Doping ban for Spanish Pro Continental rider overturned by court

Spanish Pro Continental rider Ibai Salas has had his four year doping ban overturned by the courts.

The Burgos-BH pro was one of a number of riders sanctioned in the last year, which resulted in the team being temporarily suspended from racing by the UCI.

Salas, 27, was banned for four years because of irregularities in his biological passport.

But the Administrative Court of Sport in Spain has now declared the penalty null and void, because the passport does not prove Salas used a banned substance.

Spanish newspaper AS reports that the court said the biological passport “is not sufficient to prove the commission of an infringement.”

The punishment was handed out by the Spanish anti-doping authority, AEPSAD.

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A spokesperson for Salas said: “The irregular performance of the AEPSAD has meant the end of the career as a professional cyclist of Ibai Salas, unjustly accused of doping and going through an ordeal that has lasted more than ten months, until he can prove his innocence.”

Salas was banned by AEPSAD last November for the anti-doping rule violation arising from an adverse passport finding.

The UCI then suspended Burgos-BH for 21 days, as Salas was the second rider to be banned within 12 months.

Team-mate David Belda was banned for four years in December 2017 after an adverse analytical finding for EPO.

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A third Burgos rider, Igor Merino, was then banned four years in November after testing positive for growth hormone.

Shortly after, team bosses announced Burgos would be voluntarily suspending themselves from racing for three weeks in January and February to focus on anti-doping.

The UCI announced the following month that Burgos would be suspended for 21 days from mid-January.

Burgos returned to racing at the Volta a Comunitat Valenciana in February.

After the court ruling in favour of Salas, the team thanked the “unconditional support” of its fans and those who “never doubted” their innocence.