on Friday January 15, with Schmidt having admitted to helping athletes blood dope since 2012, claiming to have wanted to help them from harming themselves by offering his professional expertise.

Operation Aderlass, the name given to the investigation that brought Schmidt's practices to light, saw pro riders such as Georg Preidler, Kristijan Koren, Stefan Denifl, Kristijan Durasek and Borut Bozic sanctioned, as well as Alessandro Petacchi.

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During Stefan Denifl's trial, his defence lawyer claimed "in cycling there is 90 per cent doping". The Austrian rider was handed a four-year ban from cycling alongside Preidler, the latter also being handed a suspended 12-month prison sentence.

The court is looking to impose such a severe sentence on Schmidt as it is the largest-ever doping case uncovered in Germany.

Meanwhile, Operacion Puerto, another doping investigation into Spanish doctor Eufemiano Fuentes is also coming to an end.

Starting in May 2006, the case involved several world-famous cyclists and teams, with the proceeding decade seeing anti-doping authorities locked in a legal battle to publish the list of names linked to the scandal.

El Pais now reports that Fuentes declined to travel to Madrid last week in order to retrieve belongings seized from him in the investigation.

The Spanish newspaper lists a machine used to process blood, mobile phones, a blood bag sealer, 100 syringes, a small fridge and ten keys and two garage remote controls as among the items Fuentes has abandoned.

Riccardo Riccò has been banned from cycling for life by anti-doping authorities.

The Italian pro was initially suspended back in 2012 after he was found guilty of blood doping, the second doping ban of his career. 

But NADO Italia, the Italian national anti-doping organisation, announced on Monday (December 14) that the 37-year-old had been banned for life. 

Riccò, winner of three Giro d’Italia stages, served his first doping ban in 2008 after he test positive for the blood-booster CERA during the Tour de France, which resulted in a two-year suspension.

He then made his comeback in 2010, but in February 2011 he was hospitalised due to a botched blood transfusion that made him seriously ill.  

The following year an anti-doping tribunal found Riccò guilty of blood doping and handed him a 12-year suspension, which was due to end in 2024. 

But the decision by NADO Italia has resulted in Riccò being banned for life and being forced to pay a €4,000 (£3,600) fine and €378 in costs.  

Riccò started his career with Saunier Duval in 2006 and then joined Scott-American Beef before his first ban.

On his return in 2010 he signed with Ceramic Flaminia-Bossini Docce, then moved to Vacansoleil that same year, before he was given his 12-year ban while riding for Meridiana Kamen in 2011. 

He picked up 15 wins during his career, including two stages of Tirreno-Adriatico in 2007 and then three stages of the Giro in 2007 and 2008.
Ricco also finished second overall in the 2008 Giro. 

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He had also won two stages of the 2008 Tour, before he was stripped of the results for doping.

Since being banned Riccò has gone into business producing ice cream in Italy.

In an interview with Italian newspaper Corriere Della Sera earlier this year, he said: “I was a talented bully, an idiot who threw away his money and career. If I had managed the legs and anger of that time with the head of now I would have won the Giro and Tour. But my destiny was sealed: in life we don't decide when to mature.” 

The former Tour de France yellow leader banned for four years for a doping offence says he doesn’t know how to prove his innocence. 

Rinaldo Nocentini, who retired from racing last year, has been banned by the Italian anti-doping authority for “use or attempted use of prohibited methods.”  

The 43-year-old has now spoken out about the ban and has denied doping, questioning why he would resort to banned methods in the twilight of his career. 

In an interview with Italian website TuttoBici, Nocentini said: “At 41, why should I have resorted to prohibited practices? They are not part of my working method or my values. In my career I have undergone all kinds of checks and nothing has ever turned out. 

“In the many years in which I have played among professionals there have been inquiries like Operation Puerto and those concerning Dr. Ferrari, I have never been brought up in any case and in no interception, being disqualified now so heavily seems to me something out of this world.”

