The UCI has today confirmed that former AG2R La Mondiale rider Steve Houanard has been banned for two years after testing positive for EPO in an out-of-competition test. It has also asked for disciplinary proceedings to be opened against Belgian cyclist Leif Hoste as a result of irregularities in his biological passport profile.
Hoste, aged 35 and three times a runner-up at the Tour of Flanders, retired at the end of the 2012 season, which he rode with the Belgian UCI Professional Continental outfit, Accent Jobs-Willems Verandas.
In the wake of Lance Armstrong’s confession last week the UCI has pointed to its biological passport programme as the key weapon in its arsenal against drugs cheats.
The governing body has stressed that Hoste has “the right to the presumption of innocence until a final decision has been made on this matter.”
However, the fact that the disciplinary proceedings it has asked the Belgian national cycling federation, the RLVB, to open relate to his biological passport, can be seen as providing further evidence to underpin the UCI's insistence that the programme identifies riders who need to be looked at more closely.
Houanard’s ban for using EPO, however - the sample that tested positive was taken on 21 September last year - is perhaps more troubling for the authorities, highlighting that it is not the preserve of riders of past decades, but is being used right now.
The Frenchman, aged 26, turned pro with Argos-Shimano in 2009 and joined AG2R in 2011. As an amateur riding for Chambéry Cyclisme Formation, he finished third overall in the Tour d’Alsace in 2008.
The UCI added that Houanard signed a document accepting the sanction on 18 January.
It's the mass that's the issue. Two people on a petrol powered scooter can really mess up a cyclist. Also the fact so many of the petrol scooters...
"if we’ve got to fly there we’re not going" *applause from over here*
"Strumpjumper"...sounds like a euphemism for something else 🤔
The new RH tubes claim to solve that issue, but price and availability is a problem. I tried to get some to try out, but they went out of stock on...
We're doomed....
Cough - cough - Clevedon seafront! - cough cough
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I'm all for a much more socialist approach to the sorts of things you mention, where there are clear market failures and a need for decent...
Zorbing balls - if it saves just one life