Caja Rural's Domingos Gonçalves suspended by UCI after positive test

Portuguese rider Domingos Gonçalves has been provisionally suspended by the UCI after banned substances showed up in two instances on his biological passport in 2016 and 2018.

Gonçalves rides for Pro-Continental outfit Caja Rural - Seguros RGA, a Spanish team who are regulars at the Vuelta a España. He is the second rider from the squad to be notified of an anti-doping rule violation in 12 months, meaning the team could also now face suspension.

Their Spanish rider Jaime Rosón was also banned for four years in February after abnormalities in his biological passport dating back to 2017.

These two cases in the same twelve-month period automatically triggers the provision for the team to be suspended for between 15 to 45 days.

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The UCI say they will now refer the matter to the UCI Disciplinary Commission, who will return a decision in due course.

Gonçalves' biggest wins of his career are two individual time trial victories at the National Portuguese Road Championships in 2017 and 2018. However, the biggest moment of the 30-year-old's career came in 2019, when he lined up for his first ever Grand Tour at the Vuelta a España.

He didn't finish inside the top 50 riders on any individual stage, and failed to make the start on stage 14 with a week of racing left.

2019 was the second year Gonçalves spent in the Pro-Continental ranks, having spent the 2016 season also with Caja Rural before a two year stint with Portuguese Continental team Radio Popular Boavista.

Meanwhile, Róson raced for Caja Rural from 2015 to 2017, with his violation occurring in his final year with the team and his ban coming after he had moved up to the WorldTour with Movistar. His ban has seen his results dating from the 2017 Volta ao Algarve to the 2018 Critérium du Dauphiné scrubbed from the record.