According to the rider, the doping offence relates to the 2018 Tour of Portugal, which he says should have been the last race of his career before his team asked him to stay on.  

He said that authorities said during the race some of his physiological parameters that should have dropped during the race did not go down, but he denies this.

Nocentini, who spent much of his career with Ag2r La Mondiale, was found to have irregularities in his biological passport in December 2019, shortly before his retirement. 

The ban runs from November 20, 2020 until November 29, 2024, but Nocentini says he has no intention of returning to the sport.  

The Italian National Anti-Doping Organisation (NADO) announced the ban earlier this week, as Nocentini was also stripped of all of his results dating back to January 2018, including two stage victories in La Tropicale Amissa Bongo that season. 

He added: “I am now out of cycling and, after this story, I want to stay there. 

“I know how I rode and that I deserved the results I honestly got. I feel betrayed by a sport that has been my life and that I have faced seriously and correctly, enduring many sacrifices . 

“I hope in the end everything will be resolved for the best, but in the meantime my image is tarnished.” 

The Tuscan rider turned professional with Mapei-Quickstep in 1999 and rode 21 seasons in the pro peloton. 

He spent eight years with French WorldTour team Ag2r from 2007 until 2015, when he stepped down to join Continental squad Sporting Clube de Portugal/Tavira, where he remained for the rest of his career.

 Nocentini racked up 17 wins during his career, including the 2003 Giro di Toscana and a stage of the 2009 Tour of California, as well as a second-place finish overall in Paris-Nice and fourth in Tirreno-Adriatico. 

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During his long career, Nocentini rode 17 Grand Tours, including two Tours de France, and 27 Monuments – 12 starts in Il Lombardia, eight in Liège-Bastogne-Liège and seven editions of Italian Classic Milan-San Remo.

But by far his crowning achievement was the 2009 Tour de France, where he led the race for eight days from stage seven until stage 14, eventually finishing 12th on general classification as  Alberto Contador won the yellow jersey. 

He now runs a training centre for cyclists in Tuscany. 

A former Tour de France leader has been banned from the sport for four years for a doping offence.

Rinaldo Nocentini, an Italian who spent much of his career with Ag2r La Mondiale, has been sanctioned by his national anti-doping authority after irregularities were found in his biological passport.  

The 43-year-old has been given the maximum penalty by the Italian National Anti-Doping Organisation (NADO) for “use or attempted use of prohibited methods." 

UPDATE: ‘Why would I resort to banned practices at 41?’: Former Tour de France leader responds to ban for doping offence

Nocentini, who retired from the peloton at the end of last season, was found to have irregularities in his biological passport in December 2019, shortly before his retirement.  

The Tuscan rider turned professional with Mapei-Quickstep in 1999 and rode 21 seasons in the pro peloton. 

He spent eight years with French WorldTour team Ag2r from 2007 until 2015, when he stepped down to join Continental squad Sporting Clube de Portugal/Tavira, where he remained for the rest of his career. 

Nocentini racked up 17 wins during his career, including the 2003 Giro di Toscana and a stage of the 2009 Tour of California, as well as a second-place finish overall in Paris-Nice and fourth in Tirreno-Adriatico. 

During his long career, Nocentini rode 17 Grand Tours, including two Tours de France, and 27 Monuments - 12 starts in Il Lombardia, eight in Liège-Bastogne-Liège and seven editions of Italian Classic Milan-San Remo.

But by far his crowning achievement was the 2009 Tour de France, where he led the race for eight days from stage seven until stage 14, eventually finishing 12th on general classification as  Alberto Contador won the yellow jersey. 

He now runs a training centre for cyclists in Tuscany. 

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 The NADO Italia ruling was published on Wednesday (December 2), as Nocentini was banned from November 20, 2020 until November 29, 2024.  

He was also stripped of all results dating from January 2018, which include two stage wins in La Tropicale Amissa Bongo that year.