PARIS (Reuters) – Former Tour de France stage winner Jarlinson Pantano has been handed a four-year suspension after failing an anti-doping test last year, the International Cycling Union (UCI) said on Wednesday.
Colombian Pantano retired last June, two months after he was provisionally suspended following a positive test for the banned blood booster erythropoietin (EPO).
He had also been suspended by his then Trek-Segafredo team after the test carried out in February, 2019, came back positive.
“The (UCI Anti-Doping) Tribunal found the rider guilty of an anti-doping rule violation (presence of Recombinant Erythropoietin) and imposed a 4-year period of ineligibility on the rider,” the UCI said in a statement.
Pantano, 31, won a Tour de France stage in 2016 and was crowned Colombian time trial champion the following year.
(Reporting by Julien Pretot; Editing by Christian Radnedge)
