Four riders snared by anti-doping this week
Three Colombians are banned for four years apiece for taking CERA at Tour de Guadeloupe, and Iran's Emami is provisionally suspended.
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Results from anti-doping controls at two races were revealed this week, and four riders are facing suspensions of up to four years each.
Numerous reports on Tuesday named three riders who failed anti-doping tests at Tour de Guadeloupe, which took place July 29-August 7, 2016. Colombians José Flober Peña Peña, Giovanni Baez Alvarez, and José Daniel Bernal Garcia all tested positive for CERA, a type of EPO that was known as the drug of choice for such riders as Riccardo Ricco and Stefan Schumacher about 10 years ago. Peña, 43, won stage 4 of the 2016 Tour de Guadeloupe, but that result will be struck from the records. He and his two compatriots accepted four-year bans and will not appeal.
At a different UCI 2.2 stage race, a little over two months later, Iranian Rahim Emami submitted an anti-doping sample that was flagged for anabolic androgenic steroids. He finished fifth at the Jelajah Malaysia race, but is now provisionally suspended.
This is the second failed anti-doping test for his Pishgaman Cycling team in the last 12 months, following Naser Rezavi’s four-year suspension for anabolic steroids in December 2015. As such, the team faces a 15-45 day suspension.
